Creating a model Earth [By Monday]
 

I have to create a model the earth for a friend. I suppose the easiest way would to apply a texture of the earth to a sphere.

Does anyone have a or know where i can get one.

I could make one using a world map but as it will be a sphere, what shape should it be when flat.

Or, even better, does anyone know where i can get a pre-made model.

Thanks :)

look at nasa.com perhaps.. or search on google for earth map ..

Try this texture ...
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/

http://www.knucks3dstuff.com/spacetextures.html

Theres bump, spec, color and cloud maps for earth, all in very high res. That should do the trick.

Just make sure that you do the polar co-ordinate correction to avoid the pinching at the top of the map.

I dont have one of the earth but this is one for a basketball and you can see it has been corrected to get rid of the pinching

Please check before posting.
Those are the same textures present in the link I provided.

I did this a few hours ago, here a playback.

I dosent have to be super realistic so this should do. I am wondering though as to why the animation speeds to towards the end [i'm viewing it in quicktime on loop.] I just want it to move at the same speed.

whoops sorry bout that

check the keyframes and set the rotate y to be on a flat tangent for all keyframes. That way it wont ease in and eas out (which is probably whats doing it)

Alan

maybe because you have 49 frames and 24 frames per second. that one frame at the end maybe gets a little skewed. Maybe try getting rid of the final frame?

I have the first keyframe at frame 1 and the second at frame 50. I set the animation to frame 49 cos there was a slight pause when on the loop.

Here’s the file...:)