How to zoom in from outer space to an object on earth?

[TheCaptn]

As a newbie, I'd say do it in stages.
Start with an animation zooming in on the earth until it gets near the atmosphere... Render that out.
Create another animation with the starting point where your last one ended, have some volume fog or something for clouds, and zoom though them onto a higher detail map... Render that out.
Zoom in on your city map to a particular area... Render out.
Etc.

You get the idea though... Every time you increase the level of detail in a smaller area you want to be able to discard all the stuff you've left behind so your scenes don't get too clogged up.
Once you've got all your short renders you can splice them together in one of the many editing suites. You can even drop or blend a few frames if you have to, to smooth the transition.
The trick is in getting your overall timing right... That requires a little maths.

Anyway, that's how I'd approach it... It's still pretty complicated though, so hopefully one of the more experienced people here has an easier way.

[jadedchron]

yeah like he said stages.. as it's pretty simple if you do it in stages then do the post work in after effects

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