# MapAnimate

> Turn any trip into an animated map video for YouTube, Reels and TikTok. Draw your route or drop a GPX, pick a map style, add stops and export an MP4 up to 4K. Free, no account, no watermark.

MapAnimate is a free web app (https://mapanimate.com/) that makes animated map videos of trips for travellers, travel vloggers, YouTubers, Instagram/TikTok creators and outdoor enthusiasts. Everything runs in the browser: there is no account, no watermark and no upload. Routes, files and photos stay on the user's computer and the MP4 is encoded locally.

Key facts:
- Price: free. No account, no watermark, no export limits. Funded by donations; sponsors appear only on the website.
- Input: draw a route by clicking the map, or import GPX, KML, KMZ (Google My Maps / Google Earth) or IGC files.
- Transports (26): Walking, Hiking, Running, Cycling, Motorbike, Scooter, Tuk-tuk, Car, 4x4, Campervan, Bus, Overland truck, Train, Tram, Ferry, Sailboat, Speedboat, Kayak, Swimming, Plane, Helicopter, Hot-air balloon, Cable car, Paraglider, Horse, Skiing. Flights are drawn as great-circle arcs.
- Map styles (16): Field Notes, Old Atlas, Midnight, Topographic, Satellite, Blueprint, Neon Night, Golden Hour, Monochrome, Desert Road, Nordic Frost, Chalkboard, Watercolour, Pastel, Mediterranean, Dusk. Optional hill shading and 3D mountains.
- Signs: map pins, tags, passport stamps, flags, photo prints and callouts. They can appear when the line arrives.
- Animated vehicles: planes climb with a shadow and contrail, trains pull carriages, boats leave wakes, walkers leave footprints.
- Scene layouts: Clean, Cinematic, Journal, Data and Minimal presets with title cards, leg labels, a live distance counter, vignette, film grain and letterbox.
- Camera: follow (north-up or heading-up, auto zoom-out on long legs), glide from a start shot to an end shot, fixed, and overview.
- Export: MP4 (H.264 with an AAC soundtrack) at 1080p, 1440p or 4K; 24, 30 or 60 fps; 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 and 4:5. Also transparent WebM (VP9 with alpha) to layer over your own footage, and GIF.
- Multiple scenes: up to 20 chapters per video, each with its own route, camera and title, joined by camera flights or fades, with an optional zoom-out finale over the whole trip.
- Follow roads: car, bike and walking legs can snap to real roads and paths (OpenStreetMap routing).
- 3D globe: the map can be shown as a round planet; wide shots show the curve of the Earth and the globe turns to follow round-the-world trips.
- Music: add your own track with volume, start point, fades and looping; mixed into the MP4.
- Voice-over: record narration per scene while it plays (or add an audio file); the music dips under the voice automatically.
- Sound effects: built-in, synthesised in the browser and free to use: a sound per transport (jet, rail, engine, waves, footsteps), whooshes between scenes and chimes at stops.
- Requirements: a recent Chrome or Edge works best (WebGL + WebCodecs). Phones and tablets can edit and export, more slowly. Rendering carries on in a background tab.
- Commercial use of exported videos is allowed; keep the small OpenStreetMap credit in the corner.

## Main pages

- [Editor](https://mapanimate.com/editor): the free in-browser editor
- [Features](https://mapanimate.com/features): full feature list
- [About / facts](https://mapanimate.com/about): plain facts, limits and privacy
- [FAQ](https://mapanimate.com/faq): common questions
- [Map styles](https://mapanimate.com/styles): all map themes
- [Transports](https://mapanimate.com/transports): all transport types
- [Famous routes](https://mapanimate.com/routes): ready-made templates

## Guides

- [How to turn a GPX file into an animated map video](https://mapanimate.com/guides/gpx-to-animated-map-video): Turn the GPX track from your Garmin, Strava, Komoot or phone into an animated map video in a few minutes, free and in your browser.
- [How to make an animated travel map for YouTube](https://mapanimate.com/guides/animated-travel-map-for-youtube): Make the animated route map that travel YouTubers use in their vlogs: a line that draws from city to city, with stops, transport icons and smooth camera moves.
- [Vertical map animations for Reels, Shorts and TikTok](https://mapanimate.com/guides/vertical-map-animation-reels-shorts-tiktok): Make a 9:16 animated travel map for Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and TikTok, with safe areas, short timings and bold styles that read on a phone.
- [How to make the classic adventure-film travel map](https://mapanimate.com/guides/adventure-film-travel-map): Recreate the classic old-movie travel montage, a red line crawling across an antique map, often called the "Indiana Jones map effect", for free in your browser.
- [Show a trip with planes, trains and ferries on one map](https://mapanimate.com/guides/multi-transport-trip-map): Animate a multi-modal journey, flying in, taking the train, catching a ferry and finishing on foot, with a different icon, colour and line style for each leg.
- [How to animate flight paths on a map](https://mapanimate.com/guides/flight-path-animation): Animate flights as realistic great-circle arcs that cross oceans and the date line correctly, with a plane icon, for travel videos and round-the-world recaps.
- [How to make a travel map video in chapters (scenes)](https://mapanimate.com/guides/travel-map-video-with-scenes): Split a long trip into scenes, one per country, week or day, each with its own route, camera and title, joined by camera flights and finished with a zoom-out over the whole journey.
- [How to add music, voice-over and sound effects to a map animation](https://mapanimate.com/guides/map-animation-music-voice-over): Add a music track, record a voice-over for each scene and switch on built-in sound effects, all mixed into the MP4 in your browser.
- [How to make an animated route that follows the roads](https://mapanimate.com/guides/animated-route-following-roads): Draw a road trip, bike ride or walk by clicking a few points and let the line snap to real roads, cycle routes and footpaths from OpenStreetMap.
- [How to overlay an animated route on your own video](https://mapanimate.com/guides/transparent-route-overlay): Export the animated route, vehicle, signs and titles as a transparent WebM video and layer it over drone footage, a map from another source or your own graphics.
- [How to animate a trip on a 3D globe](https://mapanimate.com/guides/3d-globe-travel-animation): Show long flights and round-the-world trips on a spinning 3D Earth: arcs curve over the planet, the atmosphere glows at the edge, and the globe turns to follow the route.

## Famous route templates

- [Route 66](https://mapanimate.com/routes/route-66): The Mother Road from Chicago to Santa Monica across eight states, through Missouri, the Oklahoma plains, the Texas Panhandle and the Mojave Desert.
- [Trans-Siberian Railway](https://mapanimate.com/routes/trans-siberian): The longest railway line on Earth, from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Pacific, past the Urals, the Siberian taiga and Lake Baikal.
- [Camino de Santiago (Camino Francés)](https://mapanimate.com/routes/camino-frances): The most popular Way of St James: about 780 km on foot from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port over the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela.
- [Iceland Ring Road](https://mapanimate.com/routes/iceland-ring-road): Route 1 around Iceland: waterfalls on the south coast, the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, the East Fjords, Lake Mývatn and Akureyri.
- [Pacific Coast Highway](https://mapanimate.com/routes/pacific-coast-highway): California's Highway 1 from San Francisco through Big Sur, Santa Barbara and Malibu to San Diego.
- [Interrail: Paris to Budapest](https://mapanimate.com/routes/interrail-central-europe): A classic first Interrail loop through six capitals: Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Budapest.
- [Banana Pancake Trail](https://mapanimate.com/routes/banana-pancake-trail): The classic Southeast Asia backpacker loop through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia by train, bus and plane.
- [Round-the-World Flights](https://mapanimate.com/routes/round-the-world): A classic eastbound round-the-world ticket: London, Dubai, Bangkok, Sydney, Auckland, Los Angeles, New York and home.
- [Great Ocean Road](https://mapanimate.com/routes/great-ocean-road): Australia's coast road from Melbourne past Torquay's surf beaches, the rainforest of the Otways and the Twelve Apostles to Warrnambool.
- [North Coast 500](https://mapanimate.com/routes/north-coast-500): A loop of about 830 km around the far north of Scotland from Inverness, over the Bealach na Bà to Applecross, up the wild west coast to Durness and back by John o' Groats.
- [Tour du Mont Blanc](https://mapanimate.com/routes/tour-du-mont-blanc): The classic Alpine trek of about 170 km around the Mont Blanc massif, through France, Italy and Switzerland, with roughly 10,000 m of climbing.
- [Japan's Golden Route](https://mapanimate.com/routes/japan-golden-route): The classic first trip to Japan by train: Tokyo, the hot springs of Hakone, Kyoto's temples, Nara's deer park, Osaka and on to Hiroshima.
- [Greek Island Hopping](https://mapanimate.com/routes/greek-island-hopping): Ferries from Athens' port of Piraeus across the Cyclades: Mykonos, Paros, Naxos and Santorini, then south to Crete.
- [Hurtigruten Coastal Voyage](https://mapanimate.com/routes/hurtigruten-coastal-voyage): The coastal ships from Bergen past the fjords, across the Arctic Circle to the Lofoten Islands, Tromsø, the North Cape and Kirkenes near the Russian border.

## Optional

- [Full text for LLMs](https://mapanimate.com/llms-full.txt): guides, FAQ, styles and transports in one file