How to Draw Arrows on an Animated Map
Arrows show movement that a pin cannot: an army advancing, a trade route, a migration, a river's flow. In Mapimator an arrow is a Shape with a start point, an end point, and an optional head on each end. You can bend it, switch it to the filled, tapering style of printed war maps, colour it, and have it draw itself in when its slide arrives.
6 min read · Updated October 2, 2026
What you'll learn
- Add an arrow with the Shape tool and place its two ends
- Pick from six arrowhead shapes and add a second head for a two-way arrow
- Bend an arrow, or switch to a tapered body for the war-map look
- Set the colour and width, and time each arrow's draw-in
Step-by-step guide
- 1
Add a shape from the toolbar
Select the slide where the arrow should first appear, then click Shape in the Quick-Add toolbar. The Studio drops a short, dashed amber line at the centre of the map, with a small bar beside it. Click More to open the shape's settings on the right. Shape Type, on the Style tab, starts on Line.
- 2
Switch to Arrow and place both ends
Click Arrow (1) under Shape Type. An Arrow is a Line that already has a Triangle head on its end. Drag the start handle (2) and the end handle (3) to where the arrow should begin and finish. You can also type a place into the Start Point or End Point box at the bottom of the panel and pick a result, or use Pick on map beside each box.
- 3
Choose a head shape
In the Arrowheads section, the End row sets the head at the finishing end. Pick one of six shapes: Triangle, Open, Barbed, Diamond, Dot, or Bar. None leaves a plain line. Head Size scales the head from 0.5× to 3×. Heads also grow with the line, because their length follows Stroke Width.
- 4
Make it two-way
The Start row (2) works like the End row (1) but sets the head at the start of the line. Pick a shape in both rows and the arrow points both ways, which suits trade or movement in both directions. Set the Start row back to None for a one-way arrow.
- 5
Bend the arrow
Line and Arrow shapes have a Bend slider from -100 to 100. Leave it in the middle for a straight arrow. Drag it right and the arrow bulges to the left of its direction of travel; drag it left and it bulges the other way. Bending keeps the two ends where you put them, so a curve can route around a coastline or another arrow.
- 6
Turn on Tapered Body for a war arrow
Switch on Tapered Body to replace the line with a filled arrow that starts thin and widens toward the head, like the advance arrows on printed military maps. Its thickness is measured against the arrow's length, so it grows and shrinks with the map when you zoom. A tapered arrow offers only the None, Triangle, and Barbed heads, and the Start row disappears.
- 7
Set the colour and width
Under Line, pick a colour swatch (1) for the arrow, use Opacity to fade it, and set Width (2) from 0.5 to 10 px. On a tapered arrow the width sets how heavy the body is. Dashed Line applies to plain lines only, and new shapes start with it on, so turn it off for a solid line. On a map with a shaded region, lower the region's fill opacity so the arrows stay easy to read.
- 8
Time the draw-in
Animation is on by default. The arrow grows from its start point to its end point with the head riding the tip. On the Timing tab, open Animation: Animate in (1) turns the draw-in on or off. Duration and Delay (2) each run up to 10 seconds: Duration is how long the arrow takes to draw, Delay is how long it waits after its slide begins. Give a second arrow a longer Delay to stagger a main thrust and a flank. To end an arrow on a later slide, select the arrow and, under On screen, set Disappears at to that slide.
Interactive walkthrough coming soon
A visual step-by-step guide with annotated screenshots will be available here. In the meantime, follow the written steps above or watch the video tutorials.
Watch video tutorials →Pro tips
- Build an advance one phase at a time. Give each phase its own slide, add that phase's arrows while the slide is selected, and set Disappears at, under On screen on the Timing tab, on the ones that should end.
- The orange handles only show while you edit. Play Preview and exported videos do not show them.
- Turn off Neighborhoods and Roads in the map controls panel (the tile in the bottom-left corner) so labels do not compete with the arrows.
- Use the Region tool to shade the territory an arrow moves into, then lower that region's fill Opacity so the arrows read on top of it.