Google Earth 5 Fly-through Animation Showcases

Flexible touring features in Google Earth 5

If you attended the CoML M&V workshops in the past (in Durham, Oct 2008 or aboard Queen Mary, Feb 2009), you may remember us mentioning that Google Earth's Tour features were not flexible enough to create the sort of fly-through animations that CoML projects have asked us about. We are happy to take it back. Google Earth 5 introduces new touring features. They allow us to script fly-through animations, complete with mulitmedia pop-up windows. We believe, though, there will be needs for helper tools to build tours as you don't want to hand-write thousands lines of KML. Once fly through animation has been created, it can be re-captured as a video. So while we describe creating KML scripts for display in Google Earth, these can serve as a basis for creating stand-alone animations that could be display off-line and in different programs. We are ready to move on with fly-through animations. Let's build something cool together!

What will CoML M&V Team do? What will CoML projects do?

CoML M&V Team is eager to collaborate with CoML projects to build fly-through animations on Google Earth. The basic idea of how we collaborate is:

• Your CoML project builds a storyboard (where and when to visit, and what to show).
• Your CoML project prepares materials (text, pictures, videos, model outputs, sounds etc.)
• CoML M&V Team provides consultation on what you can do with Google Earth Touring features.
• CoML M&V Team provides technical support in your preparation of materials.
• CoML M&V Team creates a basic KML Tour based on the storyboard.

Note that, as all creative works do, this work requires very close communication between the CoML project and M&V Team, especially in making fine tune to the animation. Also this is a time consuming work, so expect at least a few weeks of back-and-forth between your project and the M&V team.

Please contact us to discuss how we move forward.

Showcases

We prepared three demonstrations to showcase various elements of Google Earth Touring features so that you can get a sense what can be done with the Tour and culture your ideas on fly-through animations. Instruction Set up [Terrain Quality] and [Elevation Exaggeration] as below. See detailed steps... Terrain Quality: Higher (maximum to the right) Elevation Exaggeration: 1 Click the title in the table below. When KML is loaded, select [Play me!] under [Places] panel. Click [Play Tour] button. Requirements Windows XP/Vista or Mac OS X Google Earth 5 (Google Earth 4.x is not supported) Internet connection (you can't go offline as images are pulled from the Internet) Browser version with Google Earth Plugin The same demonstrations are also available as a browser version with Google Earth Plugin. Due to the compatibility issues between desktop Google Earth and Plugin, the balloon contents in CoML Global Tour 2010 are not properly presented (multimedia contents such as Flash movies are not displayed and the background color is not properly set). Notes Please remember these are not meant to be high quality products, nor to be scientifically correct stories. The contents are totally fake and cheap, so do not bother making judgment on design, artistic elements or contents themselves. The first time you play the tour, it may not be as smooth as you expected as Google Earth is loading and caching a lot of terrain data and images used in the tour. If this is the case, play it again. We've experienced a problem that the 3D wall photo gallery displayed at the last visit in "CoML Global Tour 2010" does not load photos first time. If so, play it again.

Title	Features to look for as the animation plays	Notes
CoML Global Tour 2010	Visit places of interest in the order you specify Custom designed balloon (popup) to narrate the story. Custom-made slideshows embedded in a balloon (Hatakejima and Aininkappu). Zoom-in  closely to area with impressive elevation (Knight Island). Embed video stored on external site (YouTube @ Knight Island). Embed video stored on your own server (CNN footage stored in our server @ Duke, Durham) Next generation photo gallery on a 3D wall (CoML pictures @ Univ. of Rhode Island)	This tour showcases the basics of GE Tour features where you can get a good understanding of them. The photo gallery at the end of the tour is a must-see. This is a flash application available free. As with any Flash, it might ask the person viewing to update their Flash software). Multimedia contents (videos, photos etc.) play smoothly. These can be pulled from public services such as YouTube or Flickr or from your own web servers. The other two tours are linked from the introduction balloon, which is a good idea for putting a list of stories (i.e. Table of Contents) and letting users choose one or adding "Next story" and "Previous story" links in a balloon. The introduction balloon can be opened by going to [Tour itinerary]-[Introduction]. approx. 2 minutes 30 seconds.
Trans-Pacific Turtle Migration	Smooth fly-through above the sea surface. At first the object (turtle) moves, and the camera postion stays still. Then turtle moves while the  camera position moves. Story balloons open while moving. Bring up an external KML (Pop-up comes from theCoML layer in Google Earth 5). Bring up a georeferenced image overlay (Sea Surface Temperature layer). Directional placemark icon (turtle icon turns to the direction it is moving to). Display polylines (the international dateline). Submerge below the sea surface. Underwater photos.	This is a good example on how smoothly you can fly-through over a globe-wide distance. Also good example for animating animal/ship/airplane movements. Bringing up external KML or georeferenced image overlay will be particularly useful to show detail information, scientific data, related stories or even changing data (e.g. current in-situ measurement). While this animation goes underwater, take a look at "Dive-through" below for an actual "dive-through" animation. approx. 2 minutes 50 seconds.
Dive-through	Dive underwater. Georeferenced underwater photos. Varying imagery along the water column.	This is a small sample to show how you can fly-through (or dive-through) underwater. This also displays layers of georeferenced imagery underwater which will be useful to show variable changes along the water column. approx. 1 minutes 50 seconds.

FAQ

Is it possible to move multiple placemarks simultaneously?

Yes. Here is a small sample "Multiple turtles travel," altered from "Trans-Pacific Turtle Migration." In this sample, you'll see three turtles move simultaneously. We haven't tested how many placemarks can be moved smoothly, though.

Thank you for taking time. Any questions, suggestions or comments are welcome.