Tuesday, February 04, 2020

vanderTrick: Create a rotating globe image


Working on a series of plate tectonics vignettes, I went looking for a quick and easy way to create a rotational globe from an existing flat map.
An easy way is with the free software Gimp, at https://www.gimp.org/.  It automates all the steps and offers multiple editing and visualization options after only minimal setup (see step 1).

Step 1: Square the image, otherwise you get an oval "globe".


Step 2: Edit image (like colors) as desired.
Step 3: Filters > Animation > Spinning Globe ...
Step 4: Select number of frames (more is slower, smoother rotation)
Step 5: Export as GIF (as animation loop)
Voila ...


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