Google Earth Community: Google Earth Movie Maker tips

This will be included in the manual soon, but I'm posting it here to get it to more people. If you have the optional movie maker module enabled, this should help you create better movies:

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You can use the Movie Making module of Google Earth to record 3D viewer imagery and save the recording as a movie file. You can either set the recorder to record your interactions with the 3D viewer in real-time, or you can record a tour that you have set up.

Once you finish recording and have saved your file, you can make the file available on a web site, use it in a presentation, or send it via email. For instance, you might want to create a movie of your property to present to clients or at trade shows where visitors can see satellite views of your property without having to use the Google Earth client.

The Movie Making module supports three file formats:
• Windows Media Video (WMV)
We highly recommend that you use the WMV format to record movies. The output file is compressed and optimized for presentations. These WMV files can be further configured for the best type of delivery, such as via a T1 web connection or over a 56K modem connection.
• Audio Video Interleave (AVI)
Movies created in AVI format are uncompressed and as a result, generate extremely large files, making it almost impossible for a standard movie player to play back the recording. This is useful only if you want to edit the movie clips using a movie editing software.
• Image Stream (JPG)
Movies can be captured as images in variable or fixed length. This format is useful if you want to control the speed artificially and edit each screenshot – frame by frame.

The Movie Making module also supports two types of movie quality levels:

Standard quality movie
• Use this option when you want to adjust the visibility of icons and overlays while the movie is recording. For example, use this option to display an overlay of a site plan or additional layers of information as you record. Keep in mind though, that with this option the frame rate is limited to the performance of your graphics card, which is generally slowed by making movies.

High quality movie
• Use this option to achieve the best possible movie recording. With this option, each frame is completely downloaded to the Google Earth client before it is recorded, maximizing image quality. For this reason, recording time is very slow. In general, high quality recordings work best when you want to display the movie on a large screen without having to monitor the actual recording.

Note: Keep in mind that high quality movies can only play back tour points. You can not manually interact with the 3D viewer when using the high quality option.

The following tips should also help in creating a movie.

Quick Tips:

Movie Maker - Having the latest version of Windows Media Player installed is absolutely essential to making good quality movies, especially if you are having issues with rendering. We highly recommend that you download Windows Media Player 9 or above which can be downloaded for free from here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/9series/default.aspx
Graphics Card Driver – Although graphics card drivers don't really make an impact on the actual recording of your movie, it's always good practice to update your driver to avoid any type of rendering issues when recording your movie. We recommend that you use a graphics card with at least 64 MB of video RAM or above.

Memory Cache – By increasing your memory cache size, you will experience an enhanced speed in rendering the movie that is being recorded. Follow the steps below:
• Select "Options" from the "Tools" menu
• Click on the Cache tab
• Enter any number in the Memory Cache Size field. The client will automatically limit the size according to the physical memory available on your PC.

Detail Area – This will help you capture all the pixels in a more detailed manner, thus improving the resolution of your movie.
• Select "Options" from the "Tools" menu
• Set "Detail Area" to "Large" if you have 64 MB of ram. If you have less than 64 MB of ram, set the "Detail Area" to medium.

Fly To Speed - When recording, we recommend using the default tour speed. However, feel free to experiment with different speeds and then play the movie back to evaluate whether the speed is appropriate.
Note: Whatever tour speed you select will be consistent throughout the movie. If you wish to set different tour speeds for different Placemarks in the same movie, you will need to create separate avi files for each tour and then edit them in a movie making software.

• Click the "Control" tab from the "Options" menu to adjust the "tour" and "pause" speeds to your preference. If you want to pause at certain places or want to give users a "helicopter ride" effect during your fly over tour, you can also create invisible Placemarks that will pause at certain places without displaying their icons or labels in your viewer and change your tour settings even during the recording of your movie.

Elevation Exaggeration – If you want to enhance the appearance of terrain in your movie, you can adjust the "Elevation Exaggeration" from 1 to 3.
• Click the "View" tab to set the "Elevation Exaggeration" value. A common setting is 1.5, which achieves an obvious yet natural elevation appearance.

Viewing Preference – You can hide icons such as the compass and status bar from your viewer if you don't want them to be displayed in the movie.
• Click on the "View" tab from the "Options" menu to uncheck the appropriate icons.

Preview your movie before recording - Before making your movie, it's a good idea to preview the aspect ratio and tour points that you'll be visiting.
• To set the aspect ratio correctly, select "Aspect Ratio" from the "View" menu. (http://www.keyhole.com/GoogleEarthHelp/GoogleEarth.htm)
• In the Places pane, select the folder containing all the Placemarks or deselect the ones you want to exclude from your movie listed under "My Places."
• Click the "Play" button that appears below "Places" to play a tour. This tour is the same tour that will be followed if you use the High Quality Movie option, so you can have a sense of what your movie will look like by playing the tour.
• If you want to change the view of a particular Placemark at any point, you can always right click on the Placemark to edit and select "Snapshot View." This will overwrite your existing Placemark.

Note: Be sure not to have any other applications running on your monitor. If you have dual monitors, you can use one for movie making while using the other monitor to record movies simultaneously. Please be sure that your screen saver is disabled, as are any popup blockers, and also that no other applications are running or covering the Google Earth client window. If your graphics card can't keep up either during playback or creation, the movie will play at what appears to be a higher speed, but is actually fewer frames.

Recording Movies
• From the Tools menu, select Movie Maker.
• From the Movie Type section, choose the desired compression format for your movie. Alternatively, you can click the Advanced check box to select AVI for the movie type. If you choose this option, only standard AVI compression is available.
• Select High Quality or Standard Quality as the Movie Quality.
• Choose the resolution for your movie.
You can specify three resolutions, which indicate the width and height of the movie in pixels or choose between two standard formats (NTSC and PAL):
- 320 x 240
- 640 x 480
- 800 x 600
- 720 x 480 (NTSC)
- 720 x 576 (PAL)
• Specify a name for your movie file.

Click on the Browse button next to the Record Tour to this location and file input box and navigate to a location on your computer where you want to save the movie file when you are finished recording. Type in a name for the file in the file dialog window and click on the OK button.
Alternatively, you can select an existing movie file in the same format as the one you are about to create, and that file will be over-written with the contents of your new recording.

Click the Record Tour button (The Record button is activated as soon as you hit the "Play" button when recording a movie in real time).
• The movie begins recording. The Movie Maker dialog will appear below so you can visualize the recording of the movie.
Note: Recording time in high quality movies occurs very slowly, since each frame is fully processed before the next one is viewed.
• Click the Stop Recording button to stop the recording.
The Stop Recording button is available in a dialog at the bottom of the 3D viewer. Once you finish recording your movie, you can open the movie file in a media player that supports the movie format you selected and play back the movie to view the results. If you are satisfied with the results, you can post the file to a local server, or use it in a presentation.
• Once you finish recording your movie, you can open the movie file in a media player that supports the movie format you selected and play back the movie to view the results. If you are satisfied with the results, you can post the file to a web site, a local server, or email it to other people.