using an eps to cut a sphere

[Brodd Nesset]

No pain 😉

I meant ‘expand selection’ in Photoshop.
Say one continent is ‘400’ wide. When given a blur of say ‘4’, the blur will affect the sides so that it expands ‘2’ (half of the blur) on each side. (The other half of the blur will soften the edge inwards). Now the continent is ‘404’ wide! This is the size the alpha cutout need to be too, so expand the selection with ‘2’ / half the blur. The alpha graphic needs to completely and exactly cover the continent when it has the blur appliead.

Her lips said “no!” but her eyes said “read my lips”.

[Damian Dunne]

still nada! you’ve been an awesome help though Brodd. Not sure what else to try though??? I don’t think it’s the blurring. I think it’s something really simple that Im missing along the way! Maybe i gota try turning on my computer first 😉

be the ball

[Brodd Nesset]

DUH!
It’s not evident from your screenshot, but my bet is that you’re working on a sphere primitive here.
Displacement only works on polygon objects – not primitives (i.e. built in objects like the sphere). You need to make the sphere editable first. Be sure to crank up the resolution from the default 24 to say 200, and when the object is selected in the manager, hit the letter C.
As the displacement actually messes up the object’s geometry, this kind of makes sense. Alpha doesn’t, and neither does Bumpmaps (even if the appearance can be similar to displacement, bumpmaps is just an optical trick with its limititions), and that’s why THEY work on primitives.

Her lips said “no!” but her eyes said “read my lips”.

[Adam Trachtenberg]

Personally I would use the illustrator spline with a wrap deformer in “spherical” mode, along with an extrudeNURBS. The key there would be to select Type>Quadrangles in the extrude caps properties, and check the “regular grid” box. Then adjust the width of the grid to minimize and hopefully eliminate artifacts. You’d also probably want to set the .ai spline’s type to “subdivided”.

[Damian Dunne]

right on Brodd! thats the one. gota make it editable. Your a legend. We are cooking with gas now! thanx mate, really appreciate your help.

hey Adam, I’m also curious about the example you provided. I tried it just for hey of it. I imported my illustrator path, attached it to an extrudeNURBS, then attached the extrudeNURBS to the warp. They were linked cause when I moved the wrap the extrudeNURBS moved too. Though for some reason it wouldn’t wrap around the deformation. Weird.

be the ball