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3d Earth rotating and zooming
With this tut: https://library.creativecow.net/articles/park_michael/3d_Earth/video-tutorial I was able to recreate a 3d model of the Earth but it only allows rotation on the y-axis. Can you make it rotate in other ways? What about zoom? (I want to have it rotate and zoom into a country, then zoom out and rotate to another country.)
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4 Replies
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For total control I would use a 3d plugin like Element 3d – it comes with a earth model and there’s a free project on the videocopilot website that you could use.
https://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2012/08/free-earth-project-for-element-3d/
That being said, I used CC Sphere to create something similar to what you describe. I had to create several projects – one for each part of the move- and edit them together to get the continuous fly in and out of several locations.
Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist -
In the same way you created the expression controller for the y-axis, you can create controllers for the x and z-axes. Did you try that?
As for zooming, you can use the effect’s Radius property, the layer’s Scale property, or you can create a camera and zoom it. The only issue with zooming on a CC Sphere is that you will probably lose resolution.
My workaround for that has been to use a shape layer as my Earth. Since shape layers are vector, when you apply the CC Sphere effect and increase the radius, the resolution stays clean. That might not be possible though, depending on what your Earth image is like.
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As mentioned, pulling this off in AE may largely depend on how close you need to get, and the resolution you need. I LOVE Earth models, and have built it in AE, Maya, and Cinema 4D. But the extreme scaling (that all clients seem to want) can create a real quandary.
If you’re really needing to get close, you may need to re-build it in a dedicated 3D app. For a couple different C4D projects, I needed to buy satellite assets from Digital Globe, then stack them like Russian dolls so that as I moved in, I didn’t lose resolution.
For my older Maya version, I snuck a transition in there, where I could zoom into the spherical Maya model, then switch over to a flat AE project with layered textures in increasing resolution. It’s pretty old now (I use C4D now), but I have an article on the cow about it here if you end up needing something that involved:
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/neumayer_greg/zoom_out.phpAntifreeze Design
https://www.antifreezedesign.com -
In the same way you created the expression controller for the y-axis, you can create controllers for the x and z-axes. Did you try that?
My workaround for that has been to use a shape layer as my Earth. Since shape layers are vector, when you apply the CC Sphere effect and increase the radius, the resolution stays clean. That might not be possible though, depending on what your Earth image is likeI don’t need to zoom in that far. As far as resolution I have purchased a 10k Earth map so it will hold up pretty well. How can I create controllers for the x and y rotation since all the layers have independent cc sphere effects?
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