Digital Artifacts

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Google Earth machinima

Just when you all thought your mucking around period was drawing to a close, just thought I'd remind you of the potential of Google Earth for making short machinima...

Similarly to how you accessed Second Life, you’ll need to register and download the client software at: http://earth.google.com

You’ll find a tutorial on making movies with Google Earth here (as a side note, . You'll be using the free version of Google Earth rather than the Pro version described in this tutorial. So, instead of using the inbuilt google Earth Pro video recording functions, you'll need to use Fraps etc. instead to record your Google Earth movie clips, and then splice them together in your editor.

Some of the movies made by participants in workshops I've run using Google Earth movie-making include one very moving film of one woman's family's escape from a wartorn torn country and their travels as refugees around the world until finally settling in Canada. Other movies have explored favourite haunts of childhood (e.g., all the cricket grounds played on in one's hometown), or have remixed still and moving images to tell a funny story or retell an engaging children's story. I've also seen google Earth clips included in other movies as a small segment etc. (especially in music videos). So, muck around with Google Earth and see what you think (oh, nd don't forget to play with the viewing controls in the top right-hand corner of your client screen, either).

3 Comments:

Blogger Colin and/or Michele said...

I'll let you know how this pans out, but it looks like Google Pro (a $400 value) might be free to educators. I'll look into this more.

October 20, 2007 at 12:08 PM  
Blogger Innes said...

funny that--d1 and i were looking for a particular building on the nyu campus the other week, and found the google earth tied in with map directions. as we played with it a bit (and could see the actual building we were looking for) i though about how we could use the imaging for the backdrop of a movie! must try to muck about there a bit!

October 20, 2007 at 1:44 PM  
Blogger Larry said...

Michele,
I actually start my movie with a fraps capture from google earth. It would be awesome to have free access to the pro version to improve the quality and get rid of the fraps watermark. I followed your links and sent an email to them requesting it as an educator so we'll see what happens.

October 20, 2007 at 3:24 PM  

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