after I saw Artifexia episode 25 Edger mentioned some issues with blender distorting pixels near the poles and chopping a straight line into multiple disconnected lines.
this video is made for someone who knows nothing about blender but I am considering you've already watched artifexians and Elnus video.
when adding the textures I didn't follow elnus method only to save time you can do it on a plane its not strictly for uv-spheres.
Artifexian's video : • Using Blender to Map Directly onto a ...
Elnu's video : • How to use BLENDER to paint on a sphe...
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this map was made using photoshop and blender