Infinite Zoom

June 21st, 2007

I was experimenting tonight with a fast way to create those fun Cosmic Earth Zooms. I even used the 3D fractal to create some of the clouds that get passed by. Although it could be done with still images and render a lot faster and look just as good. In fact, I wasted my time rendering those clouds. What is wrong with me! This project was 720p too!

Oh well, just be careful, if we do this effect too much we could travel back in time like Superman. I’ll probably get a tutorial together soon.

Andrew Kramer

POSTED:

9 years ago

113 Comments

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113 Comments

Adrien

5 years ago

I'm agree with Marcus !

Marcus

6 years ago

I know this is a really old blog post- but the video link is now dead- just thought id throw that out there.

I loved your blog so much I decided to go back to the beginning and read every post so I dont feel so left out!

Ki Toy Johnson Pic

9 years ago

Ki Toy Johnson Pic...

Man i love reading your blog, interesting posts !...

Claudio

9 years ago

Hi Adrew,
I greatly appreciate all of your tutorials. Great job!
With Earth Zoom however I have some problems trying to reproduce it with pictures referring to my area. The point is that I can zoom back until a certain point, but after that the size of he first picture goes negative.... Is there a ratio to follow i.e. the various pictures have to be 50% of the previous one?
I would greatly appreciate some help.
Thanks again for your great tutorials.
Claudio, Italy

Tolga

9 years ago

Hi there...
the effect is awesome I was trying to the something like this. can you please put a tutorial ? Pleaseee :)

Josh

9 years ago

Where can someone download such a high rez satellite photo of a city?

Eliot

9 years ago

THAT IS SOOOO COOL! I reckon if the Earth was rotating ever so slightly at the end and was on the angle of 23.5 degrees, it would be perfect! But that was truly amazing!

Diego

9 years ago

TUTORIAL TUTORIAL TUTORIAL! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hehehehe...

Mohsen

9 years ago

Hi Andrew

Can you PLEASE make a tutorial to exlplains how you did it

Thank you

Dave Hoyes

9 years ago

Hey Andrew, nice effect!

Here's an idea (you may as yet not have considered), why not make a tutorial that exlplains how you did it?

It's so crazy it just might work... =)

Andre

9 years ago

please make a tut!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Andrew 4 Predz

Dave

9 years ago

tut...tut...tut...tut...(everybody) TUT!...TUT!...TUT!...TUT!

We need it!!!

barry barrera

9 years ago

heaven on earth! what else can you wish for! it's all here!!!
haha the best of everything to you master!

barry barrera
jbsynchrovision video
philippines

Good Times

9 years ago

I'm waiting for the tutorial too..!!!!

9 years ago

Moist! truly moist.

MarkHawk

9 years ago

Looks amazing, I'm trying to do something like this for a tank shell using 2 different clips. Can't wait for the tutorial, looks really good.

Brian

9 years ago

Wow! How the hell did you make it look so good? Seriosuly, somebody try and find me a better one! Nice work.

Nick

9 years ago

thats awsome. would love to see a tutorial on that. great work

Drew

9 years ago

Just adding my voice to those who will benefit from this "Infinite Zoom" tutorial. I appreciate you being a mind reader! LOL.

Thanks for your time, Andrew.

esteban

9 years ago

hey!!how are you? no speak english much, but is also, full, etc in spaninsh: ese video esta vacano, deberian hacaer un tutorial de este..
chao

Morten

9 years ago

Some guy up here asked if u was gonna teach 3D Max also. Now, I dont know what you have time for or what u want to do/ don't want to do. But If You could be my (and many others) teacher in 3D max, then my dream would come true! You rock!
Morten.

Josh

9 years ago

tutorial request!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dustin James

9 years ago

@Roni

Hey man... please.. if that is your site.. I beg of you to have it have english as well as French..

Roni

9 years ago

Llo from France! I confirm that this link to the NASA website is really great, I use it for a tutorial. The difficulty is to fine a vertical view of a town, I'm looking forward to this tutorial. And thanks a lot for the Design Sound Fx!

Tim Brosius

9 years ago

This is what I use at work, for hi-res images of the Earth this site has some great pictures. http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_set.php?categoryID=2355
Thank you NASA!
I just started playing around with making this effect and it's actually a really fun effect to make and quite doable. Mine is looking pretty sweet already but of course when the tutorial comes out I will hit myself as I find all the many better ways it could have been done and all the little short cuts.

mark

9 years ago

what blog you refering to when you sat they did, regarding riot gear 2....

Conor Maher

9 years ago

Wow, I made something like this recently and had a few methods of doing it, But yours looks amazing :o

Where did you get the satellite images? I had to get some low res picts on maps.google.com :(

Joe Burdon

9 years ago

Nice Effect! I use your tutorials in projects all the time, and love the way they are free and accessible to young hopeful designers like myself. This would also make a great tutorial! Keep it up!

Steve Hills

9 years ago

actually, after more careful analizing of this sample video, this does indeed seem to be a rather cleverly done effect :D

Cant wait to see what little things you came up with to make this effect look the way it does ;]

Steve Hills

9 years ago

The idea behind the effect is very simple. however, i just know the tutorial is going to be jam packed with little, and clever things that andrew has discovered while toying with this effect and perfecting it. And as usual, we will likely end up walking away from it knowing a little bit more about AE ^^

Keep em coming A.K!

John Paite

9 years ago

here is what I come up with.. I tried doing without the cloud being my transition..works out fine...still not as good as andrew's
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EeaaIx_D3NY

james

9 years ago

Wow, sick effect.

Tutorial requested!!!!!

draken182

9 years ago

Geez! That is really nice! a tutorial would be the greatest thing ever for this effect!!!

9 years ago

Amazing work as usual Andrew. I've been in the business for awhile and seeing your approach always generates new ideas for me. Finally convinced me to go ahead and order some of your DVDs.

Oh, and what the hell.. I'll bandwagon.. Another vote for a tutorial.

Dustin James

9 years ago

Mark they have....

in previous blog entries...

Ivan bagio007 Mijic

9 years ago

great video, can't wait for the tutorial, keep it up Andrew!

DaiMoGui

9 years ago

I think it looks great. The clouds help add to the whole project, even if you think it was a waste of time. Whatever you decide to do for your next tutorial, I am sure it will be excellent.

J - Michigan

Dannyboi

9 years ago

Wow! That's done so much better then some movies I've seen trying to use this same effect! Great job!

mark (RIOT GEAR 2?)

9 years ago

How many of you noticed in the Introduction tutorial (soundfx disc) Andrew has a folder labeled RIOT GEAR 2!!!! If you don't own this disc is is another must have.

Was this a clue? He even says, Oh, whatâ€™s this as he highlights the Riot Gear 2 Folder. Very random but nice way to give a possible clue of what in the works amongst other things... Can't believe no one else has mentioned this on the blog.

RIOT GEAR 2!!!!

Jim W.

9 years ago

Looks great.
I did a zoom in effect using Yahoo maps - their colors are way more consistent than Google's.

I color corrected them all and kept scaling down each one to fit into the next larger, aligning and adding feathered masks as I went.

I added some Trapcode clouds, a couple of Fractal layers for clouds, then an Exponential Scale. A nice touch on the zoom in effect is to take it all and precomp it into a 3D layer and add a camera tilt/orbit at the end.

Here's a great reference for anyone who doesn't know it:
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/

Jim W.

mack

9 years ago

z niecierpliwoÅ›ciÄ… czekam na tutka

Alan

9 years ago

Another vote for the tutorial on this from me.

What I envisage for my own use for this though is to start with soemone on the street. zoom into to a closeup of the face. zoom into the eye. the pupil of the eye becomes/fades into the planet scene. fast zoom in on the planet down to street level to the same person on the same street.

great work. Keep it all up and good luck with decorating that nursery!

Jacob

9 years ago

Wow that was awsome! Looking forword to see a tutorial.

Keep up the good work. Helping me out so much.

Realm Pictures

9 years ago

Hang on...

... the earth is ROUND?

jeez.

John Paite

9 years ago

After seeing this I knew I had to try it, and somehow I had to make an intro trailer for breakdancing crew and though it somehow not related to it at all...I kinda forced it in hahaha its reandering now I will post it up here after I upload it to youtube or something...
Andrew kept giving me ideas and tips directly and indirectly so big thanks to him!!

Mats

9 years ago

good job...what have bin cool had bin that when you hitt the ground or closing inn on the houses you swich over to the example movie were you knock down sam (btw i just love that clip)....aaaaaanyway....good work :)

9 years ago

That's So cool!

Ezequiel

9 years ago

please make a tutorial on this!!!

Haydn GonzÃ¡lez

9 years ago

IT'LL BE DEFINITELY A KICKASS TUTORIAL ... LOVE THIS EFFECT, it's awesome!! MUY BUENO!!!

aaron

9 years ago

can't wait for the tutorial

Joe “The Deacon” Falcione

9 years ago

Hey Andrew.. Lovin it man, all of it. I think every time I see a tutorial of yours, I see several movies out there with them incorporated. Great! I know I use them, constantly.

Would love to see this one because I just did this scene and honestly, mine looks like ummm, KeeeeeRAP! I've already thanked you, but thanks again for the tutorials. Best I've seen...

weekend warrior

9 years ago

That was really cool. I have to be completely honest Andrew. I have learned more from watching your free tutorials on After Effects than from any other source which is why I purchased your Riot Gear DVD and Timelapse clouds DVD. Great stuff, keep it coming!

marco

9 years ago

Wow, talk about throwing us a bone...sorry, but you HAVE to do a tutorial now!

Jamie Yu

9 years ago

Great stuff man. Just the 100th comment saying how much I appreciate your site and all your work!
Jamie

ET Entertainment

9 years ago

I can't wait!

rjf

9 years ago

Andrew,

With all the latest/greatest tutorials that you've released I'm just wondering what you could possibly have in store for us if/when Serious FX 2 comes out. :)

Phil the wannabe movie editor

9 years ago

Yeha i agree with everyone else, that surely needs a tutorial, ive always wanted to do somehting like that

Pac-San

9 years ago

First, I have to tell you that your tutorials by far the greatest! I discovered your site from Creative Cow...thanks to them. Now, i'm going have to ditch all the AE tutorials that i bought for my company. Hehe. I think this "Zoom-out of the Earth" video that you're experimenting will be perfect for my up-coming project. It will be a perfect for the opening/closing seqences. Would be nice if you could post up a tutorial for this. Keep up the good work! I'm in the process of ordering your DVDs including the Sound FX. THNX!!!

Josh Johnson

9 years ago

Man that is awesome would love to see a tut.

John Paite

9 years ago

I watched it again in slomo.. Id say this is pretty much as good as it can get..never occur to me to mask off a little portion on the globe to see thru it while zooming out..now that I know..I shud give it a shot!!
** Also I actually love the portrution(spelling?) of the land on the globe..I think I can achieve that with photoshop using bevel/contour edges...( I dont know how to work any 3D appl :P )

chiconet

9 years ago

Great man, still with great work.
TUtorial would be so helpful..

James Wicks

9 years ago

Hey all,

I downloaded Andrew's Zoom QT file and gave it a tweak in AE 7, and sent it back to him.
Maybe if he thinks the suggestions are good enough, he'll incorporate them into his tutorial - and take it to the next level.

Here's hoping!
Best,
James Wicks
Executive Producer
www.wicksfilms.com
West Palm Beach, FL

ET Entertainment

9 years ago

Oh my god, that is so crazy. I can't wait for the tutorial!
Check out my site: http://www.et-films.net
I'm turning 16 in a few days and I can't wait until I
get my iMac!!!!!!!!

Helge

9 years ago

It looks awesome and im hoping for a toturail. It would also be nice to have the camera move to the right or left a little, maybe rotate around the earth!

Bones

9 years ago

Hey Andrew when are you going to display customer reels on Video Copillot??? I'm finishing up a bunch of effects and trailer type stuff that I want to submit. Have u been getting many submissions?

Bones

IliÃ¨s S.

9 years ago

//quote Brad
Looks pretty nice, guess Iâ€™ll jump on the band wagon and say, â€œCanâ€™t wait for the tutorial!â€ but I also must say â€œwhat happened to Andrew Kramer â€˜taking it to the next levelâ€™?â€
//

I'm pretty sure the "next level" will come with the tutorial ;)

IliÃ¨s, cg student
Belgium

Brad

9 years ago

Looks pretty nice, guess I'll jump on the band wagon and say, "Can't wait for the tutorial!" but I also must say "what happened to Andrew Kramer 'taking it to the next level'?"

No planet rotation, and a big fat glare on the earth, as if it were a snow globe.

Loved the star field, here's a good tutorial for making the globe without making it 3D and it rotates, with moving clouds...

http://www.xtreme-is-back.com/tutorials_speffects.html

Marc.B

9 years ago

Looks awesome :o) Do you plan to teach us 3D max too ? :D
Looking forward to see a tutorial of this effect.

Cheers,

Marc
Paris, France

Andrew Kramer

9 years ago

James Wicks just sent me a cool version of this effect. Perhaps he may share it here...

Anson

9 years ago

holy gees...
that's awesome!

tendest

9 years ago

wow,what a great Earth Zooms effect!
thx for ur tutorials. :)

Andrew Kramer

9 years ago

This location is pretty close to where I am, just a few towns over. The earth was actually pretty easy. Although I did it in 3D max. I'm thinking it can be done in AE too. We'll see. I have something planned for this weeks tutorial but I'll try to do it next.

Thanks for the post Bones, and yes my daughter is going to be an AE wiz, if she wants to ; )

Cheers,
Andrew

IliÃ¨s S.

9 years ago

The earth at the end looks great, especially with the blue halo.

IliÃ¨s, cg student
Belgium

Michel

9 years ago

I checked out your shipping address on Google Map and it seems to point the same region as the satelitte view from your video.

So are we looking down on Andrew Kramer's den in this video?

Really like the video. Thank you

Michel

Putemonsteret

9 years ago

guess the only thing to say is: TUTORIAL ME NOW!!!

Gonads

9 years ago

Ooooo do write a tutorial on it. I think I may know how but I would like to see your method as well.

Dan aka Gonads, 16
United Kingdom

Fish

9 years ago

Andrew, give it up man...quit your day job and just record tutorials for the people...we deserve it...don't we?

Keep on rockin!

Nono

9 years ago

It's wonderful ! Where did you find this 3D-Earth ???

Mark Jacobs

9 years ago

...You said you removed that camera .... you are sooo busted, total violation of the restraining order.

Sandy

9 years ago

Oh Andrew, ur just Superb!!!!

I'm speechless this time.

Thanx 4 everything.

Warm Regards
Sandy

Noah

9 years ago

That was really cool! How did you do the planet? It looks similar to an exploding planet in a tutorial by Aaron Rabinowitz. Except it was a tutorial on time remaping, and he didn't show how to make it. Oh, by the way, a little bit of wiggle on the rotation of the camera as it "flys" up would be freakin' awesome! I look forward to the tutorial. Keep up the work

Clinton Jones

9 years ago

DUDE THAT WAS CRAZY!!! Tutorial for SURE man. This can come in HANDY baby. Its like resident evil 3 trailer style. Please make a tut man.

Clinton Jones

Sergei

9 years ago

Nice Job Andrew!
Is this the place where you live?
Sergei

Joey

9 years ago

.......ANDREW, YOU GET A MEDAL!!! Wow that was awesome and that would make a great video tutorial. Oh and Congrats on all most being a father!!! You should have the baby on you lap while you record a tutorial so that him/her can give input yo improve your After Effects skills!

Ferdi

9 years ago

To cover up the seems I just used a circular mask with a huge feather. At high velocity you don't even notice it's feathered.

Ali

9 years ago

Cool!

Is that the effect CC Radial Blur?

Tobias

9 years ago

Isn't it just a box viewed from the inside textured with a world map. ALigned properly and then just pulled a camera backwards? Adding the clouds is to hide the joints. you can see it isn't completely seamless :)

Alexander Jansen

9 years ago

Great job =)

Bones

9 years ago

Andrew I gave your designer SFX a nice little plug on my blog. check it out.

Bones

Andrew Kramer

9 years ago

Cool tutorial link. I'm sure the final result will be polished by the time it hits the streets. Getting the images together took the most time.

Google.... What is this? They have maps? Internet? Computers? Where am I?

Martin Willemse

9 years ago

That's so great! How did you manage to do this? Looking forward to see more of this!
Regards,
Martin

Dave

9 years ago

This looks very nice. Would love a tutorial. Btw, congratulations on Video Copilot, love the site and all the tuts.

LinKin

9 years ago

hi,
For that effect i had seen this tutorial : http://www.blog.nx6design.inf o/index.php/2006/10/30/37-tuto-video-after-effects-n3-clip-funky

Sorry it is in french but it look pretty good :D

Enjoy

Craig Woolhouse

9 years ago

Holy crap... I really wanna know how you blended all these scenes together so smoothly, I'm guessing it has mutiply images for the zoom. Please get this tutorial up next... I just can't wait!

Peace in the middle east,
Craig

Masta

9 years ago

Man, I love this, I am another one who asks for tutorial for this....

Morten Christensen

9 years ago

[quote]Awesome effect waiting for a tutorial aswell
p.s i used it once in a project and had to record google earth[/quote]

heheheh same here :D

make tutorial andrew (L)

Minl

9 years ago

looking good. i'll be waiting for the tutorial

Dan

9 years ago

Awesome effect waiting for a tutorial aswell
p.s i used it once in a project and had to record google earth :-)

Patrik TG

9 years ago

Well I can agree with you that the 3D fractal was a waste of time on this kind of project. I am really looking forward to see this tutorial, I've seen some people just record google earth to get this effect.

But please do it without the 3d fractals in the tutorial :P

John Paite

9 years ago

@Will welcome to the world of Wordpress..u'll get used to it haha!!
Anyways, this effect is like the one that I wanna learn most after seeing Pierre's work in trapcode.com.. Tutorial would be awesome Andrew, AWESOME! hope u make it quick I just cant wait!!

Fetch

9 years ago

Great look! Realized that a while ago with Cinema 4d but it didnÂ´t work out very well!
Nice work!

Grischa

Will

9 years ago

Nice effect ! maybe it can be possible to start from a window or someone looking up. Just a suggestion, maybe those links "Watch Video" in this section may open a new window to play ... (i always close window after view and ... )

Thx

Will
Bordeaux, France

Lucky65

9 years ago

Yeah, a tutorial will be great!

Raheel

9 years ago

Hey, thanks for this - I'm looking forward to the tutorial :)

dale

9 years ago

wow that is amazing. one day i mite be good enough to make something nearly that good.

James

9 years ago

Looks awesome! I need to do some of these for a project I am working on. This would be a GREAT tutorial! The clouds look cool, but you're right stills would be much easier.

levitan

9 years ago

it looks really good.. but i think it can be done mch better.. i mean at a point the surrounding wuz too much of green it looked gasy.. i mean before the clouds came, but its a really nice job.
um trying out this technique and its really working..thnx fr sharin.

and also um.. could you giv a lil advice on sth.. um making vfx for a storm scene.. a huge tornado comes with rain.. we can only see the tornad when there is a ligjtning..

anyways thnx

Ferdi

9 years ago

Very nice. I happened to do one a couple of weeks ago with a satellite cloud map, which also looked very good. I ripped the images from google earth and overlayed them on top of each other.

Is this what you did too?

wayne

9 years ago

great!hope for the tutorial!

Sonny

9 years ago

Yes, a tutorial on this would be great!

Jeffrey

9 years ago

Damn, that looks very nice. I'm hoping for a tutorial!

michi

9 years ago

congratulations, looks great! a tutorial would be awesome!

gary

9 years ago

seriously that was awesome, you have to put a tutorial together. I've been wanting to know how to do that effect since for ever.
I try to view it in slow mo and i still dont get it.

keep up the great work

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