Geospatial and visualization specialist Craig Taylor uses 3D visualization to unpack transit data
Data visualization provides opportunities for data to be transformed into new and exciting ways that help the public digest rather dense information. Implemented in a variety of industries, cinematic visualizations provides a new opportunity to communicate information around the world. ITO World Data Visualization Design Manager Craig Taylor uses his expertise in 3D geospatial analysis, informatics, and geography to create new modes of communicating data, specifically transit data.
Taylor’s work and research analysis has allowed him to explore new ways to visualize 3D data. Through the use of programs like Blender, Houdini, QGIS, Arc Map, and Cinema4D. A project that provided Taylor with much praise and recognition is, Coral Cities. Using transport data within 40 cities, Taylor used his spatial analytic expertise to create “coral formations” to help translate travel times. According to Taylor in a statement, “Each strand shows the arteries of a city, representing a possible route from the centre.”
“Coral Cities” showcases how far one can travel by car 30 minutes from the center of major cities across the globe. With it’s growth and progress starting from the inside out, the visual depiction of city infrastructures resembles the form of growing coral. Taylor explains that the colors do not have a technical purpose they do add a visually captivating visual aesthetic. Besides its supplementary purpose, when the maps are looked side by side the colors magnificently display the complex diversity of each city. As detailed as these visuals are, however, the maps only depict commute distances, not commute times or road congestion.
