In recent years, new opportunities to visualize our environment in three or four dimensions have been created, including animations over time or moving through space. Advances are the increasing interest to the landscape and environmental professions. With the help of such visualizations, also landscape changes can be visualized with different techniques and in various forms. But are users able to extract relevant information about landscape changes from an animation that is projected on top of a 3D model?
In order to get insights into how landscape changes can be attractively visualized in such an environment, this thesis proposes a detailed concept of how landscape changes can be transferred and communicated in a 3D environment using the storytelling approach. Furthermore, this thesis presents a framework how the landscape change can be retrieved out of textual descriptions about landscape changes.
A prototype consisting of a 3D wooden model and 10 buildings with transparent PLA material has been developed. A projected lightshow overlaying the 3D model and the buildings for the City of Pristina was implemented. The key element of the integrated user interface is a timeline. The types of elements used within the projection are cadastral maps, orthophotos, text, graphics, and background sound.
Finally, a user test was conducted among users with different professional backgrounds and different prior knowledge. Users were asked for their experience regarding working with visualization methods to show the landscape changes and the first impression of the model itself and its features.
In general, users stated that the model looked accurate, informative, and attractive to them. Nearly all users really liked the preparation of the 3D wooden base model and the buildings, and how the landscape change was narrated. The tracking of the changes between the years, the combination of the orthophoto and the audio, the combination, and synchronization of the text part with the effects were considered excellent. Also, during the interviews, the users mentioned that the incorporation of the light source coming from the projector was exciting. However, users of the older age group had problems transmitting both elements: audio text and presentation changes.
The methodology and techniques applied in this thesis are developed to visualize urban changes as in the case of the City of Pristina and can be applied to cities with similar landscape changes. In general, every landscape change has to be narrated differently, but it is possible to visualize a landscape change in a 3D environment using the storytelling approach.
«
In recent years, new opportunities to visualize our environment in three or four dimensions have been created, including animations over time or moving through space. Advances are the increasing interest to the landscape and environmental professions. With the help of such visualizations, also landscape changes can be visualized with different techniques and in various forms. But are users able to extract relevant information about landscape changes from an animation that is projected on top of...
»