Lab 6.2

I was determined not to let those problems beat me from the previous Lab 6. The little things ended up turning out great. The only part that I still had problems with was the shape tweening but I was able to patch it up a little but to make it look a little better so that the mistakes aren't so noticeable. Anyways, I am excited that I got it finished and looking much better than before. Enjoy!

Lab 6!

So Lab 6, the updated version of Lab 5, is complete. I fell in love with making this map until I created the different shapes for the beginning, middle, and then end of the map and then when I created a shape tween for the different shapes, it really screwed up. So in the middle of the video, corners of the morphing territory get twisted around and it looks a little bad. But at least it worked out in the end and it showed the gained territory. The only problem, I believe, with this video is the shape tween in the middle of the video; the basemap and the moving tanks seemed to work out really well for the most part. I had to bunch up a few tank groups and then have them split up so there would be some space to save. It was a little frustrating but for trying the shape tweening for the first time, it wasn't a bad ending. I hope to get it right the next time I have to use shape tween.

Lab5

FINALLY!!! It tool me forever just to get this up. First off, I tried to make the map pretty in illustrator before using it in flash, but for some reason I could not export the file for the life of me into a flash file. Needless to say, I just started over and had fun with it.

Map is only 1/2 complete!!!!!!!! Much more to come with Lab 6: such as getting it to not start playing right away when the screen comes up!

Anyways, enjoy!!

So I decided that since I haven't posted any maps in a while on our topics in class, I might as well go ahead and post for this week and the upcoming week.

Maps that Mooooooooove!

So I couldn't find very many interesting maps where objects move. I am sure there are a ton of them out there, but they were not very google friendly. But here is one map on the oubreak of WWI.

http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/maps_outbreak.html

Maps that MORPH!
I found a interesting static map that is based on the idea of morphing the different countries based on their percentage of data in the world.
http://www.pazzobooks.com/blog.htm/?p=466

For my last examples, I think that some of the best maps out there that run smoothly when it comes to maps that morph are the mapsofwar maps.
http://mapsofwar.com/ind/american-wars.html

Enjoy!

Here is my new Lab 4!!

I had only one minor problem the entire time. I enjoyed making this map a lot because I feel like these types of maps can have a little more options as far as design and making it look good. Believe it or not, the presidetial seal in the corner took the most time for me. I also fiddled around with the background of my homepage through dreamweaver. Fun stuff!!! Enjoy!

Lab 3!

Putting a little more interactive features in the Road to the Superbowl map was't that hard at all. The only thing that seems to not be working that well is the sound with the buttons. I dont know what is going on with it, but the sound wont play all of the time. The sound script is definately in each button, but it wont make the sound. I find that the sound sometimes works when I have my headphones in my laptop but that is it. Also, I created a play button but I couldnt figure out the right script to use so taht if you just wanted to watch it play all the way through, it would. I guess that is for a later Lab to figure out. Anways, here it is!

When it comes to using flash as a tool for cartography, I think of it as a tool for making maps specially with an interactive interface. Because unlike a static map, these maps can provide loads of information that flows into a nice presentation. They can be as simple as a time-line of events, within the time-line itself the user can click or go to wherever they want in time. It could be a simple scroll over a region, country or state in order for a pop-up box to display that entities data; even further it can direct us to another part of the video/presentation that shows us a whole new sets of data.

In all, a interactive map is a map that is very user friendly. It is something that lets the user go where they want to with the map in order to see trends and patterns. A few examples I have pulled from the internet will display what the capabilities are of interactive maps.

Footiemap
Footiemap is a very simple and different kind of interactive map from my perspective. This map first starts you off with the 6 continents and the different Futbol leagues in each of them. The purpose of this map is to help direct viewers to the different soccer teams websites from around the world. So when you click on a country it then takes you to a Googles maps page with the locatoin and names of the soccer teams and when you click on them you then are directed to their homepage. It is a simple map interface and that is all that it is, nothing fancy.

Population of Chinese Regions 2008
This is yet another simple interactive interface map and it is exactly what I think about when thinking of interactive maps, although it is very simple. When scrolling over the different regions of China the data in the box above the arrow changes. It is also a choropleth map that shows the density of the population by region, although there is no legend to define what each color means.

Regional U.S. Migration 2007
This is a very good example presenting the data in different types of interfaces. The first interface is a simple affective way of showing where the top places of destinations are for citizens that move to and from other states. When scrolling over the region, arrows pop up showing where the largest percent of people move to. You can also change the time frame of the data. In the second interface it is very effective for a few reasons:
1. Choropleth map that describes the states net Gain or Loss of population due to migration
2. When scrolling over a state, it connects the other two parts of the map together: The data portion of the map that displays the State's population and other important migration data; and it connects to the bar graph at the bottom of the page that shows the highest net Gain migration versus the net Loss migration. In my opinion this is an amazing interactive map.

MSNBC: Made In the USA
This is a very complete map in terms of user interface. The amount of information you can gather from this map is over the top and it is something I hope to be able to do in the near future. A time-line interface, choropleth map with scroll over features, different data sets, and there is even an audio feature to go a long with some of the historical pop-ups. This is what I think of when it comes to the complete interactive map.

So there you have it, some examples of simple maps to the very integrative user friendly maps that you could study for hours on in.