Lab 2: VCR Style NFL Playoffs Map 2014-15

Well, here's my first attempt at animating a map with Adobe Flash. The task was to take the four weekends that made up the NFL Playoffs, 2014-15 and create an interactive, animated map with VCR style buttons. We were given two different maps of US as a starting point. This was extremely helpful as it meant we didn't have to start with a completely empty page. The process included downloading NFL logos from different websites and cleaning them up in Photoshop. After setting up the four pages we had to create forward and backwards buttons. The two trickiest steps were to code the "action" of the buttons and the uploading to a host site so we could then embed the URL into our blog. Overall, a fun and challenging assignment.

Weekly Map 2: Sea Levels Rising

I searched the internet for a while looking for maps with simple animations, and with buttons. I didn't find many, it could be that I didn't look in the right places. I did find this animation of what would happen if the sea water levels were to rise in the world. The section on the USGS website has different animations for this same scenario but different scales and locations. I think this is an interesting animation not only because it's relevant, as we hear so much about "global warming" but also because it's pretty simple but effective in conveying its message. 

 

Link: http://cegis.usgs.gov/sea_level_rise.html

Weekly Map 1a: Slider Bar

This is a good example of this type of before-and-after map. It doesn't show linework or a legend but it does have a slider bar that lets you reveal one photo over the other. Very cool.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/Interactives/Sandy_before-after_images.htm

Lab 1: Photoshopping Sumatra Pictures

We were given two pictures of Banda Aceh, Sumatra. One was dated June 23 2004 and the other December 28 2004. Our task was to align both pictures in Photoshop and label appropriately so as convey or highlight the differences between them. The picture from December 2004 shows the devastation created by a tsunami that hit this area December 26 2004. The tsunami was the result of an earthquake of magnitude 9.1-9.3 that struck the Indian Ocean just off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.  The creation of these two maps started by aligning the December picture to the June picture in Photoshop. Linework and text were then added on different layers. The final pictures were then cropped and reduced in size.

Banda Aceh, Island of Sumatra (Indonesia) - 06.23.2004

Banda Aceh, Island of Sumatra (Indonesia) - 12.28.2004