As a graphic designer for a scientific/research facility (the Marine Science Institute (MSI) at UC Santa Barbara) I create a lot of graphics for books, interactive media, etc.  in the science field (among many other print/web/video projects of different fields). My favorite… Google Oceans.

Last summer, MSI’s Science of Marine Reserves (SMR) research team at PISCO, the Partnerhip for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans, began an animation project for Google Oceans that would visualize what happens to fish and sea life population when marine reserves are established throughout the globe. It’s nice to know Google Earth is increasingly becoming an educational tool in today’s world -  it’s not just for pretending like you’re flying from the Eiffel Tower to Mt. Everest anymore (but Google sure had a way of luring people in, didn’t they?).

MARINE PROTECTED AREAS

Google Oceans just launched this morning so you can see the art I worked on for one of the many new ocean apps in there.

1. Once you download the new version of Google Earth, turn on the Oceans layer, and click on the arrow next to it to reveal the various new projects.

2. Double-click Marine Protected Areas. You’ll be directed to one of the many marine reserves, signified by the blue and white globe icons.

3. You can click on each globe and a pop-up window inside Google Oceans will appear. Inside that window is a Science tab that holds the Flash animations which visualize data collected by the SMR team.

Screenshot example of a sponge reef off of Dry Tortugas, FL. after the site has been protected.

Screenshot of a highlighted fish species (one of my favorites.. that mysteroperca bonaci) that you can click on to get more information about it.

So far, only a handful of what are about 150 marine reserves have animations ready in the Science tab, but we’re hoping to get most, if not all, done over time.

In terms of art, making these scenes was a good challenge. I created each reef (coral, temperate, and sponge) by referencing photos, digitally painting with various brushes, cloning textures, and manipulating light. As for the sea life, I had to carefully get each species down in vector format. Although cute and tiny in the animations, each one is a complex system of carefully traced fin rays, spots, and tedious five color gradients that had to be fit in a tiny tiny file size in the end.

So, with that said, check out the animations and see how things change when sea life is protected. It’s nice to know that my art is part of something so big. There are also many other projects in Google Earth and Oceans to explore… just turn them on and you see what you run into.