MARVEL: The Characters of the Cinematic Universe (Jump Plot Alternative)

Data visualization of Character appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Data was collected via Wikipedia and Tableau was used to create the visualization.

For optimal experience with Visualization, view on Desktop.

Note* This could be more effectively shown by using a Highlight Chart with Films on Columns, Characters on Rows and a Two Tone Pallet to Show movies Characters were in vs not in*
Uses a modified version of "Jump Plot" by Chris DeMartini (This viz is more of an Arc Chart, but follows a similar pattern). Datasource was partitioned to show Film Number and the "Next Film" by character. This was done so the Arc calculations could be done on a single Row. This is similar to an Entrance and Exit Node. They Key here is to Have the Current "Node/Event" and the Next "Node/Event" on the same row, and a Field that has the difference between them, this allows us elongate the Arc Horizontally to "skip" nodes/events if needed. *NOTE: In order for this method to work like a Jump Plot, it is necessary to create a Field that defines the Y Axis, or the Height of the Arc. This could be something like Day/Hours/Etc between events. If a Movie was a characters "Last Film", then the I mark the "Next Film" as the Current. This ensures the Last point does not generate an arc. See Data below as example.

I then created the X/Y coordinates of a Half Circle from 0-1 in a 30 Row Excel sheet. That is then Cross Joined to the Master Data on a fake Column called Joined (All with values of 1). This gives me Concentric Half circles for every record (This multiplies a Dataset by a product of 30).

After this point, I create 2 calculated fields in Tableau for the new X/Y Coordinates. Sample below

[JumpX]

([X]*[Arc Diff]) +[Film Number]

I multiply my X by the [Arc Difference] or the Difference. This is the difference between the Entrance and Exit Nodes, or the Difference between the Current, and Next Points. This elongates the Arc Horizontally to cover the Gap between Nodes. I then add the Current Point, or Entrance Node to that X to "Move" the Arc horizontally to the correct node.

[JumpY]

[Y]*[Arc Diff]

Simply elongates the Arc Vertically for look and appeal of the difference between nodes. *Note* in a normal Jump Plot the Arc Height is usually defined by another factor, such as Days/Hours/Etc between events. You would then multiply [Y] by that field.

After this point, I simply Float another sheet that displays the "Nodes" or "Events" to the bottom to give context to the Arc.

The "Color on Highlight" feature uses the same technique I described here 

For more details, contact me!