Video Archives

November 20, 2009

Sketchup 7.1 bug fixes and lifelike facades

To go along with the nice imagery update yesterday, Google has done a few things to help improve the 3D models found in Google Earth

Update to SketchUp 7.1: This update consists entirely of bug fixes, with no new features present. It fixes some measurement and precision errors, among other things. Here are the full release notes if you're interested. SketchUp 7.1 added a lot of great features, so this update should make modelers very happy.

3D models with detailed facades: Using StreetView imagery, in a way similar to what you can do in SketchUp 7.1, Google has added high-res facades to buildings in five California cities: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Franciso, Berkeley and Stockton. By using StreetView imagery to detail the 3D models, zoomed in areas of the downtown streets look stunning. Here's a quick video showing some of these new buildings:.

I'd expect we'll see this technology find its way over to Building Maker eventually. Having that kind of imagery available in Building Maker would allow them to expand the available area for it much more rapidly.

In the meantime, enjoy the sharp looking cities in California. They're quite stunning and becoming more realistic all the time.

Posted by mickmel at 8:45 AM | Comments (0)

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November 18, 2009

Google adds new cities and features to Building Maker

Ever since Google released Building Maker last month, we've been big fans of it. 3D models are a very neat aspect of Google Earth, and Building Maker is helping to get a lot more buildings modeled for Earth in a very short period of time.

Despite our enjoyment of Building Maker, it has some shortcomings. Google has come to the rescue and addressed some of them. If you look in Building Maker now you'll find:

More Cities: They've added eight more cities for you to model: Brussels, Belgium; Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Cologne, Germany; Dortmund, Germany; Boston, MA; Las Vegas, NV; Los Angeles, CA; San Jose, CA. While none of the existing areas have been expanded, San Jose covers the largest area of any of the available cities.

Google Earth view in Location Picker: When choosing a location to model, you can switch your view to "Earth" to see which buildings are already in Google Earth. This doesn't show you which buildings already have models that are awaiting approval, but it's certainly a very useful tool.

Save Drafts: Now when you're working on a building, you have the option to save it as a draft and work on it later. When you click the "Save" button, choose "Additional Options" and you can uncheck the box for "This building is complete and ready for review". This allows you to go back later to work more on the building before submitting it for approval.

Freeform Polygon: A new primitive type of object is available, known as the "Freeform Polygon". It's a bit tricky to use, but can be quite powerful. If you want to try out this new tool, Google's advice is to first toggle off the snapping tool, drag and constrain the points of the polygon in multiple images, and then toggle on the snapping tool to glue the points to existing blocks.

Here is a very simple video that Google created to show off some of the new features:

Posted by mickmel at 8:24 AM | Comments (1)

November 12, 2009

How to use StreetView in Google Earth

It's a subject we've discussed before, but it's worth taking another look. With all of the great new StreetView imagery arriving the last week, many people don't realize how easy it is to view that imagery in Google Earth. If you find yourself in Google Earth using one of the many layers they've built in or exploring a KML file you recently downloaded, it can be handy to dive into StreetView mode without having to load your browser and use Google Maps.

This brief video gives you an overview of how it's done:

If you prefer text-based instructions, here is a short explanation of how it's done:

The first thing you'll need to do is look for the Street View layer on the lower left of Google Earth and turn it on by clicking the little box to the left. Then look for the gold camera icons as you zoom into a street location of interest. If you single-click the left mouse button on a Street View camera icon, you get a placemark that shows the photo. Click the link there to enter the Street View image. Or, double-click to fly straight in.

Street View in Google Earth uses the special Photo Viewer tool which lets you pan around the inside of a 3D projected photo. Street View images are spherical panoramas allowing you to look around 360 degrees side-to-side and up-down. You can even see the spherical Street View photos as you zoom in close over a street. With Google Earth, you can adjust the transparency of the images and compare the background 3D terrain or 3D buildings (if available) and see that the Street View photos match the surrounding area. You can also turn on other layers such as the Geographic Web (including photos), Roads, Dining, Lodging, etc. to get more information on an area.

There are literally millions of StreetView images in Google Earth, with more being added all the time. Have fun browsing around and see what you can find. If you'd like some fun StreetView items to browse, check out StreetViewFun.com or the Google Earth Hacks StreetView section. If you use the GEH collection, look for the "View in Google Earth" button to be flown directly to that item in Google Earth, as seen in the screenshot below.

GEH StreetView

If you know of other interesting collections of StreetView sights, leave a comment and let us know.

Posted by mickmel at 9:03 AM | Comments (5)

November 9, 2009

MS Oasis of the Seas heading for Florida

The largest cruise ship in the world, the MS Oasis of the Seas, is on a journey from Finland to Fort Lauderdale, FL. She's expected to arrive in Florida this week, with her maiden voyage from Miami scheduled for December 1.

A user named 'sladys' over at Google Earth Hacks has posted a KML file to see the journey of the ship. In addition, 'Naruto_fan' has modeled the Oasis of the Seas, along with her soon-to-be sister Allure of the Seas, in the Google 3D Warehouse.

Oasis of the Seas

The ship has already had quite an adventure. On November 1, she had to pass under the Great Belt Fixed Link bridge in Denmark. The bridge has a clearance of 213ft above the water, but the ship has a height of 236ft. This obviously posed a problem. By lowering it's telescoping smokestacks, waiting until low tide, and using a full thrust, the ship was able to squeeze under the bridge with about two feet to spare! Check out the video below to see it happen:

Posted by mickmel at 9:37 AM | Comments (0)

November 6, 2009

Links: Milwaukee and Indianpolis 3D buildings, Fraps 3.0 released

New 3D Buildings in Milwaukee and Indianapolis: Google continues to add more 3D buildings to Google, having just released Milwaukee, WI and Indianapolis, IN, along with thousands of user-generated buildings. As with past releases, I would expect that most of the user-generated buildings were from people using the Building Maker tool. (via @3DWH)

Milwaukee in 3D

Fraps Version 3.0 Released: Fraps is a Windows-only program that allows you to easily grab video from almost any program that uses DirectX or OpenGL, including Google Earth. We've used it before to show off things like Disney in 3D and it does a great job.

Today they've released version 3.0 with a few significant improvements. In particular, it now supports DirectX 11 and Windows 7, two essential technologies that this kind of software needs to support. I've tried out the new version and it runs as well as the previous ones. For $37, it's a steal. Even better, you can try it out for free (with a watermark added to the video) to see how well it'll work for you.

I personally use Jing for a lot of screen capture sessions, but for getting video imagery directly from Google Earth, Fraps can capture at a much better frame rate.

Posted by mickmel at 1:13 PM | Comments (1)

More entries for this category:

  1. Links: Seero for sale, i-gotU GPS logger review, Best of Building Maker expands - November 3, 2009
  2. Links: Race My Race, Random Hacks of Kindness, WorldView-2 - October 13, 2009
  3. Links: Load KMZ files on handheld Garmin devices, video of NASA rocket crashing into the moon - October 9, 2009
  4. Links: Improve Map Data, Urban Planning Webinars, Students building 3D models - October 8, 2009
  5. Loop Links, Biodiversity and the Law of the Sea - September 30, 2009
  6. Links: Building Design Competition, Google Wave - September 29, 2009
  7. Links: Boston University goes 3D and a fun real estate video - September 25, 2009
  8. Augmented Reality with Google Earth - September 15, 2009
  9. Two New 3D Cities in Google Earth: Dublin and Cardiff - September 4, 2009
  10. Links: Alphabet Soup, 3D Models movie, Fire tracking - August 24, 2009
  11. Links: Picasa Street View, Cool Screen, ArcExplorer Earth, SketchUp Podium Prize - August 17, 2009
  12. Planes For Google Earth Flight Simulator - August 11, 2009
  13. Google Earth Videos - July 30, 2009
  14. Amazing Lunar Lander Game Using Google Earth - July 27, 2009
  15. Google Marries Panoramio Lookaround to Street View - July 25, 2009
  16. Look at the Moon in Google Earth - Available Now! - July 20, 2009
  17. What if the Eagle Landed on Earth? - July 18, 2009
  18. Music Video with Google SketchUp - Awesome! - July 16, 2009
  19. Beastie Boys Create Google Earth Driving Game - July 9, 2009
  20. PhotoSketch Released - Make 3D Buildings from Photos - July 8, 2009
  21. Snoovel - Google Earth Tour Creation and Hosting Site - July 7, 2009
  22. Hurricane/Cyclone Tracking with Google Earth - June 25, 2009
  23. Lots of New 3D Content Added in Google Earth - June 10, 2009
  24. World Oceans Day, 3D Design Competition, Britain Archeological Site, New Imagery Tour Idea - June 8, 2009
  25. US Drought Conditions in Google Earth by NOAA - June 5, 2009
  26. Major Street View Upgrade - 3D Features - June 4, 2009
  27. Huge Waste of Energy Visible in Google Earth - June 2, 2009
  28. Links: New 3D Tours Gallery, Earth API Update - May 29, 2009
  29. More on Disney Paris, Street View Cave, Data.Gov, Space Imagery Enhancement - May 27, 2009
  30. Video of New 3D Disneyland Paris for Google Earth - May 25, 2009
  31. Where 2.0 - Day 2 - Short Summary - May 21, 2009
  32. Where 2.0 - Day 1 - Workshops and Ignite - May 20, 2009
  33. Fantastic Free Google Earth Game: Ships - May 18, 2009
  34. Formula One Circuit Tour - Car Simulation - April 24, 2009
  35. Links: Ocean Now, Michigan Earth Day, Goldman Prize, Convention Center, Queen Mary - April 21, 2009
  36. Synchronized YouTube with Google Earth Plugin - April 15, 2009
  37. Home Made Street View for Google Earth - March 25, 2009
  38. Glacier Melt Survey in Google Earth - March 24, 2009
  39. St. Patrick's Day Fun with Google Earth - March 17, 2009
  40. Heli-Ski Tour in Google Earth - March 12, 2009
  41. CO2 Emissions Data Visualization in Google Earth - February 23, 2009
  42. Make AR Movies from Google Earth 3D Models - February 18, 2009
  43. YouTube Searching in Google Earth - February 16, 2009
  44. Google Earth 5 Announcement Video - February 12, 2009
  45. Google Earth 5 - Video Showcase - February 3, 2009
  46. Google Earth 5 - Video Showcase - February 2, 2009
  47. Links: New GE Help Forums, DC-3 Weather Vane, NYC GE Visitor Center, Virtual Alabama Video, 360Cities Embed - January 22, 2009
  48. Fly Flight 1549 Yourself in Google Earth - January 21, 2009
  49. Urban Tick - Research Results in Google Earth - January 8, 2009
  50. Print 3D Buildings from Google Earth - January 7, 2009
  51. Happy Holidays from Google Earth Blog - December 23, 2008
  52. Links: Google Geo Data Grows, Maps Gets YouTube, Licensing, GeoServer Nod - December 18, 2008
  53. Upgrade to EveryTrail GPS Trails Layer in Google Earth - December 17, 2008
  54. Making Better 3D Models for Google Earth - December 9, 2008
  55. Links: GE Plugin Update, KML Contest Update, Panoramio Contest, Teaching with GE, Santa Video - December 5, 2008
  56. MutliTouch Wall Demo - Hilarious - October 24, 2008
  57. iPhone Earth Available Free Temporarily - New Features Too - September 19, 2008
  58. Links: Math Lessons, Chemical Brothers Video, Radar Loops, Swedish Hires - September 15, 2008
  59. Real-time Satellites in Google Earth - September 8, 2008
  60. Track Hurricane Hanna in Google Earth - September 1, 2008
  61. Sailing Passage From Exuma to North Carolina - August 25, 2008
  62. iPhone Earth App Available Now - August 22, 2008
  63. Watch Arctic Ice Melting in Google Earth - August 11, 2008
  64. Best Google Earth Interface Videos - July 16, 2008
  65. New Google Earth 4.3 (beta) Available - Version 4.3.7284.3916 - July 11, 2008
  66. More Bad News on Coral Reefs - NOAA's Google Earth Data - July 10, 2008
  67. New WebCams Layer for Google Earth - July 9, 2008
  68. Links: Earth API Explained, Tour of 3D, Geography Lesson Plan, How NIN KML Was Done - July 7, 2008
  69. Hologram Google Earth - July 1, 2008
  70. Links: Outreach Birthday, Bullit Chase Scene, NIN Downloads, KMLWiki - June 30, 2008
  71. Disney World 3D for Google Earth YouTube Demo - June 4, 2008
  72. Look Around with Google Panoramio - June 3, 2008
  73. iPhone Earth - Coolest Things I saw at Where 2.0 2008 - May 23, 2008
  74. Mike's Flying Bike for Google Earth - May 16, 2008
  75. Watch Where 2.0 Events Live Here with Seero - May 12, 2008
  76. Google Earth Zooming Music Video - April 21, 2008
  77. Links: GE Lesson, GETools, Microsoft KML, 3D Bridges, Royal Australian 3D, EPA Award - April 18, 2008
  78. New Navigation Gadgets in Google Earth 4.3 - April 16, 2008
  79. Video Demo of Google Earth 4.3 - April 15, 2008
  80. Links: Viewfinder, KML in the North, GE Pro Address Trick, Boy Finds Home - April 10, 2008
  81. Seero Releases Live Video with GPS Following for Google Earth - April 4, 2008
  82. Google Earth April Fools Joke Video - April 3, 2008
  83. Wilkins Ice Shelf, Sea Ice Extent Animation - March 28, 2008
  84. Links: Seero GPS Videos, GE Labels, Wikitude POIs, 3D Egyptian Viz - March 20, 2008
  85. YouTube API on Swiss Fighter Video - March 14, 2008
  86. Video Tutorials Inside Google Earth - March 12, 2008
  87. Links: Outreach Showcase, Spreadsheet mapping, Geo Test, KML Lesson Talk - February 26, 2008
  88. Miami Post - Links: Mapper Tool, GE Game, KML Wishlist - February 15, 2008
  89. YouTube Layer in Google Earth Updating Daily - February 7, 2008
  90. Powers of 10 in Google Earth - February 5, 2008
  91. Using Street View in Google Earth - February 4, 2008
  92. Video Tutorials for Google Earth - January 31, 2008
  93. Wrong Turn Down Google StreetView - January 27, 2008
  94. Guys Fly Balloon to 30 km Altitude - See it in Google Earth - January 25, 2008
  95. Musicians in Google Earth - January 22, 2008
  96. Major Geek Cred - January 17, 2008
  97. Top 10 New Google Earth Features 2007 - December 31, 2007
  98. Top 25 Stories of Google Earth 2007 - December 27, 2007
  99. Microsoft Needs to Share Data with Google - December 21, 2007
  100. Mazes of the World in Google Earth - December 10, 2007
  101. News and Links - Out of Beta, Crysis, Our Dumb World, Visual ILS - November 30, 2007
  102. Large Hadron Collider Visible in Google Earth - November 28, 2007
  103. Google Offers New Mapping Data for Switzerland - November 14, 2007
  104. Links: Glider Towing, 3D Bonanza, John Hanke Presentation, Google Maps Profiles, Virtual Earth 3D Modeling - October 19, 2007
  105. Crocodile Man Easter Egg in Google Earth - October 18, 2007
  106. Virtual Earth Bird's Eye Views in 3D - Seen in Google Earth First - October 15, 2007
  107. New YouTube Layer in Google Earth - October 11, 2007
  108. Hurricane Followspot Animations in Google Earth - October 4, 2007
  109. 3D Warehouse Open to All 3D KML Content - September 25, 2007
  110. 3D Red Bull Flights in Google Earth - September 21, 2007
  111. Supernova Explosion in Google Earth Sky - September 17, 2007
  112. Google Earth Outreach Enhancements - September 16, 2007
  113. 3D Buildings - Groningen, Netherlands - September 14, 2007
  114. Google Lunar X PRIZE - Race to the Moon! - September 13, 2007
  115. 3D Model Roundup: Floorplan Star Trek, Bouncing Earths - September 12, 2007
  116. Back to School - Educational Uses with Google Earth - September 11, 2007
  117. Video for Flying with Google Earth Flight Simulator - September 3, 2007
  118. The Gmail Video Collection in Google Earth - August 30, 2007
  119. Google Earth 4.2 Roundup - August 27, 2007
  120. Embed Video In Google Earth 4.2 Placemarks! - August 22, 2007
  121. Video Showing Storm Tracking Tools for Google Earth - August 20, 2007
  122. News Roundup: Peru Earthquake, Virtual Earth Update, Stefan's Alps Hike - August 16, 2007
  123. R/C Planes and Camera Fun with Google Earth - August 12, 2007
  124. Virtual London Project Dead in the Water - August 8, 2007
  125. Barnabu 3D News - Animating International Flights in Google Earth - August 4, 2007
  126. Blues Brothers Bridge Jump Animation in Google Earth - July 24, 2007
  127. The Solar System in Google Earth - July 18, 2007
  128. Solar System Moons in Google Earth - July 15, 2007
  129. News Roundup: GE Design, Live Tour de France, PhotoSketch, Iran Nuclear Project - July 13, 2007
  130. Google Mapplets Officially Released - Mashups 2.0 - July 11, 2007
  131. Google Earth Outreach Announcement Video - June 28, 2007
  132. How to Add a Sky to Google Earth - June 24, 2007
  133. Taipei 3D Models for Google Earth - June 21, 2007
  134. London Eye Animation with Shadows for Google Earth - June 11, 2007
  135. Google Developer Day - Videos Released - June 1, 2007
  136. Rising Water Effects for NYC in Google Earth - Part III - May 25, 2007
  137. Rising Water Effects for NYC in Google Earth - Part II - May 18, 2007
  138. Google Earth Umbrella - May 16, 2007
  139. Having Fun with Google Earth and SpaceNavigator - May 10, 2007
  140. Microsoft's Virtual Earth 3D - Video Demos - May 9, 2007
  141. News Roundup 1 - Education, Clean Cruising, Magnalox, NASA UAVSAR - May 6, 2007
  142. Google Earth on The Simpsons - April 27, 2007
  143. Video Demo of New American Architecture 3D Layer for Google Earth - April 25, 2007
  144. Maverick Waves Explained - Illustration in Google Earth - April 23, 2007
  145. GeoBeats - Travel Videos - April 18, 2007
  146. More Google Earth Video Demos - New video category - April 8, 2007
  147. SketchUp Training DVD Available - April 6, 2007
  148. Google Earth in Second Life: GeoGlobe - March 28, 2007
  149. 4D London Eye in Google Earth - March 21, 2007
  150. Super High Resolution Photos in Google Earth - March 18, 2007
  151. Skype + Unype = Multi-User Google Earth - March 10, 2007
  152. YouTube Demo of Berlin in 3D for Google Earth - March 9, 2007
  153. News Roundup: Google Earth Resume/CV, Google Maps Interface to BMW cars - March 7, 2007
  154. Swiss Alps "Fighter" Tour in Google Earth - March 1, 2007
  155. New Video Demos of Latest 3D Buildings for Google Earth - February 26, 2007
  156. SpaceNavigator News: Fly Inside Demo, Security Checkpoints - February 22, 2007
  157. Google Earth Tutorials - Making 3D Poloygons, GE Pro Movie Making - February 21, 2007
  158. iCommunity.TV - News with Google Earth Location - February 14, 2007
  159. 3D Video Inside Google Earth - February 7, 2007
  160. Google Earth Critical Tool in Fight Against Logging Plan - February 6, 2007
  161. Video Tutorials for SketchUp to Google Earth - January 30, 2007
  162. Discovery Sunrise on Google Earth - January 29, 2007
  163. Super Touch Screen for Google Earth - January 25, 2007
  164. Boulder, Colorado 3D Buildings in Google Earth, and a Google 3D Contest - January 18, 2007
  165. Hamburg 3D Buildings Coming to Google Earth - January 17, 2007
  166. PanoViewer - Viewing Panorama Photos in Google Earth - January 15, 2007
  167. News Roundup - KML indexing, GPS tools, SketchUp PhotoMatch Tutorial, GE Blogs - January 13, 2007
  168. Upper Green Valley Environmental Issues Illustrated with Google Earth - January 10, 2007
  169. Awesome 3D Buildings of Denver in Google Earth - January 9, 2007
  170. The Truth About Google Earth - January 8, 2007
  171. Watch Remote Control Plane with Camera Capturing Real-time Images for Google Earth - January 5, 2007
  172. Book Recommendation: "Off the Map" - November 30, 2006
  173. YouTube Demo of SpaceNavigator with Google Earth - November 28, 2006
  174. New Blue Marble Add-on Version 2.0 - November 20, 2006
  175. Satellite Photo of KFC Logo and Viral Marketing Scheme - November 17, 2006
  176. TeachingHacks.com Video Course on Google Earth for Education - November 4, 2006
  177. Baseball, 3D Stadiums, Videos, and Google Earth - November 2, 2006
  178. End Mountain Top Removal Campaign with Google Earth - October 15, 2006
  179. Ad Campaign for Saturn Aura Uses Google Earth - September 26, 2006
  180. 3D 747 Airliner on Approach at Maho Beach in Google Earth - August 25, 2006
  181. Turnhere.com - Videos About Places - August 15, 2006
  182. Speech and Gesture Input for Google Earth - August 5, 2006
  183. Update to Ping Pong Ball Interface for Google Earth - Video - August 3, 2006
  184. Boys Use Google Earth to Find Bin Laden - July 30, 2006
  185. 1000 Pizzas Publicity Stunt Using Google Earth - June 28, 2006
  186. Feature Request: 3D Video in Google Earth - May 11, 2006
  187. Google Earth Sleuthing - Helicopter Shortly Before Crash - April 24, 2006
  188. Discovery Channel Releases Video Links for Google Earth - April 7, 2006
  189. Google Earth for VW Car Navigation Demo - March 31, 2006
  190. Dancing Japan - October 14, 2005
  191. Slick Videos of Google Earth - August 29, 2005
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