Features

Everything you need to animate a trip, free.

MapAnimate is a full map-animation studio in your browser. Here is everything it does today; the changelog shows what's new.

Route

Draw by clicking: Click the map to add stops; drag points to move them; click the line to insert a point between two others.
Place search: Find any city, peak, lake or address with the search box (Photon / OpenStreetMap).
Track import: GPX, KML, KMZ and IGC. Files with several tracks are joined in order.
Simplify: Reduce a 20,000-point GPS track to a clean line with one slider.
Legs: Change transport partway through a trip; each leg has its own colour, line style, path shape and speed.
Pauses: Stop the line at any point for as many seconds as you like.
Reverse: Flip a whole route so it starts at the other end.
Great-circle flights: Flights follow the real shortest path over the globe and cross the date line the short way.
Follow roads: Car, bus, bike and walking legs can snap to real roads, cycle routes and footpaths from OpenStreetMap. Drag a point to choose the way.
Touch editing: On a phone or tablet, tap to add stops and drag points with a finger.

Six styles: Map pin, tag, passport stamp, flag, instant-print photo and callout card.
16 glyphs: Hotel, camp, summit, viewpoint, food, café, landmark, beach, harbour and more.
Appear on arrival: Signs can pop in as the line reaches them, or stay on the map all the time.
Your photos: Photo prints use your own pictures, which are stored only in your browser.

16 map styles: From Field Notes and Old Atlas to Midnight, Neon Night, Blueprint and Satellite.
3D globe: Show the map as a round planet: long flights curve over the Earth, and on trips that circle the world the globe turns with the route. Close up it becomes a flat map again.
Hill shading & 3D mountains: Real elevation data for relief shading and true 3D terrain.
Label language: Show place names in local script, English or one of many other languages.
Line styling: Width, glow, outline, solid, dashed, dotted or railway track, one colour or a colour per transport, a fading comet trail and an optional ghost of the route ahead.
Animated vehicles: Planes climb mid-flight with a shadow and contrail, trains pull carriages, boats leave a wake, walkers leave footprints, rotors spin.
Arrival pulses: A ring pulses on the map when the line reaches a stop.
Compass: An optional compass rose that turns with the map.

Multiple scenes: Split a long trip into chapters, up to 20 per video. Each has its own route, camera, timing and title card.
Transitions: The camera flies from where one scene ends to where the next begins, or fades through black, or cuts.
Trip so far: Earlier scenes stay on the map, full or faded, and the distance counter keeps adding up across scenes.
Finale: An optional zoom-out over the whole trip at the end of the video.
Layout presets: Clean, Cinematic, Journal, Data and Minimal, in one click.
Title cards: Cinematic centre title, lower third or corner tag, with a subtitle.
Leg labels: A chip such as “Train · 583 km” as each leg starts.
Distance counter: Live distance and current transport, in km or miles.
Frame finishing: Vignette, film grain and cinematic letterbox bars.

Follow: Stays with the marker. North-up or heading-up, adjustable tilt and zoom, framing each stop-to-stop section so flights and long drives stay in view.
Glide: Moves smoothly from a start shot to an end shot while the line draws.
Fixed: Frame the shot yourself; the camera holds still.
Overview: Automatically frames the whole route.
Intro & outro: Hold the first and last frame, and zoom out to the whole route at the end.

Music: Add your own track with volume, start point, fade in and out, and looping.
Voice-over: Record narration for each scene while it plays, or add an audio file. The music dips automatically while you speak.
Sound effects: Jet roar, rail clatter, engine hum, waves, footsteps and hooves for each way of travel, a whoosh between scenes and a chime at each stop. Made in your browser, free to use anywhere.

MP4 up to 4K: H.264 MP4 at 1080p, 1440p or 2160p (4K), with music, voice-over and effects mixed into an AAC soundtrack.
Transparent WebM: The route, vehicle and titles without the map (VP9 with alpha), to layer over your own footage.
GIF: A small looping GIF for chats, docs and READMEs.
Frame rates: 24, 30 or 60 fps.
Formats: 16:9 landscape, 9:16 vertical, 1:1 square, 4:5 portrait.
Local rendering: Encoded on your computer with WebCodecs. Nothing is uploaded.

Autosave: Every change is saved in your browser automatically.
Project files: Download a project file to back it up or move it to another computer.
Undo & redo: Full history with Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z.
Templates: Start from famous routes like Route 66 or the Camino de Santiago.

Free, in your browser, no account. MP4 up to 4K.