Learn Mapimator

A — Global Header

• Logo & plan badge — Shows your current plan.
• Project bar — Open a project, start a new one, rename the current one, and save.
• Place search (center) — Type a city (e.g. "Paris") and pick a result. Choose New slide to add a camera stop there, or Drop a pin to mark it. Ctrl/Cmd + Enter only flies the camera there.
• Command palette — Ctrl/Cmd + K lists every action in the Studio.
• Sparkles menu — Opens the AI Director bar, or the Templates gallery.
• Export Video — Opens the export dialog. It needs at least 2 slides, and turns into Cancel while rendering.

B — 3D Stage (Main Map)

• Left-click + drag — Pan across the map.
• Right-click + drag / Ctrl + drag — Orbit and pitch the camera for 3D depth.
• Right-click (long-press on touch) — Opens a menu to add a pin, text, route or new slide exactly where you clicked.
• Scroll wheel — Zoom in and out.
• Map style square (bottom-left) — Hover or tap to open View (projection, atmosphere, 3D Terrain), Labels and Map Type.
• Projections — Toggle between Globe (spherical) and Mercator (flat).
• Map Type — Satellite, Classic, Streets, Light, Dark. Each slide can use its own map type.

C — Quick-Add Toolbar

Across the top of the stage. Most tools add content at the current center of your view; the arrow beside a tool opens its variants.

D — Storyboard (Bottom Panel)

Your animation is a sequence of Slides. Each slide is a camera stop. The Slides / Timeline switch at the left of the panel swaps this view for the Timeline, where you set exact timing.

• Rename — Click the label at the top of any card to rename it.
• Easing icon — Controls camera speed between slides (see Camera & Easing section).
• Retake Slide — Found in the "…" menu as "Retake Slide (use current camera)". Syncs the slide to your current map position. The same menu also has Duplicate Slide and Add Camera Shot.
• Transition timing pill — The "X.Xs" pill between cards. Click to type a custom duration.

How slides work

Each slide stores a complete camera state: position (latitude/longitude), zoom level, pitch (tilt), and bearing (rotation). The animation smoothly interpolates between consecutive slides over the duration you set.

Retake Slide

Navigate the map to exactly the position you want, then open the "…" menu on a slide card and click Retake Slide (use current camera). This overwrites that slide's stored camera state with whatever is currently on screen.

Transition timing

The pill between two cards controls how long the camera takes to travel between them. Click it and type any value in seconds. Short durations (1–2s) feel like jump cuts. Longer durations (5–10s) feel like cinematic fly-overs.

Keyboard shortcuts

• Space — Toggle play/pause preview
• Delete / Backspace — Remove selected slide or element
• Ctrl/Cmd + D — Duplicate the selected slide or element
• Right-click drag — Pitch the map for 3D depth

Air

Draws a smooth arc between two points, simulating a plane route. Great for intercontinental or long-distance travel.

Car, Moto, Bike, Walk

Fetches real road or path geometry from a routing engine. The path follows actual streets and highways. Moving a handle re-fetches the route automatically.

Direct, Train, Sea, File

Direct is a straight line between two points. Train and Sea use the matching vehicle, and File follows a GPX, KML or GeoJSON track you upload.

Clicking regions on the map

1. Zoom out to show the region you want (e.g. Western Europe).
2. Open the arrow beside Region in the Quick-Add Toolbar and choose Click on the map. The button changes to Done picking.
3. Hover over a country — it glows to show it's selectable.
4. Click to add it as a Region element. Shift + click keeps picking. Press Esc or click Done picking to stop.
5. Zoom in further to select individual US states or Canadian provinces instead of whole countries.

Using the Highlight regions search

Click the Region tool to open Highlight regions. Search for a country, group (such as NATO or ASEAN) or continent, tick as many as you like, and add them all at once. You can also draw your own area or upload GeoJSON from the same dialog.

Once added, select the region element and use the Style tab for color, opacity, fill reveals, border animations, glow and Lift. The Timing tab sets when it appears. Combine a 50% opacity region with an image element (your logo) for a professional corporate look.

Pins

• Bubble — Text label inside a rounded bubble. Good for city names.
• Standard Pin — Classic teardrop marker.
• Dot — Minimal circle. Good for dense maps with many locations.
• Marker — Larger, more prominent icon.
• Text only, Emoji — A label with no pin, or an emoji as the pin.

Images

Upload an image or GIF from your computer. The image is placed at the center of your current view and anchored to that coordinate. Use this for logos, photos, or custom icons. Resize and reposition after placing. To place a scanned or historical map on the globe instead, use Map overlay under the Image arrow (Pro).

Shapes

• Line — A simple straight line.
• Arrow — A line with a directional arrowhead.
• Circle — Highlight a circular area.
• Rectangle — Box selection or callout.

All shapes support dashed line styles and custom colors.

GeoJSON import

GeoJSON is an open standard for encoding geographic data. You can upload a .geojson file into the Studio to animate custom paths, country boundaries, district outlines, or flight corridors. Points import from the arrow next to Pin in the toolbar; lines and polygons load into a Route or Region you add first. Importing requires a Pro plan.

1. LineString → route: add a Route, then set Travel Mode to File in the right panel and pick your file.
2. Polygon → region: open the Region tool and click Upload GeoJSON.
3. The geometry is placed on the map as an editable element.

Only the first LineString in a FeatureCollection is imported — split multiple lines into separate files. The route importer also accepts .gpx and .kml.

Location search

Use the place search at the top of the Studio (press / to focus it) to find any city, landmark, or address worldwide. Choose New slide to fly there and add a slide, or Drop a pin to mark it. No manual coordinate entry required.

Phase 1 — Prewarming (0–30%)

The camera silently jumps through every frame of your animation to force the map engine to download and cache all tiles, buildings, and labels. This eliminates gray boxes or blurry textures that would otherwise appear in the final video.

Phase 2 — Rendering (30–100%)

The Studio captures frames one by one and sends them to the encoder. When complete, your browser automatically downloads the file as map-animation-[timestamp].mp4 (or .gif).