I would like to make a sphere and unwrap it in order to apply a texture and a normal map so that it looks like this:
I've already created the 2d elements that will compose the ball:
But I really don't know how to morph them in order to create the final result.
Can someone please give me a hand? Thank you!
I will not propose to unwrap a sphere to the texture, but how to make the sphere geometry as it appears in the reference image.
Start from a cube, subdivided twice.
Select opposite middle parts of each face and scale them down (around 0.2 for instance).
Do that for the three pairs of faces:
Then scale down the corners:
Add a subdivision surface modifier, then a cast modifier with sphere set to 1.
Refine the model: apply the modifiers then selecting the 3 edge loops starting from each 4 corners, bevel them:
The shape is done. Selecting the same edges you can now mark seams and unwrap.
We can unwrap the sphere same as a cube, if the geometry of sphere is just subdivided and displaced cube:
Create a cube and give it these modifiers:
Proceed same as with unwrapping a cube. The texture can look like this:
Notice the bleeding over the unwrapped mesh. That is to not pollute the surface with green (or black in my example). You can also pack those faces much more efficiently if you like, to not waste any texture space:
