looking for best approach? extruded spline around sphere?

[Dave Buckley]

i'm trying to achieve similar to the attached image, not too sure what approach to take. the spline is being drawn in illustrator then will be imported to max, extruded and then wrapped around the shere?

 

i'm thinking it must be easier to do with materials but displacement is just too time consuming

[Dave Buckley]

here is pic

[slinley]

Could you not have one sphere inside the other with the outer one having an opacity map on?

 

Edit: Like this?

 

Edited August 6, 2009 by slinley
Added Picture

[Dave Buckley]

the map needs to be extruded from the sphere so if i could shell the outer sphere after the opacity then i guess that would work but not sure if that would work, will give it a try

[SandmanNinja]

Could you have a lot of subdivisions on a sphere primitive

convert it to an editable poly

get the outlines of the continents (probably plenty online)

(magic) get the shape of the continents and convert to splines (/magic)

do a shape merge??

select the faces

extrude by local/normal/whatever looks best

 

just thinking out loud

[Dave Buckley]

well, i did try that appraoch joel, but unfortunately it didn't allow me to go round the full sphere, i made a spline much bigger than the half sphere to see how it wrapped round the back, but it didn't wrap round the back, it stopped half way, so shape merge is out of the question bu thanks anyway, i was hoping someone would come up with something to do with the new graphite tools as they recognise the 3d space well or so i've seen/heard, maybe there is a more advanced shape merge there.

 

i also though of flattening the sphere before doing the shape merge, using a tutorial i saw on design reform, involving unwrap uvw's etc etc but that tutorial hasn't worked on any object i've tried or should i say any geometry with more than like 10 faces

[BrianKitts]

well, i did try that appraoch joel, but unfortunately it didn't allow me to go round the full sphere, i made a spline much bigger than the half sphere to see how it wrapped round the back, but it didn't wrap round the back, it stopped half way, so shape merge is out of the question

 

what if you broke the wrap and shape merge functions into multiple operations, break it by continents and only do one hemisphere at a time?

[WAcky]

any chance you can attach a map of the continents that will map correctly so I can have a go?

[Dave Buckley]

i'm just testing at the minute with random splines and just any map i can find by searching for world map on google

[mattclinch]

you could have done it with a displacement map by now...

[Dave Buckley]

i like the idea of splitting into two hemispheres, although i'd need to get the scaling of the spline and the two shapemerges spot on though to fit perfectly around the sphere

[Dave Buckley]

i have done it using displacement for the time being but cheers anyway

 

quick example

[SandmanNinja]

I took the graphic into photoshop cs3

selected the different parts that I wanted the outline for

file -> export -> Paths to Illustrator

I then opened Illustrator cs3

did a file -> save as -> version 3 (the new versions have too much 'stuff')

then went into 3ds 2009

file -> import -> adobe illustrator -> browsed to file

the tricky part is getting it to go to a sphere

I'd suggest importing one continent at a time and manually placing them

I then extruded the star

 

you can stop here if the extrusion looks 'right'

 

I then did a Boolean -> cut and picked the star as the shape

I was left with the perfect outline of the star

I converted the sphere to an editable poly, went into face select mode, and presto bango the faces were already selected

I then did an extrude

 

crude but maybe it'll give you some ideas

[SandmanNinja]

dang - too late

[Dave Buckley]

no your not too late, i don't like the displacement.

 

i guess the method you have just given is exactly the same 'theoretically' as using the shape merge??

 

i could just shape merge one continent at a time, then go into edit poly and the shape i've just merged is selected as faces, extrude by group or similar.

 

it is my best option i was just hoping to be able to wrap the complete spline around the sphere, guess i just need to stop being lazy

[Dave Buckley]

as you can see if i drew my spline as a complet eobject, all my continents would be to scale, then divide it up into separate splines and do my shapemerge as in the screenshot example it would work, just needs a bit of moving around to get continents in place

 

cheers guys

[Dave Buckley]

hmm, just incase any else notices, the original pic has a map with thickness not directly connected to the sphere. so i guess still using the shape merge method i can do two extrusion per shape one for the void (which will be deleted later) then one for the thickness of the continents.

 

seems a bit long winded, i'm now going back to thoughts of tinkering with complete spline and just bending it 360 after extrusion and scaling to place, although would probs need a couple of bends

[SandmanNinja]

yup - that looks a LOT better than the displacement map.

I know ArchViz lives and dies by textures and lighting, but I really am fond of modelling geometry.

 

Good job, sir!

[SandmanNinja]

why don't you try to just get the shapes from photoshop via Illustrator paths, then just extrude the shapes in 3ds and just shove them into place?

 

No messy booleans or scale issues to worry about - it's different geometry/objects, but you could attach or Union them together.

[Peter M. Gruhn]

Editable Spline

Extrude

Subdivide

Bend (this way)

Bend (that way)

[And I chucked a turbosmooth on because the front faces weren't pretty, but a Smooth: Auto Smooth works just fine too]

[Peter M. Gruhn]

Suppose I should say:

 

The first bend was to get north/south curvature.

The second bend was to wrap around the equator.

 

The way the e-w bend modifier pinches near the poles it looks like you want one of the cylindrical projections.