I’m not sure if this is the appropriate place to ask for modelling know-how…

BUT here it goes: I am trying to model a sphere with a uniform looking hexagonal grid bump mapped on it. I’d like so it isn’t distorted at the top and middle but looks like the sphere is constructed of hexagonal plates with blue glowy light shining out from the ‘cracks’.

I created the hexagon grid in Photoshop and imported it into a lambert shader however the grid gets all bunched up at the top, streched out in the middle, and bunched up again at the bottom. To get the blue glowies I tried creating another blue glowing sphere that is just a hair smaller than the original thinking the bump map relief would be deep enough to allow the blue to show through.

Since I am a Maya newbert my plan failed terribly. I am attaching the .mb file, my grid, and a rendering of the sphere. If anyone knows how to do this please let me know!!

-Gracias

http://www.designepidemic.com

note: Ok so I can’t upload my attachments for some reason they wont attach. If you want to help me I can send them to you.

do you have to do this with a shader?  Why not use a primitive polygon soccer ball?  You can select all the faces and extrude them (with “keep faces together” checked off) and that does what I think you’re describing.  You can snapshot the UVs and make your bumpmap in Pshop; you can also just model the bump you’re looking for.  If you map it, you can create a separate map to apply to the glow color.