Animated SketchUp model of the London Eye observation wheel for Google Earth.  Using GE’s time animation feature to make the wheel rotate.

At 135m high this was for several years the largest wheel in the world.  (The Star of Nanking ,China holds the current record at 150m.)  One of the more distinctive features of the London Eye is that the support structure is attached to the ground on just one side, with the entire wheel suspended over the River Thames.

In real life, one revolution takes half an hour, meaning it turns slowly enough that it doesn’t need to stop to allow passengers on and off.   In this animation, at Google Earth’s slowest setting, the wheel revolves at about twice that speed.

London Eye Animation
380kB

To view the animation:

• After the file loads look for the time slider control at the top of the screen
• Access the time control options via the white clock face to the left of this
• Set the repeat mode to ‘wrap’
• Ensure that ‘clamp beginning of time window’ is off
• Click OK
• Hit the play button (the triangular right arrow)
• If need be, the speed can be varied via the time control options
• GE takes a little while to load in all the separate parts of the animation, resulting in flickering for a few cycles

The scene in Google Earth looked a little messy with the 3d model plonked on top of the massive aerial image of the London Eye,  so I’ve used a Photoshopped image overlay (included in the file) to clean this up.  This can be toggled off.

Below is a flythrough video of this animation, using the Space Navigator, put together by Frank Taylor at www.gearthblog.com

Related:
- Vienna Ferris Wheel Animation
- Ferris Wheel Construction Animation
- Spirograph Wheel Animation