Drone shot or drone clips can really enhance your video. It add extra perspective to your video and almost everyone won’t mind watching a few second clip of a city, building or even nature.

Unfortunately, drones are expensive and you can’t fly them everywhere. Not to mention the skill you need to develop and flying it at the right time of day to get the best shots.

With Google Earth Studio, you can get drone clips without even leaving the comfort of your home or office.

Here’s how to use it.

You will need a Google account, which most people have. If not sign up for a Gmail account and that will be your Google account.

This works with a browser so you will need Google’s Chrome browser. I tried other browsers but it didn’t work.

Signed up for Google Earth Studio. It will ask you some questions of who you are and why you want to use Google Earth Studio. Athourization is almost instant so don’t worry to much about the answer you give.

Start The Easy Way

You can use Google Earth Studio either from a blank project or use templates. As a start, I suggest to use the templates. It helps you to get an idea how it all works and what you do to control the virtual drone.

Click on Blank Project, then Quick Start.

This will take you to the next screen which gives you options for how the drone will fly. I will use the Spiral example.

Next, select a location or a point of interest. You can do so using the globe or type in the name of place. For example I use the Sdyney Opera House.

You can position the center point using your mouse buttons or the arrow keys on your keyboard. The + and - buttons allows you to zoom in or zoom out to a lower or higher altitude.

Go to the next screen and here you have the options to select the Radius, Angle and Altitude of your virtual drone. If you are unsure, just use the default values and click next. You can fine tune these on the next page.

Adjusting The Drone Flight Path

The next page gives you the option to choose how long your clip will be. You can select up to 30 seconds.

Next, it will take you to a page that looks a bit like a video editor with timeline and keyframes.

Here you can adjust the flight path of the drone, the altitude, camera target, pan and tilt. You can use the default or set your own using the keyframe on the left.

As your drone orbits the location, you can decide to change these parameters. On the left, there is a “Add Attributes” button. This allows you add extra attributes like your camera field of view, time of day, 3D building, clouds and etc.

Render Your Video

Once you are happy with the results, you can render your video. There are settings to render at 1080p or higher as well as adding map style. It also allows for VR or virtual reality post processing effects.

Click on Submit to render the video to the cloud. You will receive an email to tell you when the render is ready for download.

Finally, just download the clip and use it in your favourite video editing software.

Video Tutorial

If you prefer a video tutorial, watch the video below.

Check out my training courses to help you with creating videos easily.