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Creating Rotating Earth Vector with Zoom-In Effect
I can’t find a satisfactory solution to this animation problem so far, so maybe the vets can help me out.
I want to create a rotating white and gray vector globe in 3D space, then zoom in on a specific area as that country fills in blue, WHILE THE GLOBE IS ROTATING. So by the time the camera is fully zoomed in the city will have in effect rotated itself to meet the camera’s end-point.
CC Sphere rasterizes vectors into bitmaps by default so I can’t maintain the resolution I want while zooming in. The country has to be filled in with color during this whole animation with some sort of paint spill effect. I see three basic ways to go about doing this…
1. Turn a vector into a globe somehow and precomp the paint spill animation
2. Use a huge, huge image and precomp the paint spill animation
3. Use a 3D object, don’t know how to do the paint spillAny advice on how to create a huge but simple “vector” 3D globe zoom animation while filling in a country with paint, would be much appreciated. 🙂 I want the globe to look like a 3D shaded object floating in white space, not just a vector. So if the globe is hollow I’d like to know how to shade the inside of the globe or if it’s not hollow if I could find some way to raise the land off the ocean by making it slightly 3D? Thanks!
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4 Replies
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The only way to achieve the 3d vector effect you’re after would be to use C4D or another 3D package. You may be able to use Element 3D with a custom Texture layer if you find the right earth model.
Tudor \”Ted\” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist -
Thank you for your reply Ted! I tried some experiments with E3D but they didn’t turn out well, and I don’t own any 3D standalone programs, so I decided to try CC Sphere, this is the result so far…
The image wrapped around the CC Sphere is HUGE, 10800×5400 pixels. It withstands the extreme zoom, starting with the globe just a small dot on the frame, and then it zooms way close on the map, which works up to a point, but then it obviously gets pixellated when we’re at the level of states and territories.
The main problem I have is that I can’t get the animation to look more exciting. I need the stark white background so I can do an insane zoom from Radius: 10 to Radius: 4000 but the lighting and the smoothness of the sphere makes it look blah. I added some lens flare (correction: lenz flaer) and it helped a bit but I’m stumped on how to make the globe look more professional. I need to maintain this white/gray color scheme. CC Sphere will support me animating the wraparound, so I’m going to make a country fill in with a paint spill effect while I zoom in. I’m thinking of stacking parented images and masks for that “Extreme Zoom” effect but because the globe itself is shaded I don’t exactly know how to match the lighting when I make the cut to a flat image. Making the paint spill work with a 3D model instead of CC Sphere would be tricky I think; I have limited experience with 3D models, I have Element 3D but that’s it and no shader packs. I want the globe to look HUGE and the lighting to interact with the globe in a more pleasing way. Since CC Sphere is not a 3D image I can’t fiddle with camera lenses or anything like that. Any ideas? :\
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If you have the latest AE you have C4D. There are quite a few tutorials on how to make a 3d globe:
Tudor \”Ted\” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist -
Thanks I’ll check those out!
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