Hey, for a 3D earth, you could download Fx Factory
http://www.noiseindustries.com/fxfactory/
Then, enable industrial revolutions freebie one pack (F1). You'll get for free, CoverFlux, World (the 3d world generator), opposites, and rack focus.
Try out the 3D world generator. You can change a bunch of it's features. You can even change cloud cover and things like that.
Another thing you could do is to get a map and apply the sphere distortion effect to it and animate the map.
~AJ