1. An interactive, electronic method of authoring annotated traversals through visual data, the method comprising: displaying the visual data, wherein the visual data comprises motion video; interactively defining a traversal of the displayed visual data by positioning a resizable overlay window relative to the displayed visual data, wherein said resizable overlay window is resizable while the visual data is being displayed, said traversal comprising a subset of motion video that specifies a time-based sequence of frames of said motion video, each of said frames comprising the visual data delineated by the overlay window, wherein the displaying said visual data comprises displaying the visual data in a cylindrical layout, and wherein said positioning of the overlay window is defined by a field of view of a virtual camera located centrally to said cylindrical layout; annotating the traversal; storing a persistent record of the annotated traversal; and using an integrated graphical user interface to perform said method, and wherein said graphical user interface comprises a plurality of computer display regions including: an overview region displaying the visual data; a detail region displaying current data within the overlay window; and a worksheet region displaying a list of a plurality of stored annotated traversal records.