Replicate Relive App 3D Flyover Video Generation Using Google Earth.
This blog post is the script for my YouTube Video. It can be more casual and less concise.
All the Python scripts in this tutorial are uploaded to GitHub.
First, I’d like to show you the videos generated by Relive and Google Earth. You can compare them.
The Relive-style video generated by Google Earth. Combined Relive and Google Earth. The result of this tutorial.
Video generated by Relive.
Video generated by Google Earth.
(Optional) The Relive-style video generated by ArcGIS Earth. Combine Relive, Google Earth, and ArcGIS Earth.
The outdoor app Relive is featured in creating amazing 3D flyover videos of routes. Google Earth can be used to make 3D videos as well, but Relive video is just more dynamic and lively. The key is that the series of camera positions generated by Relive is better. The camera position varies widely as the track goes on. The series of camera positions generated by Google Earth only varies slightly. Sometimes, the animated route can be covered by mountains in Google Earth. But it merely never happens in Relive. I don’t have the ability to make a camera position-generating algorithm like Relive. What I’m doing is downloading the camera-positions data from Relive and using the data to modify the Google Earth Touring KML. Google Earth 3D video is controlled by a KML file.
Relive video features
- Dramatic and lively.
- Low Resolution.
- Something in the video cannot be removed.
- Users nearly cannot interfere with the video generation process.
- It’s just an app and an outdoor social app.
Google Earth video features
- A bit stereotyped.
- Users can control only a few parameters of the video generation in Google Earth itself.
- The video generation process is controlled by a touring KML file.
- We cannot edit the animation itself and the KML file in Google Earth.
- But we can learn the syntax of KML and edit the KML file using Python script to control the animation.
The key to Relive is the camera-positions data. The key to Google Earth is it can be controlled by KML files. So, we can combine them together to replicate the Relive style 3D video generation. For now, we can download the camera-positions data from Relive. Maybe someday they will block that.
Prerequisites.
How to use Google Earth to create route animation videos and save the tour and track as a new KML file. You may need several minutes to read my last tutorial.
3D Flyover Video Generation Using Google Earth. | by Jack Lee | JackOnTheRoad | Dec, 2023 | Medium
First, download camera-positions data from relive.cc
- Open the detail page of a GPX track.
- View the page source of the track detail page.
- Copy the URL for camera-positions data.
- Concatenate this URL to the host. Open it. You will download a CSV file.
Use Python script to modify the Google Earth touring KML file.
kml2_relive_v2.1.py
- Use pip to install the dependencies for the script.
- Change the input parameters csv_file and kml_file to your own files.
- The output file is xxx_modified_relive_2.1.kml.
- Open the new KML file in Google Earth.
- You will see the track and the modified tour in the folder.
- Click the tour, and the animation will be playing.
- Use the movie maker function to export the video.
- If you want to adjust the camera to be closer to or farther from the ground.
- You can use kml2_lookat_changer.py to change the range of the camera.
Additional Infos.
- ArcGIS Earth is a good tool for making flyover videos as well. You may want to check it out.
- ArcGIS Earth has some pros and cons. For now, it cannot replace Google Earth.
- There are other Python scripts in the repo to generate the ArcGIS Earth Movie Project file (movies.json).
- You can change the camera’s heading direction by “lookat.heading = lookat.heading + 90”
- You can hide the label beside the arrow by setting the label opacity to 0.
- You can change the arrow icon to a 3D model. If this is a cycling trip, you can set the icon to a bike model. If this is a flight trip, you can set the icon to a 3D plane model.
