Digital Media Tutors » visualization

Suggestions needed: Digitizing maps

Jue — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:08:58 +0000

As I start putting antique Vermont maps as overlays in Google Earth, I found that Google Earth might not be the best way to “digitize” maps. The complexity of the earth surface steals the thunder of the map details. And Vermont looks absolutely ugly when patched by a giant map.
The maps have already been scanned in high quality and stored in the college digital collection server (the website of which, unfortunately, did not work well.) What, then, does map digitizing really mean? Does it suggest a need of managing the scanned maps with tools such as Concerto? Or does it mean developing various ways of map visualization? How can the antique maps contribute – as an information source, a form of art, or a bit of both? What are the map viewers trying to get out of the maps?
The answers to these questions will define how and why maps should be digitized. There is a perfect example done by the David Rumsey Map Collection. On their website, maps can be viewed with different image browsers (InSight and Collection Ticker,) GIS, Google Earth and even in SecondLife. Although the maps look extremely blurry in SecondLife, it seems to fit the category of digitizing. I would like to hear your thoughts on which might be the best way to illustrate the maps.

Thanks!

SketchUp models in Blender

Jue — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:31:27 +0000

Here’s a tutorial about how to import sketchup models into blender. Cheers! (Unfortunately, some structures and textures will wear off in the transaction.) Blender, therefore, can be more useful for perfection.

Vikings, Robots, and Flash, OH MY!

Brendan Smith — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:26:35 +0000

Hey Guys, I just thought I’d share one of my all-time favorite flash videos with you. It’s a music video for “War Photographer” by Jason Forrest and it’s animated by Joel Trussell.

Here’s the link with the info:

and here’s a link if you want to watch it in full screen (recommended):

This is a great example of using Flash effectively with other media (music) and Trussell is really able to do a lot with some pretty simple animations. If you like his style, check out the links to his site and look up some of his other animations, especially the other music videos. Besides, who doesn’t like Vikings, Robots, and Rock music?

The Sound of Colors

Joseph Antonioli — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:19:12 +0000

Handicap assistance or universal accessibility?

The Sound of Colors

Carbon Goggles

Joseph Antonioli — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:40:12 +0000

Visualizing carbon emmisions using Second Life…

The website is Carbon Goggles, check it out for more visualizations.