After Effects: Making an animated map (1 of 2)

A couple of people have recently posted threads on the Creative Cow AE forum asking how to make an animated map, the kind you see on travel documentaries, so I've made this tutorial as a response. In this first part, I set up the effect. Make a stroke, orient your vehicle to travel along it, and make the stroke appear to emanate from the vehicle.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• after
• effects
• adobe
• tutorial
• cs3
• map
• animated
• documentary
• travel
• stroke
• shape

[qr0qulc1d]

great tutorial man! it saved my ass on a project :)

big thanx!!

[simonsaysfx]

Great! Glad it was useful.

[gadget706]

This same effect was in Indiana Jones!

[simonsaysfx]

And all amazing movies!

[cwam1122]

Fantastic! Never used AE before but was able to quickly and effectively follow this thorough tutorial.

Thx so much!

[simonsaysfx]

That's the best compliment there is! Thanks!

[fagerstrandaren]

Great tutorial man :) You know your stuff, you explain why you do the things you do, and how to do them. Thank you so much :) 

[kkhhoona]

I am cr4p at Photoshop, do youdo these for people, ie 33 days across the USA???

[Zott820]

I really enjoyed this tutorial, it covered most of the elements I need for my project. I wish you had mentioned how to orient the camera to stay focused on the trudging car, say for a close-up.

[yasser092000]

i have to develop a moving map for aircraft where the map can be rotated,scaled and text on the map would be kept upright when rotated.for this i think i will have to add an interface to let users select the features.can u suggest me any opens source or free software i can use to make this please?this is for a project.so i have to put some coding also.please help me.

thank you in anticipation.

[axl20G7]

Can anyone please tell me how you delete the background of the car (already done in this image)? I have a white background on a tiff file, no idea how to get rid of it! Thanks!

[henkiis]

very nice video, I almost did it, but everytime I finish I see the Black Solid in front, and not the map :( thanks.

[ianwaghorn]

Great videos! Where do you find the "on transparent" paint style in Flash CS5?

[020robertnl]

Thank you for this tutorial! As I am a newbie to AE it was really helpful. I already used it in one of my videos and it really works!

[JamesFitz004]

Fantastic! Never done a single animation before and you made it very very easy to learn the concepts that can be used.

Let the creativity commence! :)

[DerTinus19]

Thanks man! It helped me out a lot! :)