Help Me Project a Spherical UV Map Like this

cultmethd

I am creating a displacement thumbnailer and need to UV map a Sphere in such a way that it looks perfect on one side without poles. I could care less how the backside looks since the mesh will only be rendered from one angle. Example image:



I have what I need but the mesh is triangulated and I’d like to find a way to accomplish this myself.

Here’s what I am looking to re-create:


Any Ideas? I can upload the triangulated sphere with the projection if that will help.

Thanks so much.

Eric Chadwick

I would use a box subdivided into a sphere, plus a Spherify step to insure it's a perfect sphere shape. Then lay out the UVs as you would for a box.

cultmethd

Thanks for the help.

I Found a solution on StackExchange: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/203781/how-can-i-achieve-this-type-of-spherical-unwrapping

It involves distorting a sphere, projecting a new UV map from the camera to the distorted sphere, and then transferring the UVs from the distorted sphere to the clean one.

It’s a great way to make “Thumbnail Preview” images since you can avoid the typical stretching and ugliness from UV poles.

Eric Chadwick

Oh. I see what you're looking for now. Makes sense.