Integrating a pattern into a 3D Object. No way!

Hi everybody.

I’ve been lately trying to design a 3D Object with an integrated pattern on it, just like seen in Dupont’s .swf: They have a 3D World Sphere and there is a pattern (the continents) which is 2D and it gets integrated into the 3D Sphere.

If you don’t exactly understand what I mean have a look at www.kmgi.com then “samples” and “webmmercials”
(Dupont’s swf is the 3rd or the 4th)
What tool have they used to make it?
I don’t think it can be done with Flash 5 (although the continents are treated as a 2D symbol).
Perhaps they used a program like Swift 3D but I just can’t see any option to do what I’ve just explained.
Can anybody help please? Is there a place where I can find such information or any tutorial?
I’m just a beginner in Flash so please don’t have so much fun at me

Thank you very much to everybody, at least for reading this.

Manare