How to make an airline "great circle" travel route on the globe

Hi Fox, thanks for the reply. That's looks like a really good step-by-step.

As for a 2D map, what I'd probably start off with is the iMovie map, but that could change. Yesterday I had a nicer looking globe than the one I posted with but couldn't find it for the posting. As I write this I'm thinking it would be really cool to ad a sound effect at the destination, one of the squeaking tires as the wheels touch the tarmac when the arrow reaches the destination. Your drop-shadow idea is an excellent one - makes the jet route much more realistic looking.

I haven't done any 3-D yet but this might be a good one to try it on. Perhaps what I could do is capture the iMovie map/globe for the origin and another globe for the destination. iMovie will rotate the globe based on the location selected so I'm thinking about giving this a try. Capture the departure point globe and then capture the arrival point globe.

Won't be able to work on this for a couple days due to time crunch!

Hey fox - I haven't forgotten .... it's just other "stuff" with higher priorities have got in my way. Anyway, the first thing I tried to do is find a nicer looking globe (that isn't copyrighted) than the one I was using and it's been hard. The globe needs to show more than 180º so it has to rotate. The iMovie globe is the nicest one I've seen so far - the one that shows relief and it is set with the stars of the universe as a background. Although that could be fixed with Motion, too (i.e., put stars in the background). The problem with the iMovie globe, though, is it doesn't show much of the Arctic but maybe beggars can't be choosers.

The next thing I'm thinking of is showing the west coast of North America as one is looking straight down (i.e., like 0º of longitude) and then looking down at London (also at 0º) and then the next top further east (again looking down at 0º). So the globe would need to turn quite a bit. If I use the iMovie globe at the two (start and end) locations there will be some "parts" that show up missing as it rotates if one does the last step:

"If you need the globe to rotate more than 360 degrees, line up two maps side by side, matching the ends."

My plan is to try the last step first and make sure it works because if it doesn't work then my whole plan is toast.

I've got a lot of other work to do and this is a "as time is available" project. Just want to provide an update and let you know your effort isn't in vain.

In other words, "The Government is working on it."

This is a nice looking globe but the route has to go over the lower end of Baffin Island and the lower end of Greenland and a little south of Iceland. As a "Plan B" I did do an iMovie with the earth moving and the route & airports not shown but it doesn't look very smooth, even with the durations re-timed. Came out looking very amateurish.

fox -

doing an arc on a "flat world" (Mercator projection?), isn't a problem, I can do that, but I'm trying to do the arc on a revolving globe. It turns out that iMovie has a revolving globe/earth but, from what I can tell, only if one does it their way by selecting two airports. Actually, that part is kinda okay. What's bad is the globe doesn't tilt on it's axis to really show the "over Greenland" route unless a Greenland airport is selected and then there is a problem because the earth's motion is jerky - the axis tilts as the route approaches the Greenland airport and then makes a sudden change in the tilt again as the route continues toward the European airport (Heathrow).

My choices to date are:

1. Use iMovie's Earth to show the route from the west coast USA to Heathrow - but along a latitude route.

1a) Use iMovie's red route (ugh!)

1b) Draw my own route using Motion as it goes over Greenland but the problem here is there isn't very much shown of the arctic. Doable, but not as dramatic.

2. Use iMovie's Earth to show the route using some "dummy airports" in Canada and Greenland (but not show the red route). In this mode the Earth rotates and tilts on it's axis as the route goes to each airport. Unfortunately, as the route goes to each airport the Earth makes a sudden and noticeable jerk on it's axis as the route passes the airport and goes on to the next one. This Earth rotation can be done without the red route and I can use Motion (I think) to put my own route on. Haven't tried this because the jerky motion is too undesirable. Option 2 is not desirable.

3. Use the Mercator Earth projection in iMovie: Your map is the Mercator projection and this is available in iMovie. Normally, in iMovie, one can select a world map and if you don't like it, switch to a different one. Sooooo ..... What if one selected a Mercator map, drew the arc in Motion, then if it is possible, switch to a different projection? f.e., the round Earth. Would the Earth rotate as the plane flew along it's Motion flight path? One would have to get the timing worked out between the iMovie video and the Motion flight path.

4. Put two Earth pictures together (your reply of July 24): I've never done this. If possible, to get a more "bird's eye view" of the flight path I'd try three Earth pictures, first of the US west coast, second with Greenland in the center, and the third with Heathrow in the center. My guess is there would still be an axis "jerk" at Greenland but maybe with Motion one could dial some of the jerk out. It would be nice if Motion would have more capability to edit an iMovie item by breaking it apart.

At the moment it appears that Option 1b is the only way the flight route can be shown smoothly on a realistic Earth, but as mentioned, it isn't what I want.

HUD: Basic Motion>Spin Behavior: [Lesson 3, Stacking Behaviors, step 3 in "Motion 5" by Spencer] Maybe

Fox - this is REALLY good! Just read your newest post and, although I can't do anything now about it, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The tutorial shows clearly how the animation works by putting two frames(?) end-to-end. There were a lot of nice touches in the tutorial that makes the resultant video look extremely realistic but I'm not sure I have the capability or time to do them all, although I'd like to.

Unfortunately, work (my real life) calls again and I suspect it may be some time before I can re-visit this effort. Just received a call a couple hours ago on one of my projects (non-Motion) and really have to get some real work out the door. But rest assured, I'll be back!

For what it's worth, that was a very good tutorial. I liked the way he threw on the screen the various commands - that is a good format to follow (hint for anyone doing a tutorial). For something this complicated where there is space available (and there was here) it would help to put up even more commands or step details. There are many users where English is not their native language and the tutorial video goes quite fast - even for me! - so more screen writing would help. That was an awesome tutorial.

Thanks a bunch! More (much) later.

Oh, and don't sweat the arrowhead. Wouldn't it be neat to come up with a little plane (instead of arrowhead) just a mm ahead of the red line?

Fox - It's been a couple months since I worked on this because of other activities (work) in life but I'm going to try and get started again. Might have to re-learn how to do some Motion again (arrgh!). It's so easy to forget stuff.

Also have a lot of video to file in X, a computer application update problem to solve (happens to be with Motion on my main computer), plus a lot of other work items. However, I'm determined to try and finish this part so as to get on with editing again. A solution here will help with getting a lot of other vacation videos finished.

Purpose of post is to bring this back up on top because it was really buried.