How to Build a Map Animation with the AI Director
The AI Director turns a sentence like "drive from Oslo to Bergen, then up the coast" into a finished first cut: camera slides, pins, and routes that follow real roads, all timed to each other. It also builds news-style explainers: highlighted countries, arrows, warning rings, text and 3D ships or jets. You review it, adjust anything you like, and export it like any other project. This guide covers how to open it, how to write a prompt that works, and how credits are counted.
5 min read · Updated October 1, 2026
Watch the walkthrough
What you'll learn
- Open the AI Director and write a prompt that gives you a usable first cut
- Attach a GPX, KML, or GeoJSON track so the route follows your real recording
- Review, preview, and edit the slides it creates
- Know what one generation costs and what each plan includes
Step-by-step guide
- 1
Open the AI Director
On a new project, the AI Director bar is in the start panel at the bottom of the map: it starts with a purple AI Director label. On a project that already has slides, click the sparkles icon in the Studio header and choose AI Director: the same bar opens at the top of the map. There is no separate window; everything happens in the bar.
- 2
Describe the story
Write what you want in plain words, in any language: the places in order and how you travel each leg, or what to highlight and what text to show. Something like: Start with a wide view of Norway. Drive from Oslo to Bergen, then up the coast to Geirangerfjord. You don't need to describe the camera: the Director frames every shot from the real size of the places and your video format. Mention the camera only when you want something specific, like a total length, a top-down view, a constant zoom, or an orbit. On the bar over an existing map, the Trip, News explainer and Landmark buttons under an empty bar fill in an example to start from.
- 3
Attach a GPS track (optional)
If you recorded the trip, click the paperclip in the bar over your map (Pro) and pick a GPX, KML or GeoJSON file. Its name and distance show under the bar. With a track attached, the route is drawn along your real recording instead of a calculated road route, and the Director only plans the camera and pins around it. A track on its own is enough to generate. Click the X to remove it. On a new project, Animate a GPX track in the start panel does the same from a file alone.
- 4
Generate the animation
Press Enter or click the arrow. The bar turns into progress, showing your prompt and each step: Writing the script, Finding the places, Routing the legs, then Framing the shots, with a Cancel button. It usually takes a few seconds. When it finishes, the result lands on the map and plays once. A short note at the top says how many slides it added and lists anything it had to approximate, such as a place it couldn't find or a train with no rail route. If something goes wrong, the bar shows why and keeps your text so you can fix it and press Enter again.
- 5
Check the slides it built
The Storyboard now holds the whole shot list, named after the places, and the first slide is selected. A trip opens on a wide view of the whole journey, pauses at each stop, and ends on a reveal of every route. The Speed number between two slides is how many seconds the camera takes to travel from one to the next. Click any slide to jump the map to it. Each route draws while the camera carries it, and each stop's pin pops as the vehicle arrives.
- 6
Preview it
The new animation plays once by itself; click Play Preview to watch it again. The camera flies slide to slide, the routes draw themselves, and the vehicle at the end of each route drives along it. Click Pause or Cancel to stop. Watch for legs that feel too fast or too slow; those are the ones to adjust next.
- 7
Adjust and export
Everything the Director makes is a normal slide or map element, so edit it the usual way: change a Speed number, click a route or a marker to restyle it, or use Retake Slide on a slide to reframe it. Stops are regular pins with the place name. Generating again adds the new slides after the ones you already have (write start over in the prompt to replace them), so use Undo if you want to try a different prompt. When you are happy, click Export Video.
Pro tips
- Say how you travel each leg in your own words: fly, train, bus, car, ferry, bike, walk. Road legs (car, bus, motorcycle) and train legs follow real roads, cycling and walking legs follow paths, ferries follow shipping lanes, and flights are drawn as arcs. A leg with no route available is drawn as a straight line, and the note after generating tells you.
- Give times when they matter: a 10-second video sets the total length, 5 seconds from Oslo to Bergen fixes one leg, and a 3s hold pauses at a stop. Without times, each move is paced by how far the camera actually travels. Say quick or slow to change the overall pace.
- Besides pins and routes, the Director can highlight countries and named areas like states or islands (with a fill, outline, glow, pulse or spotlight), draw arrows and lines, add pulsing rings and text, and place 3D models such as warships, jets, tanks or soldiers that can move. It also stages action: units firing at each other (jets fire missiles, bombers drop bombs, tanks and ships shell, launchers fire rockets, soldiers shoot), missile or drone strikes that blow up their target, air defence shooting down drones in flight, explosions, and rocket launches. Describe it in order, like: tanks advance to the border, then artillery shells the town, and each hit is timed to land on camera. Name colours in plain words, like dark red. Put the story's words in quotes: short place names become tags on the map, and statements like 'TRADE AT RISK' become a broadcast caption strap fixed on screen (add one yourself with Caption on screen, in the menu next to Text). If you ask for dark mode, a flat map or no map labels, it switches those settings too. It does not add images, so add those yourself afterward.
- Each generation costs 1 credit. Free accounts get 3 credits once, to try it; they do not renew. Pro includes 50 credits a month, and Agency includes 150 a month shared by the whole team. Paid credits reset each month.