General 3D: Help on image to be wrapped around sphere for planet effect

[Lemuel]

Hi

I Have Maya 8 and Swift 3D V3, but this question is pretty much universal to all 3D apps.
(as well as Photoshop CS and CS2)

I will have to render a 3D sphere, with an image applied to it to show continents etc.. of a fictional world.

I can apply images to spheres in both applications, thats not the problem.
I need help creating the image that will be used as a texture.

The planet may be fictional, but it has to be displayed and rendered correctly and accurately nonetheless. Its not a task that simply calls for "a planet" in the background. The planet is the focus, and has a name.

My largest problem is the image dimensions. What would the width and hight ratio be? If I get it wrong I could see things like the ice-caps being displayed wrong. I'm not overly concerned about drawing techniques to make the continents etc.. realistic. Just the dimensions.

I'd appreciate any help, or suggestions.

-Lem

[hybrid101]

make the graphic like a map, worked great for me:)
oh and make the res as high as possible. you don't want to lose quality on textures;)

[Lemuel]

make the res as high as possible. you don't want to lose quality on textures

Yea, your right.
Didn't think about that, good thing someone mentioned that before I started work on the image. Would not have been fun working on an image like that just to find out that when it renders it looks like crap due to a 100 px by X px texture

Thanks

-Lem

[jsn.greenbag]

also think about distortion. the further to the poles the more strecthed out the map needs to be. check out NASAs earth pictures.(they're free and super hi-res, just google) those image dimensions are correct for wrapping on spheres with the default UV map in Maya.

[brianmanden]

Found deep down in my messy box of links ;)

I think this might help:

http://www.noirextreme.com/earth

[Pasquale]

Go for at least a 1k texture. After you have your texture all sussed out, grab the uv map and sit it on top. Stitch up the seams with body paint 3d or something :)