I'd like to do something like the below animated gif... but use a "real" zoom like from Google Earth.

http://www.jackson8.com/images/ayr.gif

Do any of you know of an app that will make it easier than trying to do a .gif with so many layers? Thanks!

You could capture video from your PC using something like camtasia studio and then crop it and turn it into a gif with some software (cant remember the name of it now but can find it when at home).

I would do it by capturing each frame though.

So are Google earth "zooms" actual videos?

No it's programmatical, mostly picture interpolation where the picture changes when you reach a certain interval. But you can capture it as you do it yourself.

I see. Cool. I'll try video capture and conversion to .gif.