Animated 3D Map Needed

And the archive is here

I am unclear how implement this animation. Can someone explain to me the steps to test this out. Does it require OpenOffice for the calculations? Also, does the Blender .blend file need to be manually updated with the settings from the ODS file, or is there an existing script already in place? Any info would be helpful.

Thanks!
-Jonathan

Okay, I have played around with the ODS spreadsheet, and manually updating Blender to create a few different map animations. This is actually very cool! My plan is to move all the ODS calculations into a Python script, and expose the settings on the 3D Animation screen in OpenShot.

However, I am not planning on making an easy "Location dropdown" with lots of pre-defined places. I think for version 1, a simple Starting LAT and LONG and ending LAT and LONG should work just fine. It requires a bit of work to figure out the coordinates, but simplifies the programming.

The only outstanding question is related to licensing of the world map images. Are we allowed to use these images in a GPLv3 application?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Whole_world_-_land_and_oceans_12000.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/WorldMap-A_non-Frame.png

I was able to figure everything out and get the animated map added to OpenShot tonight. I will be committing it shortly. There are a lot of settings that the user has to enter, and I default "New York" to "Paris", as an example, so the preview works correctly. It has a default map texture, but the user can enter the file path of any image and override the texture. The image needs to be an equirectangular map image (i.e. designed to be wrapped around a sphere).

All of the ODS calculations now happen in the Python script I wrote tonight. The user enter the basic parameters (in the Animated Titles screen), such as latitude & longitude, the labels, chooses colors for the push pins and line, and then OpenShot does the rest of the magic. A big thanks to Gwen Bulleryahen for putting all the math together and Blender skills. =)

Hello,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WorldMap-A_non-Frame.png:
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9dia:World_map_with_nations.svg:
 STyx accorde à quiconque le droit d'utiliser cette œuvre dans n'importe quel but, sans aucune condition, sauf celles requises par la loi.->Styx grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions,except those required by law.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whole_world_-_land_and_oceans_12000.jpg:
"This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted"

Hi everydoby,

@Gwen,

Perfect that you have seen this bug without to be informed.
Parfait que tu aies vu ce bug alors que j'allais t'informer de son existence.

@Jonathan
Gwen confirm the license of the pictures but anyway, they are pitched on Wikimedia. And on Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Wikixxxx , all is under GPL license, it is the rule..
 | Okay, I have played around with the ODS spreadsheet, and manually updating Blender to create a few different map animations. This is actually very cool! My plan is to move all the ODS calculations into a Python script, and expose the settings on the 3D Animation screen in OpenShot.
Awesone and Great. I have a question : is it obligatory a capital (now) or any location in the world (obviously if we/the user know the geoposition i.e. latitude and longitude) ?

 | A big thanks to Gwen Bulleryahen for putting all the math together and Blender skills. =)
Yep, that 's right.

I am planning on including just 1 map, and the user can manually download and point the file path of any map texture they want. I am concerned only about file size, since these maps are quite large.

Olivier,
You can enter the LAT / LON of any coordinate on planet earth, and it will draw a line between the 2 points, and label the points what ever you want. Thanks!

Jonathan,

Ho ho ho, Wonderful.

The picture must be have this enormous size ? 24000x12000 ?
Thanks.

2011/1/12 Jonathan Thomas <email address hidden>

> I am planning on including just 1 map, and the user can manually
> download and point the file path of any map texture they want. I am
> concerned only about file size, since these maps are quite large.
>
> Olivier,
> You can enter the LAT / LON of any coordinate on planet earth, and it will
> draw a line between the 2 points, and label the points what ever you want

It's too large but I did not find the perfect size .(size quality!!)
Here are some other cards.(attachment)
svg and xcf:they are editable with inkscape and gimp then exported as png format.

I have been testing the map (within OpenShot), and found a few strange issues. I'm not sure if the problems are in the Python calculations, the blend file, or just some missing logic / math:

Here are the coordinates I used which had issues. I went from Cape Town to Tokyo, and then Tokyo to Las Angeles. Both had issues. I'm attaching an animation of what it produced.

Cape Town, South Africa
-33 54 24.8256
18 24 47.109

Tokyo, Japan
35 41 34.782
139 42 47.2854

Las Angeles, CA, USA
34 3 9.5718
-118 15 4.8348

Any ideas?

I have no problem with my file and openshot's file(development focus branch).
Bizarre!

Hmmm... Very strange. I have attached the .blend file that was generated (and updated) by OpenShot with the Cape Town to Tokyo coordinates. Also, here is the debug output from my script in OpenShot:

EmptyPointA Transform Rotation: Y= 33.906896 Z= 18.413135
EmptyPointB Transform Rotation: Y= -35.692994 Z= 139.713135
EmptyPointC Transform Rotation: Y= 16.506923 Z= 48.738135
EmptyPointD Transform Rotation: Y= -18.293022 Z= 109.388135
EmptyPointC.001 Transform Rotation: X= 13.134807
EmptyPointD.001 Transform Rotation: X= 13.134807
EmptyCam Frame 20 ->Transform Rotation: Y= 33.906896 Z= 18.413135 And press I key
EmptyCam Frame 80 ->Transform Rotation: Y= -35.692994 Z= 139.713135 And press I key

Can you tell what happened? I'm not sure what to look for. Thanks!
-Jonathan

Here is a screenshot from Blender showing the path go through the earth. Although this path is quicker than flying around the earth, it's clearly not possible. =)

Gwen,
I had some Blender issues on my other .blend files, that were related to me updating the value of a key-frame (i.e. X, Y, Z), but not updating the left and right handle values. So, everything would still start and end on the right coordinate, but it would take a strange path to get there (due to the handles having their original values). Not sure if that is also happening here... but something to look for. =)

I Found an error: not
EmptyPointC.001 Transform Rotation: X= 13.134807
EmptyPointD.001 Transform Rotation: X= 13.134807

but:
EmptyPointC.001 Transform Location: X= 13.134807
EmptyPointD.001 Transform Location: X= 13.134807

I do not see why the camera goes north

Awesome! I fixed that and will commit the change soon. That fixes the path not flying through the earth. So, the only remaining issue is the strange camera movement.

Jonathan,
With your file(cape_town_to_tokyo.blend)
In the graph editor, I manipulated the X Euler Rotation curve X (emptyCam) unintentionally. I put it in place.
Then,in the 3D view, i press Ctrl A...
....the camera movement is normal?!?!

I see the same thing. However, I noticed that if you scale the graph editor so you can see all 3 (X,Y,Z) Euler rotations for EmptyCam, and then move any of them, all the handles snap back to the correct place. The Y and Z Euler rotations have really steep handle values, which is probably being caused by the Python script not updating them. I'll poke around and see if I can figure out what handles need to be moved via Python.

I found the problem and fixed it. Just like we thought, it was the left and right handles for the EmptyCam's keyframe points. I set the handles to the same value as the points, and everything works great. Cape Town to Tokyo, and Tokyo to Los Angeles work great now! Thanks for your help.

I have announced the Animated Map as a new / upcoming feature to OpenShot:
http://www.openshotvideo.com/2011/01/create-amazing-3d-animated-maps.html.

Congratulations for your software!!
Nice work