Documentary-style explainer videos have nowadays become a great video niche being watched by millions of people. At the core of these videos are map animations that are visually appealing along with acting as an anchor to showcase the storytelling.
The videos of YouTube channel, Vox and one of its former video producer who now works independent, Johnny Harris have set standards on map animation videos that everyone now wants to imitate.
There are many tools to create map animation videos like using Google Maps, and its advanced version, Google Earth Studio. You can also animate an image version of a map through After Effects or any other video editing software.
But, the software that is being used by Vox, Johnny Harris, and other professional creators is a plugin of After Effects called GEOlayers 3. You can easily make map animation videos through this tool enhancing your storytelling.
GEOlayers 3 Plugin for Map Animation Videos
GEOlayers 3 is a plugin of After Effects, the most-popular motion graphics software by Adobe, that lets to design and animate maps directly into After Effects.
It is capable of rendering custom maps from different online data sources along with providing access to extensive databases of geospatial features of the world.
You can easily create an After Effects composition with GEOlayers plugin, and animate the map by zooming in and out, rotating, drawing shapes and lines, and adding texts.
All the tools and animation features of After Effects can be applied into the map composition. If you are aware of the capabilities of Adobe’s motion graphics software, then you can easily make professional-looking map animations through this plugin.
| Name of the Plugin | GEOlayers 3 |
| Main Software | After Effects |
| Type | Paid |
| Single User License | $329.99 |
| Floating Server License | $599.99 |
| Developer | www.aescripts.com |
How to Use GEOlayers 3 in After Effects?
After purchasing a license, you’ll get a download file of GEOlayers 3 plugin and a license code. You can install the plugin on your computer with the help of any ZXP Installer, or use the official plugin of aescripts + aeplugins.
Once the plugin is installed, open After Effects and locate it inside Extensions option under Window Menu and activate it by entering your license code.
Add the GEOlayers plugin into your workspace in any panel and you are now ready to create map animations. Here’s a quick guide.
- Click on the ‘New Project’ option in the GEOlayers panel.
- Set composition size, framerate and duration, and click ‘Next’.
- Then select a map-style from different given styles like Bing Aerial, ESRI, Natural Earth, Mapbox Satellite, etc.
- As you click on ‘Create’ your mapcomp will be created and now you can animate it using keyframes and other tools in After Effects.
- You can drag the map to get your desired location, search a specific location in the search bar, and even animate the map using ‘keyframe’ option available in the GEOlayers panel itself.
Watch the below given tutorial video for more details on how to use GEOlayers 3 plugin to create amazing map animations using After Effects.