Wrap Graphic Around a Sphere

[alembic]

I'd like to take a graphic and wrap it partially around a sphere object (see attachment for example). The center of the image has to be off-center. Can this be done with Photoshop CS3? I've seen some examples with cylindrical objects but not spherical. Rough outline of steps would be appreciated.

 

[stainlessliquid]

For best results use the 3d transform filter on a very high resolution image. After rendering cut out the part you want then get rid of the white (the higher the resolution the easier it is to get rid of the white). Just make a sphere on top of it and rotate it.

http://www.planetphotoshop.com/wheres-the-3d-transform-filter.html

 

[alembic]

Thanks StainlessLiquid - I had to get a copy of the 3D Transform plug-in from a CS2 install disk (aparently earlier versions work also). Then since it's not a Universal Binary, I had to set Photoshop CS3 to run under Rosetta. Otherwise it wouldn't recognize the plug-in on startup. Now I just have to remember to turn off Rosetta when I'm not using this filter. Details here.

 

[Nicolecat]

Very cool...would you mind posting your final outcome.

I'm curious, now too.

 

[alembic]

I fired up Illustrator CS instead and produced this rough draft. Basically I added the flower to the document's symbol palette, created a sphere using the 3D Revolve effect on a half circle, and mapped the flower symbol onto the sphere.

The resulting flower looks OK but something with angular corners would probably work better as far as the wrapping effect is concerned. The sphere on which the flower is mapped still exists however. I just changed the shading color to white so it appears to be gone. What would be the quickest way to extract the mapped flower from the invisible sphere?

Also, I'm assuming the mapped flower is now rasterized. Is there another approach that would keep it as a vector object so that it would scale properly to any size?

 

[JasonElise1983]

to get rid of the backgroung, go into your map art settings, and at the bottom there is a button that says "invisible geometry". that will get rid of the sphere competely and you'll have a transparent object.

If you are wanting to get into another program, say...Photoshop CS3 just save the AI file and place that in photoshop. It will be smart object, so it will still scale, but you can composite the object how ever you want.

-je

 

[alembic]

Thanks Jason - that Invisible Geometry check box got rid of the sphere in the document. But when I try to save it as a .gif I can see in the preview that the original half-sphere is still present and I lose transparency immediately around the flower. Maybe I've made another errant setting in the mapping? Or I make the half-sphere itself transparent before I map to it?

 

[alembic]

Using the Direct Select tool, I've tried setting the stroke transparency of the sphere to zero in the Appearance palette. That gives me the effect I want but not quite. It unfortunately also affects the flower mapped onto the sphere's surface.

I have a feeling this isn't the correct approach to take when the sphere is used only as a type of 3D warping tool for a vector object.

Maybe the 3D Rotate to get the desired rotation, then manually finesse the individual petals to get the slight curvy effect? Seems inelegant to me.

 

[LeviG]

You tried using the (photoshop cs3 - note windows version) spherize tool in filters, distort. I had a quick play and it can work quite well if you enlarge the page and position the object in the right place.

 

[alembic]

Thanks LeviG - usually the simplest solution is the best! Although I don't have finer control like Illustrator's 3D mapping technique, this will do just fine.

 

[LeviG]

you could always use something like pinch to do some fine adjustments etc.