Stephen, this plugin really didn't work for me. It way overdid some kind of smearing, spiraling algorithm. Looks a lot worse than the original. I wonder what he's thinking, or what went wrong here... Any ideas?
Thanks for the link, however. I was really stoked when I thought it was going to solve this problem. Maybe something in Softimage mapping is trying to solve this and doesn't quite do it, so this plugin overcompensates? I still think implicit mapping would help, as the help files indicate, if I could get any image to show up on the sphere. Thanks again, Nancy On Jul 27, 2013, at 8:18 PM, Stephen Davidson <magic...@bellsouth.net> wrote: > If you have Photoshop, here is a link to something called spherical mapping > corrector: > http://www.richardrosenman.com/software/downloads/ > > No 64 bit support, I believe. > > here is the install and use docs: > Spherical Mapping Corrector - v1.4, © 2008 Richard Rosenman Advertising & > Design. Release date: 03/15/03, Updated 09/28/08. > > > INSTALLATION: > > Simply unzip "spheremap.zip" and copy "spheremap.8bf" to your > "\Photoshop\Plug-Ins\" folder, or whichever plugin folder your host program > uses. Load your program, open an image, go to the plugins menu and select the > plugin. > > > DESCRIPTION: > > This filter produces texture map correction for spherical mapping. > > When projecting a rectangular texture onto a sphere using traditional > spherical mapping coordinates, distortion ('pinching') occurs at the poles > where the texture must come to a point. Given the different topology of a > plane and a sphere, it is impossible to avoid this, or any kind of > distortion. However, by properly distorting the texture map, it is possible > to minimize and even compensate for the polar distortion. > > Special thanks to Paul Bourke for allowing his algorithm to be ported to this > plugin. For more information, please visit Mr. Bourke's site at > http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/. > > Sub-Sampling: Specifies what type of pixel sub-sampling to use. (Nearest > Neighbor being fastest, Bicubic being best. > > > On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 6:46 PM, Nancy Jacobs <illus...@mip.net> wrote: >> Greetings, >> >> I'm using the old-style environment spheres with an HDR image wrapped to >> light the scene, but invisible to rendering, and a beauty image visible to >> the render. The problem is the very visible distortion near the poles of the >> sphere. I need 360 degree visual acceptability. I am using a background >> which I've made seamless in both directions, a 2:1 rectangle. It seems this >> worked in renders at one point years ago in another software. Perhaps even >> XSI....I don't recall. >> >> I'm also trying to substitute this arrangement by using both an environment >> (using the HDRI), and 'Spherical Mapping' (using the beauty image), in the >> Pass Shaders. But I'm getting very strange results, so not sure if this is >> the way to go. Also, it's difficult to line them up properly so that the >> light in the HDRI is coming from the same place as the equivalent visible >> areas in the beauty image -- which of course one can do easily in the >> wrapped spheres. But in the pass shaders, they don't seem to use the same >> rotation systems... >> >> Any advice on getting an undistorted, seamless image going here? With proper >> orientations? >> >> Thanks, >> Nancy > > > > -- > > Best Regards, > Stephen P. Davidson > (954) 552-7956 > sdavid...@3danimationmagic.com > > Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic > > > - Arthur C. Clarke > >
