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I am wanting to create a 3D spinning globe video to represent historical data like in this video by Business Insider, but I don't know what softwares will I have to use to create such a video.

enter image description here

So I would like to ask that what software do I have to use to make the 3D spinning globe video to represent data like the video above ?

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    – Cai
    Commented Oct 22, 2018 at 8:05

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Cinema 4D or Google Earth With After Effects

You could use Cinema 4D. I recommend this because it's very powerful, but at the same time, has made a name for itself for being easy to pick up. The learning curve is less than other comparable applications.

Below is an image of a spinning globe I made in 2005 using Cinema 4D. It was very simple to make and only took 30 minutes.

I first created two spheres and sized them appropriately. I then downloaded 3 image maps form the NASA website of the Earth, Moon and Stars.

I then animated the Earth and moon to spin. I won't talk about the alien spaceship I added as it's not relevant.

Using Cinema 4D you can add multiple animated layers to achieve the effects seen in your video. Alternatively, you can make different versions of the Earth, then overlap them in After Effects using things like layer masks.

After Effects includes Cinema 4D, which makes it a seamless process using Cineware.

LIKE THIS

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Using Plugins and Templates

There are many plugins you can use in After Effects to create the animated effects you want as well as templates from places such as Envato Tuts which use After Effect's Motion Tracking to create the perspective and parallax effects seen in the video you provided.

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Using AF Only Turial

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Google Earth

Alternatively, you could use Google Earth. This allows you to make 3D movies of the Earth via predetermined paths. Although you'll have less control, you will find it a breeze to achieve what you want.

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  • Thanks. After creating the Spinning Earth, is it more difficult to create animated changing territories and moving arrows like in the video above ? youtube.com/watch?v=BJ0dZhHccfU
    – Zhetdudf
    Commented Oct 20, 2018 at 9:09
  • All this is easy in Cinema 4D and After Effects. To achieve the effects that you are after, that is your best bet. There is no easy solution.
    – Electron
    Commented Oct 20, 2018 at 9:13
  • There is an answer below saying that using Blender could be able to create the 3D spinning globe and animated territories and arrows like in the above video, is it correct ? If it was correct, then is Using only Blender quicker and easier than using the combination of Cinema 4D and After Effects ?
    – Zhetdudf
    Commented Oct 20, 2018 at 9:22
  • Blender is a free app, so that it's upside, but you'll be limited in what you do when compared to professional packages such as Cinema 4D which is intergraded in to After Effect. I find cinema 4D much easier to work with than Blender also. But It's not cheap. There is a demo version if you want to try it out!
    – Electron
    Commented Oct 20, 2018 at 10:26
  • This should help you choose what is best for the motion grpahics effects you want: youtu.be/8BT4YSOjTas
    – Electron
    Commented Oct 20, 2018 at 10:34
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Just use Blender. It is one of the best 3D software and its free.

A ton of tutorials, helping comunity, including this one https://blender.stackexchange.com/

You can start using it right now...

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Any application (sic) capable of doing 3D Graphics can do this. You should choose an application you know how to use. If you dont know how to use any piece of software then this is generally too broad.

Now if you would ask me to do this I would probably do it in Mathematica, Python (matplotlib), After Effects or Maya if its a one off project. But it really depends on the use case I have and what form the data that i need to animate is in.

But you should probably use Blender if you have no knowledge of the applications I would use.

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  • Thanks for the answer. What I really want to do is that I want to animate the changes of the world borders by time. So I will need to draw the borders on the globe and then fill the inner area of the borders with colors to represent territories, and then make them change by time. I only know how to use illustrator, my friend.
    – Zhetdudf
    Commented Oct 20, 2018 at 7:25
  • @Zhetdudf thing is making the sphere is easy animating the borders is a bit trickyer.
    – joojaa
    Commented Oct 20, 2018 at 7:53
  • Thanks. Is it possible to use Blender to animate borders ?
    – Zhetdudf
    Commented Oct 20, 2018 at 8:29
  • @Zhetdudf sure, but borders are harder to animate than something as diffuse as spread of Christianity. For borders you need to morph and have hard edges for Christianity all you need is a gradient map.
    – joojaa
    Commented Oct 20, 2018 at 8:32
  • It sounds very complicated. I have no idea what to do.
    – Zhetdudf
    Commented Oct 20, 2018 at 9:03

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