Distort image to be wrapped around a sphere

[mk1978]

Is the any filter or easy way in Affinity Designer or Affinity Photo to distort the image to be properly wrapped around a sphere?

In Affinity Photo there is Rectangular to Polar Distort Filter but it it seems that it distorts the image from top. I am looking something similar than in the image/texture with bricks below.

I would like to create an Image with stars for a 3D print lithophane. The lithophane is a Christmas ball and there is a tool (https://lithophanemaker.com/Lithophane Sphere.html) to wrap the image around the ball but I would like to improve the mapping of the image.

Edited August 23, 2022 by mk1978
Some more info added

[NathanC]

Hi @mk1978,

As far as I’m aware Photo does not have a feature to re-map/wrap a texture around a 3D sphere. This would require an application with 3D capabilities You could manually warp the image via the mesh warp tool however this would be difficult to map accurately.

[mk1978]

On 8/24/2022 at 10:50 AM, NathanC said:

Hi @mk1978,

As far as I’m aware Photo does not have a feature to re-map/wrap a texture around a 3D sphere. This would require an application with 3D capabilities You could manually warp the image via the mesh warp tool however this would be difficult to map accurately.

Thanks for the tip! This warp tool helps already a lot because in my case the mapping doesn't need to be perfect. 

When checking this issue more I found that the image above was actually from some Photoshop Plugin example: http://richardrosenman.com/shop/spherical-mapping-corrector/