Deutschland von Oben

Ship movements in and out of the Rhine, all based on GPS data, for GERMANY FROM ABOVE - the equivalent of the BBC's successful Britain from Above series.

Germany from Above has recently broadcast on German public television to fantastic reviews and audience figures. The series features stunning aerial photography combined with revealing data based animations of subjects as varied as autobahn tolls, aircraft movements, animal migration and electricity networks.

Production company Colourfield based in Dortmund approached 422 South because of their unique experience in data based animation and satellite imagery which won several awards for Britain from Above.

The 422 team used digital orthographic aerial photographs and satellite imagery to create composite views of German cites, coasts rivers and countryside. These images aligned and combined with millions of points of data - sometimes representing transmitted GPS co-ordinates of moving objects such as animals or vehicles, but sometimes derived from other sources such as autobahn tolls, gas network connections, or the location of archaeological sites.

Over 100 animations were produced in total for the three one hour films, revealing aspects of how modern Germans live today and how the landscape has changed through history.

The series aired in May and June 2010

author: adc
2010-06-08