Overlaying property line on drone video

[smcrmo]

Hi, I think this is a very long shot, but here goes: I take videos of rural properties, farms, etc. I would like to find a way to overlay a .kml or .kmz file of the property line of the farm on the finished video. What the finished video would be like is doing the same thing overlaying a .kml file in a view in Google Earth Pro.

I understand how the process is done in Google Earth, with static images and coordinates, and that working with live video is entirely different, but I thought I'd throw it out there on the off chance that this is remotely possible.

Thanks!

 

[GFields]

Not sure that can be done. I use Adobe After Effects to create a property line but I have never heard of someone trying to use a KML file.

 

[brett8883]

Hi, I think this is a very long shot, but here goes: I take videos of rural properties, farms, etc. I would like to find a way to overlay a .kml or .kmz file of the property line of the farm on the finished video. What the finished video would be like is doing the same thing overlaying a .kml file in a view in Google Earth Pro.

I understand how the process is done in Google Earth, with static images and coordinates, and that working with live video is entirely different, but I thought I'd throw it out there on the off chance that this is remotely possible.

Thanks!

There’s something called Google Earth Studio which is like the video version of Google Earth. It won’t incorporate your drone video but it will allow you to make videos using Google Earth and use KML overlays.

To incorporate it with actual drone video is possible but, just being frank with you, it requires prerequisite knowledge of VFX techniques that you probably don’t have. You could certainly learn, but not overnight, and If you really want to go down that rabbit hole, there’s an effect in Adobe After Effects called 3D camera tracker which will allow you to attach a 2D image to a flat 3D surface in a video. You would just run 3D camera tracker on your video, find a tracking point that is roughly parallel to the ground and attached your property outline to it. It will take some finessing to get it right and only you’d need a powerful computer to see what you are doing.

Also, I mentioned a flat surface earlier so if your property has abrupt elevation changes it will take a whole lot of tweaking to get right.

 

[jaja6009]

ESRI FMV seems like it can do what you need.

Work with the Full Motion Video player—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

ArcGIS Pro provides the capability for viewing and analyzing FMV-compliant videos.

pro.arcgis.com

 

[smcrmo]

There’s something called Google Earth Studio which is like the video version of Google Earth. It won’t incorporate your drone video but it will allow you to make videos using Google Earth and use KML overlays.

To incorporate it with actual drone video is possible but, just being frank with you, it requires prerequisite knowledge of VFX techniques that you probably don’t have. You could certainly learn, but not overnight, and If you really want to go down that rabbit hole, there’s an effect in Adobe After Effects called 3D camera tracker which will allow you to attach a 2D image to a flat 3D surface in a video. You would just run 3D camera tracker on your video, find a tracking point that is roughly parallel to the ground and attached your property outline to it. It will take some finessing to get it right and only you’d need a powerful computer to see what you are doing.

Also, I mentioned a flat surface earlier so if your property has abrupt elevation changes it will take a whole lot of tweaking to get right.

Yes, this is mountainous terrain, definitely not going to be in my wheelhouse.

 

[smcrmo]

ESRI FMV seems like it can do what you need.

Work with the Full Motion Video player—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

ArcGIS Pro provides the capability for viewing and analyzing FMV-compliant videos.

pro.arcgis.com

That looks like it would do the trick, but out of my reach financially and skill-wise.

 

[smcrmo]

There’s something called Google Earth Studio which is like the video version of Google Earth. It won’t incorporate your drone video but it will allow you to make videos using Google Earth and use KML overlays.

To incorporate it with actual drone video is possible but, just being frank with you, it requires prerequisite knowledge of VFX techniques that you probably don’t have. You could certainly learn, but not overnight, and If you really want to go down that rabbit hole, there’s an effect in Adobe After Effects called 3D camera tracker which will allow you to attach a 2D image to a flat 3D surface in a video. You would just run 3D camera tracker on your video, find a tracking point that is roughly parallel to the ground and attached your property outline to it. It will take some finessing to get it right and only you’d need a powerful computer to see what you are doing.

Also, I mentioned a flat surface earlier so if your property has abrupt elevation changes it will take a whole lot of tweaking to get right.

I'm familiar with GES and will probably end up creating a separate video file to be used in Google Earth in addition to the drone video.

 

[PepperBird]

My company does drone surveying in Liberia.
We produce orthomosaics and 360 panoramas
1) 140 acre orthomosaic
2) Red Area 360

I don't use video because video is linear and does not allow the user to "look" around the property like a 360 does. And video requires a lot of processing time!

 

[smcrmo]

My company does drone surveying in Liberia.
We produce orthomosaics and 360 panoramas
1) 140 acre orthomosaic
2) Red Area 360

I don't use video because video is linear and does not allow the user to "look" around the property like a 360 does. And video requires a lot of processing time!

Thanks!

 

[brett8883]

I'm familiar with GES and will probably end up creating a separate video file to be used in Google Earth in addition to the drone video.

Are you are familiar with bringing the GES project into After Effects and placing 3D objects in the video in After Effects? If so then you actually do have the prerequisite knowledge.

If you have mountainous terrain it does make it more complicated but it depends on the perspective and the amount of camera movement you have in the drone video. You could film the clips with this in mind and just do a high slow orbit which would significantly decrease the difficulty.

Here's a property outline clip I did using this method. Now I was kind of I was trying to push the limits of this method and won't do it on a clip with this much movement and this low to the ground again but at least it shows you what is possible. Sorry for the black bars, there was information in this video I needed to redact to share publicly.

property outline

This is "property outline" by Burkhart Media on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

vimeo.com

 

[G Saunders]

I didn't see where anybody mentioned using a video editor/compositor with multiple tracks, like Premiere or Camtasia?
That would let you get the plat with the borders on a track and stretch it out to fit over the video. It can be keyed and animated to move along a selected subject with the video.

 

[smcrmo]

Are you are familiar with bringing the GES project into After Effects and placing 3D objects in the video in After Effects? If so then you actually do have the prerequisite knowledge.

If you have mountainous terrain it does make it more complicated but it depends on the perspective and the amount of camera movement you have in the drone video. You could film the clips with this in mind and just do a high slow orbit which would significantly decrease the difficulty.

Here's a property outline clip I did using this method. Now I was kind of I was trying to push the limits of this method and won't do it on a clip with this much movement and this low to the ground again but at least it shows you what is possible. Sorry for the black bars, there was information in this video I needed to redact to share publicly.

property outline

This is "property outline" by Burkhart Media on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

vimeo.com

Pretty much exactly what I had in mind, thanks!

 

[brett8883]

Pretty much exactly what I had in mind, thanks!

Yea so you’ll need to use the 3D camera tracker effect in After Effects on your footage, let it run, could take awhile depending on your clip length, computer speed, and resolution. Doing this on short clips under 20 seconds and 1080P instead of 4k will make it go much faster. Could easily take an hour depending.

Once it’s done you’ll see a whole bunch of track points and when you hover over them you’ll see the angle of the surface it found. Choose one that is close to flat with your ground.

Then right click and select “make null and camera”

From there, it’s just like working with a GES project in After Effects.

To draw in your property outline:
Make a new shape layer
Click the 3D box on that layer in the timeline
Make the shape layer’s parent layer the null layer you created

IMPORTANT: rest the transform properties on the shape layer and zero out the position attributes

Also important: click on “contents” of the shape layer to make sure you are drawing on the shape layer you just made and not making a new shape layer when you use the pen tool.

I’ll see if I can make a video to upload so you can see me doing it.

 

[smcrmo]

Perfect, thanks so much!