Full CG visual of Virtual Earth with a focus on the Japanese archipelago and a perspective that extends to the Eurasian and North American continents.

Generated by extracting only the land from satellite image, adjusting the contrast, mapping on sphere by the CG, setting the texture of the the sphere & the ambient occlusion, and rendering it.

The data was adjusted and rendered at each step of the process so that the undulations at the boundary of the land rising from the sea surface of rock reefs and shallows could be seen.