i'm sure most of you have seen flight patterns by aaron koblin. i need to do something very similar and was wondering if anyone could offer suggestions on how to begin.

i think i can get my data moving on a map using straight lines, but ultimately i would like to use arced routes, i.e. great circle arcs, and intensity of color to indicate densities, e.g. number of flights overlapping in some area.

for the arcs, i think i can compute the distance, bearing and speed to move my planes along arcs. (formulas come from a website, but since i'm new to the forums i can't link to it on the formulas)

the other problem is a bit harder. since i'm not a graphic designer, i don't know how to do things like modify colors based on how much stuff is in the same area. i've vaguely heard the term alpha in reference to this but i'm not entirely sure what to do.

general strategy is as follows: i have timestamps, origin coords and destination coords. i run the code and at the appropriate timestep create a plane and calculate distance, bearing and speed. each update move the planes to the new x,y, calculate a new bearing. when the plane reaches a destination, destroy it.

does this sound like it will work?

thank you,

-ricardo