Anybody using Google Earth?

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Any one using google earth in their documentary? What are the alternatives? I am trying to show a map and then quickly zoom into the the ground level and am struggling there. Suggestions would be welcome.

[Mike Sims]

In the past I used NASA’s open source program World Wind with the Movie Recorder plug-in to make this kind of animation. They removed Movie Recorder in version 1.4 (a 1.4 compatible Movie Recorder was briefly available) and subsequent versions of WW are Java-only. You can still download the full install of version 1.3.4 which includes Movie Recorder. The only way to use the Java versions that I have figured out (admittedly I haven’t spent much time on it!) is to make a Java applet that plays in a browser window and then use third party software to capture the screen. Movie Recorder simply outputs each frame as a sequentially numbered bitmap. As I recall, I found it quite easy to use.

I just used After Effects to make the animation at 02:50 in this video from UWOL Challenge 23. I zoomed out but you can zoom in. Here is a tutorial from VideoCopilot.

[Paul Wood]

I have used Google Earth Pro a few times, since they made it free. It has a movie recorder, although I find it a bit flaky to use, and it also records in image sequences - and example is here in this video :http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/uwol-cha...uwol-36-a.html

I guess it very much depends on the satellite imagery of the location you want to record - some is quite out of date.
Give it a try and practice a few times - I have a good fly down in a current project, which I enhanced in Motion by adding cloud layers, to improve the overall look.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Paul,
Unfortunately Google Earth says that we have to take permission from them and we have to mention That kills it. So won't be able to Google Earth Pro. :(

Mike,
I will have to check with someone who understands Java etc.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Rainer Listing]

Sabyasachi, does it really matter if you keep the Google attributes? Mostly, your audience doesn't care and it doesn't affect your message. The main compromise is you can't get rid of the place label. I'm just in the process of running a doc workshop, here's the handout extract how to do a smooth zoom from Google Earth, no fuss, no need to create an image sequence:

"You might want to give your audience an overview of where your documentary situation is located. You don't have to go there to do that. You can zoom in from outer space to anywhere on Earth using the now free Google Earth Pro (Google Earth). Here's some basic instructions.

1. Download and install Google Earth Pro from the link above.
2. Enter your Email and the password "GEFREE" to activate the program.
3. Enter the location you want in the search box. Do not press "Search"
4. Go to the "Add" menu item, select "Tour". A little box with a red button appears at lower left.
5. Click the red button.
6. Go to the search box and click "search". It zooms to the location.
7. When the tour stops, click the little disk icon in the box, name your tour and save it. Click "x" to close the box.
8. Go to the "Tools" menu item and choose "Movie Maker".
9. In the box that opens up select the highest quality compression format,
10. Select "A saved Tour" and your tour..
11. Set the Resolution to "1920X1080 (HD)"
12. Set your FPS (frames per second) to whatever you like. Remember you might want to have some flexibility in your edit and if you set it to say 50 you can slow down the zoom to half speed with out loss of resolution.
13. Click the "Browse" button and select or create where you want your video saved.
14. Click "Create Movie"."

See an example on the blog at Falls Creek Project