Animating a Track on a Google Earth Satellite "Tour"

[RopeChoker]

I am a mountain hiker and I use Pr and Ae to create videos of my hikes to post on my hiking blog.

i am currently using Trim Paths to animate my GPS track that sits on top of a static topographical map. I will also be animating the elevation profile that goes along with that track.

I have also imported my GPS track into Google Earth Pro (GEP) and will create a "tour" using satellite imagery, which I will then turn into a movie, also using GEP, and then convert the M4V video file into a format that Media Encoder can digest.

Unfortunately, the GEP tour displays the entire track all at once and I can find no way to attach a direction arrow that moves along the track to show where I am as the tour unfolds. So I simply have a fly-over that follows the track line while the map moves around showing the satellite landscape imagery along the way in 3D.

If any of you are watching the Tour de France, what I'm trying to achieve is very similar to what NBC is doing on the pre-race show when they explain what the riders are faced with for that day's segment of the race.

So my question: Is it possible to do something like I'm doing with Trim Paths on the static map, but also do it for the track on my GEP satellite tour, and somehow have the track remain attached to the right place on the GEP satellite map as the map moves around and changes orientation and camera angle? I really need the track line to draw itself out as the tour unfolds, rather than have the entire track displayed all at once. I can use the track on the GEP tour as a guide, like I'm doing with Trim Paths, then recreate the GEP tour with the original track line turned off.

If I'm not explaining my use of Trim Paths clearly, this link to one of my hiking videos shows my use of Trim Paths, which starts at the 00:01:40 mark and lasts about 30 seconds.

Day Hike: Six Trails Loop ~ Sandia Mountains ~ Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA - YouTube

George

[Roei Tzoref]

Is it possible to do something like I'm doing with Trim Paths on the static map, but also do it for the track on my GEP satellite tour, and somehow have the track remain attached to the right place on the GEP satellite map as the map moves around and changes orientation and camera angle?

if there is enough perspective data, you can track it in Ae or other tracking software and attach the information to the graphics. since Ae is 2D and not real 3D, you may have to get creating with the orientation part and maybe keep the infographics as 2D hovering over as the camera spins. it would be easier to help you if you upload the exact video you are trying to process, and the exact reference you are referring to.

[RopeChoker]

Okay, in an effort to flesh this out a bit:

Here is a short video clip of what NBC is doing. I am trying to accomplish the very same thing they are doing with the Google Earth part, on the right side of this video. I already have the two insets/overlays on the left side of the video worked out.

NBC Pre-Race Example - YouTube

Here is a short video clip of what I am getting out of Google Earth Pro when I create a tour and movie from my hiking track. Note, there is no way to determine where I am on the track.

GEP Hike Tour Test - YouTube

George

[Roei Tzoref]

you got 2 main ways to approach this:

1. export a high resolution map from google, and use Ae for the hover animation using a virtual camera. this is what I do most of the time. Pros: full control over your animation, simple setup; Cons - no real topography or real cool parallax 3D'ness of your map.

2. export a video from google, and use the 3D Camera tracker to track it, or mocha on various planar grids if possible. then create your graphics and attach it to the track by setting it's 3d switch or to a null and placing it properly.

I am pretty sure NBC did not use After Effects for this type of enhanced sports graphics, these stuff usually are created using a special hardware and software like Viz.

[Rick Gerard]

I would capture your google earth footage on at least a 4K monitor using a good screen capture program. Then I would stabilize the motion so the google earth move goes away. You may need to motion stabilize scale and rotation. If the start of the path moves off the screen after stabilizing then put a layer marker on that frame, delete the keyframes to the right, then start another track so you can splice the moves together.

Then I would draw your race path using the pen tool, animate using trim paths, then add a null, name the stabilized footage "stabilized" and use this animation preset on the null.

Dropbox - destabilize Rotation Scale.ffx

After you have applied the preset to the null move the CTI to the start of the Motion Stabilize keyframes in the 'stabilized' layer and parent the footage and the path to the null.

The animation preset links the anchor point of the stabilized layer to the position property of the null and uses a little math on scale and rotation to remove the stabilization from the original layer and add the motion to the path.

This will give you a very close duplicate of the examples you provided.

I am not sure that AE's camera tracker would generate a good track because google earth uses an orthographically rectified images to recreate it's google earth maps and translates that into a spherical map. There probably isn't much real perspective and parallax change available in the image to calculate and replicate a real camera.

Depending on the shot you may be able to use Mocha's corner pin tracking to get what you need. My technique for that would be a modified version of this tutorial. It is a very good way to handle some pretty extreme perspective changes and lock a graphic or replace something in a shot that would be would be difficult to do with other techniques.

I hope this gives you some ideas.

[alexanderthegarrett]

Hi, I'm a couple of years late to this thread but have been having some similar difficulties. 

I exported a clip of a camera flying by Kilimanjaro in google earth pro and uploaded it to after-effects. Using 3d tracking I was able to place titles of the camps in the areas I wanted and changed the axes so as the camera rotates the titles are generally facing the camera. I could use key frames to make it look better but I'm satisfied with it how it is. 

The thing I've been struggling with is creating a hiking path through those camps. Kili has depth to it, which makes it hard to create 3d lines that track backward and forwards along the path. If the camera is stationary it wouldn't be an issue, but as perspective changes, the line (which is connected to a null at the start of the path) moves with it. I included a video to show this. Any suggestions? It may be fixed with your answers above but Premiere is my first language, after effects is still new to me so I'm struggling to apply the directions above correctly. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeoYOxuz7e8

[RopeChoker]

Thanks for the suggestions Roei and Rick. I do appreciate your time.

Your suggestions give me some options to think about and play around with. Also looking at one other possibility in GEP.

Hopefully, I can come up with something that looks reasonably good that I can live with.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi RopeChoker,

Sorry for this issue. Did you ever find a solution? Please let us know if our experts’ advice helped you or if you still need help.

Thanks,

Kevin

[RopeChoker]

Just wanted to update this. Yes, I did find a solution and it worked out just as I had hoped for.

When I posted my original questions, I didn't realize I could manipulate a KML Tour file from Goggle Earth Pro in order to manually add popup Placemarks, Waits, etc. Once I learned how to do all that, and also learned how to get a smooth-playing movie of the finished Tour, everything fell into place and I was able to incorporate that movie into my hiking video.

So I'm good to go!!

Thanks.