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Mar 19
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ESRI CityEngine – Creating Cities inside Logos and Logos inside Cities

By CASA UCL, CityEngine, ESRI, Featured Game Engine, Lumion, Procedural Cities, The Bartlett No Comments

The best way to learn new modelling software is to step away from complex data and take a side look at its capabilities. We have used this approach to run through the various features of CityEngine, producing a series of movies based around the logo of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, here at University College London.
First up we integrated the CASA logo into the cityscape by manually tracing the logo and building a network around it. Via an import into iMovie the result is a playful fly around the logo:

Taking the concept further we built the city around the logo, using the nodes and hubs as interconnected cityscapes. With the city base rising out the sea it presents a different feel to the original movie:

Finally, we used an alpha channel on the logo, allowing us to lower the outline onto the cityscape:

The combination of Adobe Illustrator, ESRI CityEngine, AutoDesk 3DMax and finally Lumion make for a rapid way to create unique cityscapes. The next steps are to integrate actual data…..

Mar 16
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WikiGIS Basic Concepts: Web 2.0 for Geospatial Collaboration

By Future Internet, Geospatial, GIS, Journal, wikigis No Comments

We are pleased to announce the latest FutureInternet Journal paper as part of the special issue on NeoGeography and WikiPlanning:

WikiGIS Basic Concepts: Web 2.0 for Geospatial Collaboration

1 Centre for Research in Geomatic, Pavillon Casault, Université Laval, Québec, QC G1V0A6, Canada2 Fujitsu Canada, 2000, boulevard Lebourgneuf, bureau 300, Québec, QC G2K0B8, Canada3 Interdisciplinary Centre for the Development of Ocean Mapping–CIDCO, 310 allée des Ursulines, Rimouski, QC G5L3A1, Canada

With the emergence of Web 2.0, new applications arise and evolve into more interactive forms of collective intelligence. These applications offer to both professionals and citizens an open and expanded access to geographic information. In this paper, we develop the conceptual foundations of a new technology solution called WikiGIS. WikiGIS’s strength lies
in its ability to ensure the traceability of changes in spatial-temporal geographic components (geometric location and shape, graphics: iconography and descriptive) generated by users. The final use case highlights to what extent WikiGIS could be a relevant and useful technological innovation in Geocollaboration.


As an open access journal you can download the full paper direct from Future Internet.

Mar 13
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Burning a Logo into a City…

By city logos, CityEngine, Lumion 4 Comments

This is very much a work in progress post, but we are interested in integrating text/patterns/logos into 3D models of the city. At the moment we are putting a work flow in place to take our CASA logo and burn it into the street patten of a procedural city.

Using the CityEngine, combined with vector files and Lumion/3DMax some interesting results can be obtained, especially if you also build in some physics/particle engine and agent based model capability.

We will have more on this in the coming days….

Update 14th March 2012 – Below is the first second draft movie:


Next stages are to build the city over time, we should have a work flow in place soon…

Mar 10
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Time-lapse footage of the Earth as seen from the ISS

By Posts No Comments

In the words of NASA –  Many wonders are visible when flying over the Earth at night. A compilation of such visual spectacles was captured recently from the International Space Station (ISS) and set to rousing music. Passing below are white clouds, orange city lights, lightning flashes in thunderstorms, and dark blue seas.

On the horizon is the golden haze of Earth’s thin atmosphere, frequently decorated by dancing auroras as the video progresses. The green parts of auroras typically remain below the space station, but the station flies right through the red and purple auroral peaks. Solar panels of the ISS are seen around the frame edges. The ominous wave of approaching brightness at the end of each sequence is just the dawn of the sunlit half of Earth, a dawn that occurs every 90 minutes.

Images: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/Music: ‘Freedom Fighters’ by Two Steps from Hell Inspiration: http://youtu.be/74mhQyuyELQ Editor: David Peterson

 Sequences: 1. North-to-south down the western coast of North and South America.
2. North-to-south over Florida, the Bahamas and other Caribbean islands. 
3. South-East Asia, approaching the Philippine Sea.
 4. Western Europe, from France through Italy, Greece, Turkey and the Middle East.
 5. Aurora Australis, over the Indian Ocean, approaching Australia.
 6. Aurora Australis, over the Indian Ocean.
 7. Aurora Australis, unknown location in the Southern Hemisphere.
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