Globe and Rocket

A simple concept can sometimes be the most difficult to execute. What made this challenging was creating the image used for the globe.

Many of the space images I create feature planets as they look in nature. I generally use NASA maps that are made to wrap around spheres without creating distortions. These are made available in the public domain and are easily obtained on the web.

I wanted the look of an old tin classroom globe. But, I could not find a suitable political world map that was formatted for wrapping around a sphere. So, I decided to take on the task of making one.

After many hours of trying to stretch a National Geographic world map in Photoshop with less than stellar results, I hit upon the brainstorm of using 3ds Max to create the texture map. After that, the rest was simple.

A variation of this model is used in Rocket Martini.