Google Earth Sky 3D Animation – Han Solo Escapes

Here’s a little Friday fun. Although the new Sky mode from Google Earth 4.2 is designed to look up at the night sky – and doesn’t have the ability to tilt your view like Google Earth – it is still a 3D view. So, I decided to add some 3D to Sky. Naturally, I decided to play with something from the Star Wars universe. So, I grabbed a nice model I found in the Google 3D Warehouse. Using SketchUp, I was able to place the model into Google Earth (with a bit of altitude) and then switch to Sky view. This showed the model, but it needed something else to show off the model. So, I asked Joey Wade, who has done lots of time animations with Google Earth, to create an animation with the model. He quickly agreed, and now you can see this cool 3D Sky animation which I’m calling “Han Solo Escapes “. After it loads in GE, switch to Sky view. Then double-click on the “Sky3d” folder in your Temporary Places. Then turn on the time animation by clicking on the right-arrow “play” button next to the time slider. Open the “Sky3d” folder and play with the different camera views while the animation is playing. Hope you like it!
Thanks to Joey Wade for doing the animation, and to IDW who posted the model to the 3DWarehouse.

About Frank Taylor

Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.

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