United3dArtists Archive

Here is a video that illustrates the theory of the growing Earth : http://dailynuts-news.over-blog.com/art ... 72982.html"
That theory has been developped in the 1900 but for some reason only the subduction theory is teached at school today.
Anyway, I like the idea and would like to create an animation in a more professional look than the one in the link above.

So I am trying to reproduce this animation in trueSpace and... I realize that it is a big challenge .
I guess the easy way is to create an animated texture that plays as the sphere grows and rotate in tS. But how to animate the dry parts ? The continental blocs are supposed to keep their size on a growing texture frame... but in tS my texture size will not change. Perhaps, the best way is to move the continental elements while a texture "frame" grows on the 2D. Then I will have to resize progressively each picture of the 2D animation.

Do you have any idea or tool suggestion to animate that ?

Interesting question...

I see 2 ways to do it.

1. Create and animate all parts of the world piece by piece, that means any continent. There is a glue or magnetic tool function in tS that should help while positioning the parts.
2. Create and animate like version 1 but with textured planes on a plane. The result should have this format LINK Render this and use it as a animated texture which can be placed on a rotating sphere. Now render this as the final animation.

I think the 2. one is the better solution for the continental drift animation. You have more control over the animation. But you could loose the 3d effect of the landmass (if needed) depending of you final resolution.

Well, you are correct - it's a challenge...

Here's a list of techniques in various programs from morphing to straight animation with no morphing, just spinning globe.

Terrain morphing

http://paulbourke.net/miscellaneous//tmorph/"

Animate morph with Google Earth
"The Tour can animate the placemark/polygon using gx:AnimateUpdate and
the gx:FlyTo can move the camera and adjust the time slider. But
TimeStamp or TimeSpans alone cannot morph/animate things."

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgr ... z-Gbgx9wlE"

After Effects Time Remapping Morphs
http://library.creativecow.net/articles ... o-tutorial"

Morphing in vintage films (educational by not a tutorial)
http://www.filmsite.org/visualeffects13.html"

Free Video Footage (It's free, always useful)
http://www.clipcanvas.com/free-footage/2/%2a.html"

Morphing software GIF and Video
http://morphing.software.informer.com/d ... photoshop/"

Earth Moves
Educational five-part series, 3 minutes each, 3D CGI
Director, writer, research: Stephen Arthur
http://mypage.direct.ca/w/writer/Current.html#NFB"

Morphing 2D maps with Adobe Illustrator and to 3D in Maya
http://www.fermicg.com/2012/04/maya-tut ... ruded.html"


Spinning Earth in Xara Xtreme or Designer (GIF)

http://www.xaraxone.com/guest/guest70/guest_1.htm"

Spinning Globe in Xara 3D6

http://www.xaraxone.com/guest/guest93/G ... l%206.html"

Thanks a lot for your help DD and James !
I have not followed all of your links yet James, but so far it seems the more accurate solution is through the combination of deformation and morphing to create an antimated texture.
In Photoshop CS5 there is a tool called Puppet wrap that allows accurate deformation. I think I should use this tool first to create an Earth texture without oceans. Next, a morph tool will be used to generate the animation. Problems will come when I will have to manage the North and South areas though...
Thank you again for your interest in this project

Thanks for the link!