This week we are discussing shape tweening -- animations that morph the shape of a symbol to convey the data change through time. With shape tweening, it is possible to do motion tweening at the same time (moving the symbol across the stage while it is changing shape/color). Shape tweening is very engaging when done well (but it takes time to get it to work smoothly). Here are some examples to dissect: Maps of War (we looked at these before but they are really good examples of morphing animations)
March of Democracy (not as good...rather flashy...but interesting from a design and interface standpoint)
American History (warning: it has narration)
A cartogram generator that uses nice shape tweens.
Videos by Pedro Miguel Cruz (in particular: Visualizing Empires Decline).
For Lab 4, we will be using masks to keep our expanding shape visually bound to the land (not overflowing into the sea). Here is a video touching on the basics of using a mask (skip the first part and start 4:15 into the video)
This is not an animation, but you might find it interesting and/or amusing (as amusing as Geographers tend to get).
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