Desperate for help mapping a 2D circular image onto a sphere.

[Aeonjoey]

Hello, Can anyone help me figure this out?

I have a 2D render provided by a product vendor who tells us it's impossible for them to provide anything other than this, it is a 2D flat art in a circle (not a square) to map to a sphere (globe product).

another user was able to figure it out, but despite offering to pay them for their time, hasn't responded in several months. I am willing to pay for your time if you can help me with this. Keyshot support also seems to have given up/forgotten about me when asked, as there hasn't been a response in months other than "UV unwrap it" - yeah I know, but I've literally been trying for months, I've watched every UV unwrap tutorial that exists, nothing works with this that I can figure out. When I try to UV map a sphere, the Unwrap UV button is always grayed out in the interface.

I've tried with a provided model from the vendor as well as a primitive Sphere model from keyshot's Edit>Add>Sphere menu.

Here is 2 images I need to map:
(first image)

Here is what happens when it's mapped as Plannar:
(second image)

Here's what another user was about to figure out:
(third image)
THIS is the intended look!

I'd love any help, please.

[INNEO_MWo]

Here's a quick solution. It took me 15 minutes to split the graphics and wrap/map it onto a hemisphere that I duplicated and mirrored (plus a small rotation to tweak the texture).
Please check the attached scene file (KeyShot 9 package) to answer your question. (I am on vacation)
It is not 100% perfect (for detail shots) - but- hopefully useful for overview renders. (if not, skip it and good luck)

Cheers
Marco

[designgestalt]

so, just for your better understanding:
what Marco did here:
- he created a half sphere, which he UV unwrapped (left-click on the object). You might as well use your own geometrie, if you can split it in half, which is important ( one half for one image!)
- he seperated the graphics in Photoshop (any photo editing software will do). you need a file with only the round earth graphic and a transparent background (i.e. .png)
- he than UV mapped the graphics onto the geometry (unfortunately your image fades to white on the edges, this is why there is that brighter rim along the equator, where the two images meet on Marcos picture. With a bit of tweaking and a better quality graphics it should be possible to recive a better result.

Nonetheless, Marcos approach is very valid, but from what I read, I assume you are just beginning with Keyshot (and CGI in general I guess), so it can be quite tricky to copy if you do not know much about UVs and UV unwrapping.
There are some good tutorials out there, if you know what you are looking and it should be possible to do all the work in KS, like Marco showed, so that is the good thing!
If you run into any further trouble let us know ...

merry christmas

designgestalt

[Aeonjoey]

@INNEO_MWo, Marco - Thank you so very much, I can't thank you enough - this is amazing, the actual product has a band that covers the equator (lol) which I an add to hide the mis-matched images. This is so great, thanks so much!

and Thanks so much designgestalt! this is very helpful.

[Aeonjoey]

Thanks so much again, Marco!

Using your geometry, I swapped in the high-res images, and added a cylinder to mimic the band that the vendor uses to mask the mismatch, now it looks identical to the real thing! Thanks!!

[INNEO_MWo]

Glad that it worked for you. And thanks a lot to Designgestalt to invest his precious time to breakdown my short message.
What's interesting in this, that in the UV unwrap tool the "unwrap shell" feature worked quite well with the hemisphere.

Your final renders looks great.


Have a nice time and a happy and healthy and better year for all!

Cheers
Marco


PS: KeyShot enables the graphics you need to map planar or spherical. The pano shots were made with a panoramic camera type inside the sphere (changed material type to emissive)

[Aeonjoey]

Thanks so much you guys for your help, here's some of the outcomes

https://vimeo.com/511436831
Not a valid vimeo URL

[INNEO_MWo]

Nice to see when ideas and solutions become a product!

[Bett_dev]

Hello, Can anyone help me figure this out?

I have a 2D render provided by a product vendor who tells us it's impossible for them to provide anything other than this, it is a 2D flat art in a circle (not a square) to map to a sphere (globe product).

another user was able to figure it out, but despite offering to pay them for their time, hasn't responded in several months. I am willing to pay for your time if you can help me with this. Keyshot support also seems to have given up/forgotten about me when asked, as there hasn't been a response in months other than "UV unwrap it" - yeah I know, but I've literally been trying for months, I've watched every UV unwrap tutorial that exists, nothing works with this that I can figure out. When I try to UV map a sphere, the Unwrap UV button is always grayed out in the interface.

I've tried with a provided model from the vendor as well as a primitive Sphere model from keyshot's Edit>Add>Sphere menu.

Here is 2 images I need to map:
(first image)

Here is what happens when it's mapped as Plannar:
(second image)

Here's what another user was about to figure out:
(third image)
THIS is the intended look!

I'd love any help, please.

Hey, thanks for that thread, here I found few answers for my issue. Also, your clients is cool guys and making cute toys like thas globe. I told it becouse I bought it to my child an month ago So I have the same trouble with my clients - https://spacecoastdaily.com/2020/09/japanese-football-superstars/. Will discuss in new thread