Studio Interface Overview: A Tour of the Editor

Step-by-step guide

1. 1

   Name the project and find a place

   The top bar starts with two icons and the project name. The folder icon (1) opens the Projects dialog with your saved maps and a New Project button. The plus icon starts a fresh project after asking you to confirm, because unsaved changes are lost. Click the name to rename the map; it holds up to 20 characters. The search box (2) takes a place name: type it, pick a result, and the map jumps there. The search box is hidden when the browser window is narrower than about 1280 pixels.

   

2. 2

   Save, undo, and export from the top right

   The Save button (1) reads Save Changes with an amber dot while you have unsaved edits, and Saved with a green dot once everything is stored. The two arrows (2) are Undo and Redo; they are grayed out when there is nothing to step back or forward to. The sparkle icon (3) opens a Creative Studio menu with AI Director and Templates. Export Video (4) is the white button at the far right; it needs at least two slides.

   

3. 3

   Add content with the Quick-Add toolbar

   The floating bar across the top of the map holds seven tools: Pin, Route, Text, Region, Shape, Image, and 3D. Click Pin and it drops a pin labeled Here at the center of the map, starting on the slide you have selected, and opens a small bar beside it for its name, style, and color. The More button on that bar opens the full settings panel on the right. Route, Text, and Shape are added the same way. The small arrows next to Pin, Route, and Text hold their variants: Import pins from a file, Hub & spoke network, and Caption on screen. Region opens a window where you search for a region, click one on the map, or upload your own. Importing pins, hub & spoke networks, and picking regions on the map need a paid plan and show a lock on a free account. The bar hides while a preview plays or an export runs.

   

4. 4

   Tilt the camera and open the map controls

   The vertical Tilt slider (1) in the bottom-left corner sets the camera angle; 0 degrees looks straight down and you can drag it up to 85. Under it, the square tile (2) shows the current map style. Hover over it to open the map controls panel (3), or tap it on a touch screen. The panel has three columns: View with Globe, Flat, Atmosphere, and 3D Terrain; Labels with All Labels, Cities, Countries, Roads, and Neighborhoods; and Map Type with Satellite, Modern, Light, Ink, and Terrain.

   

5. 5

   Switch between Slides and Timeline

   The switch at the left of the bottom bar changes how you edit the same project. Slides, the default, shows one card per camera position. Timeline shows a time ruler with a CAMERA row of diamonds, one per slide, and one row for every element, with a bar for when it is on screen. A red playhead marks the current moment. The button with a plus and a diamond adds a camera keyframe at the playhead, and so does the K key. The magnifier buttons zoom the ruler. Switch back to Slides at any time; nothing is lost.

   

6. 6

   Preview the animation and pick a frame shape

   Play Preview (1) plays the animation in the editor and needs at least two slides. While it plays, the button becomes Pause and Cancel, and the Space bar pauses too. The four icons next to it (2) are Wide, Web, Mobile, and Square. Wide gives you the most room to work. Web, Mobile, and Square crop the map to that video shape so you see the framing you will export; the screenshot shows Mobile. They also set the shape in the Export dialog. Preview Full (3) opens Playback Quality with Full, 1/2, and 1/4, which only changes the preview. The FPS button (4) switches between 60 and 30 frames per second for building, previewing, and exporting.

   

7. 7

   Open Elements and Shortcuts, and read the running time

   Elements (1) opens the Elements panel, which lists every pin, route, text, and region in the project. Shortcuts (2) opens the Shortcuts and Controls dialog. At the right end of the bar, the running time and slide count (3) update as you edit. Here four slides with 4 seconds between each add up to 12 seconds, and the extra 2 seconds is the hold on the final view, so the total reads 14.0s.

   

8. 8

   Build the story in the storyboard

   Each card in the bottom panel (1) is a slide, a saved camera position. Click a card to jump the map to it, edit its name in place, use the wave icon for Swoop and camera moves into the next slide, set its easing from the small pill under the Duration field, and use the three-dot menu for Retake Slide, Add Camera Shot, and Delete Slide. The Duration field between cards (2) sets how many seconds that move takes. The plus button (3) adds a slide from the view you are looking at, named View and a number. Its Speed starts at 5 seconds. The wand button (4) opens Magic Templates. To reorder, press and hold a card for a moment, then drag it. The cards show a map icon rather than a preview picture.