Movie Making with Google Earth (GE)?

[solarblast]

I believe GE has a facility for making movies. Has anyone tried it out, and built some sort of simple tutorial or introduction to it? Does it require an advanced version of GE for $? I would think there would be some way to eliminate the extraneous zoom and motion control icons on the view from the movie.

I can see that maybe a tool like CamStudio might help capture the video. Presumably GE has something like that.

[Cornucopia]

GE does have that feature when you pay the registration/upgrade fee. You can still do it with plain-ole' free GE by using CamStudio, etc. I have done this and it works. Problem with this method is non-optimal framerates. The upgrade-empowered version of this works REALLY WELL!
I have seen some really cool flyovers, too. The trick is to create intemediate key-frame locations where the cam is set not directly perpendicular to horizon, but also not to horizon. This also helps with accelleration/decelleration of the cam viewpoint at start/finish.

Scott

[solarblast]

How much for the upgrade? Is it annual or one time only?

[solarblast]

Ah, I see at least GE Pro is needed, and it's $400. So much for that idea. I guess CamStudio will have to do for me with the expectation of modest results.

[solarblast]

When I zoom into almost street level of the location I'm interested in, I see little camera icons. Is there a way to get rid of them?

[CogoSWSDS]

There should be a checkbox at the bottom of the screen that you can uncheck that will eliminate the little icons. I forget which one as I don't have it installed on this computer right now.

CogoSWSDS

[solarblast]

Ah, there's a layer tab on the left, which when activated gives lots of choices to items that look relevant: business, traffic, roads, borders, etc. It looks like the camera might have been some geographic marker. It's gone. Thanks.

A question about CamStudio. It allow one to produce annotations. I chose one called Point East. The background color is pink. I can't find anyway to change it. Anyone know?

[olyteddy]

You might also look at NASA's WorldWind. Movie making is built in iirc. Also has maps for the moon, mars and Jupiter. Big download, but free...

[solarblast]

For me, that's definitely worth looking into*, but at the moment I'm working on a personal (family/friends) DVD for a recent trip I took to Chile. Trying to fit a map of Chile into a video frame is a daunting task.

I did use CamStudio for a zoom into Santiago from up high. Not bad. A similar effect from California to Chile worked pretty well too. It was a bit jerky, but acceptable for my use. I'm sure it will be an audience pleaser (one is enough though).

* My first reading of NASA suggested astronomy, but I see WorldWind might imply earth too. I'll take a look.