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How to texture a radome ("ball")

Messages
171
Country
germany
Hi,

I'm thinking how I could get my radome corretly textured.

1627057191085.png


You see those parts are repeating at the upper part of the radome and in the lower part its more randomly.
But until now I do not have an idea how to get such a texture done.

I have modelled a simple ball in blender and I use Substance Painter for texturing. But I'm clueless how to get such things properly textured.
Any hints how to proceed?

1627057304007.png
 

tgibson

Resource contributor
Messages
11,338
Country
us-california
GMAX has something called Spherical UVW Mapping. Does Blender have something similar?

Here, convert this map of the world into a map of your radome:

 
Messages
171
Country
germany
Hi!
Substance Painter has "spherical UV mapping" -> But how can I create this texture itself so that it fits?
 

Pyscen

Resource contributor
Messages
2,994
Country
us-texas
You'll need to UV unwrap in Blender first and yes, Blender does have a spherical unwrap. First, assign materials within Blender then UV unwrap it. From there, export the model for SP.
 

=rk=

Resource contributor
Messages
4,473
Country
us-washington
It seems like you'd have to compose your texture like an orange peel, which lays flat on the table, but wraps the orange seamlessly. You would need to apply a function of the diameter of the dome, to the "radius" of the unwrap.

1627083906783.jpeg


Or this:

OrangePeelProFuller.jpg
 
Messages
95
Country
japan
If me I'll make the modeling itself like this
And use Unwrap UVW
I think what you want is a clear straight line.

Think with the textures and make the edge
Image1.jpg
 
Messages
171
Country
germany
If me I'll make the modeling itself like this
And use Unwrap UVW
I think what you want is a clear straight line.

Think with the textures and make the edge View attachment 75447

I also thought about something like this - but how to start? The goal is to get the "Radom Wasserkuppe" modelled.
I'm not struggling with the unwrap itself (at least I think so). I'm struggling how to get a texture which is similar to the reality.

So I like the idea to get the "lines" actually in the model itself, but also there I do not know how to start to get it "working" over the full "ball".
 

=rk=

Resource contributor
Messages
4,473
Country
us-washington
So I like the idea to get the "lines" actually in the model itself, but also there I do not know how to start to get it "working" over the full "ball".
There are actually quite a few ways. Apparently, you do not wish to work out the mathematics, of what dimension and shape you would need to construct a texture, such that it seamlessly UV wrapped your dome, just like an orange.

So ok, you have part of it. Part of the dome looks right and part looks skewed. So you break your dome into four hemispheres, lay your texture cleanly over each hemisphere and then combine them. Now, your unwrap equation, has been "simplified," such that each "triangle" of the face of each hemisphere, needs to seamlessly meet it's neighbor. I don't know, but it might be easier to do that kind of calculus math for a sphere, instead of for four hemispheres.

Finally, you can get down to the tile, itself. The dome is constructed that way, because each "tile" rolls seamlessly into it's neighbor, like a soccer ball. You could make a texture of the one tile, and then build your dome, from there.
 
Messages
95
Country
japan
Seems not understanding
What I am saying is
Using that ball itself is disturbing the clean line.
So model and set 1 edge a line by texture.
It's like make a panel itself and build up.

for those needs more info (photos)
Where is this object existing ?
 
Last edited:
Messages
171
Country
germany
Seems not understanding
What I am saying is
Using that ball itself is disturbing the clean line.
So model and set 1 edge a line by texture.
It's like make a panel itself and build up.

for those needs more info (photos)
Where is this object existing ?
Hi

unfortunately I do not have pictures from myself so I cannot post it here directly. You can find more photos if you search in the internet for "Radom Wasserkuppe"
For example here: https://radom-wasserkuppe.de/
 
Messages
95
Country
japan
What I'm saying is make the polygon like this and texture each polygons
But at this case you need to understand the exact pattern of that dome.
I couldn't understand from your picture link so can't make it.
Also from google's image , seems top pattern is different from what you wrote repeat.

Image5.jpg
Image7.jpg
 
Last edited:
Messages
171
Country
germany
Yes thats also my problem - I do not have a "full" picture of every part of the roof. And the Polygon itself isn't "flat" - in the picture you see that its a "clean" ball from the roundness, but it is split into polygons... It doesn't need to get a perfect 1:1 from reality but even a good seems hard to do right now. But I get your idea...
 
Messages
95
Country
japan
From this shot it seems to have a key parts to figure out how each are connected.
There is a perfect Pentagon as a key
This will help figure out each part's angle

Image2.jpg
 

=rk=

Resource contributor
Messages
4,473
Country
us-washington
Da Vinci taught us there is only one type of "sphere," completely composed of pentagons:
da-vincis-dodecahedron-1509-this-drawing-is-by-leonardo-da-vinci-and-picture-id90736281


and the tile would be too large, in relation to the whole, to be practical. You'd want more like a soccer ball, in fact a modelled soccer ball with an edited texture would probably suffice.

xMywU.png
 
Messages
18
Country
netherlands
From this shot it seems to have a key parts to figure out how each are connected.
There is a perfect Pentagon as a key
This will help figure out each part's angle

View attachment 75463
After browsing polyhedra, I think you're looking for a geodesic polyhedron:


Various other polyhedra:

Call me crazy but I find it fascinating...
 
Messages
171
Country
germany
After browsing polyhedra, I think you're looking for a geodesic polyhedron:


Various other polyhedra:

Call me crazy but I find it fascinating...

I also tried this as this is the way if you search for "soccer ball" in blender tutorials. But it still does not capture the parts beneath the perfect 5-edge-thing. I now gave up for the moment and will do a easy texture as a start. But if I find a real solution I'm glad to update it again :)
 
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