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Explainer · 16:9 · 5.5 s

Explainer

Yemen map animation on a paper map, made without After Effects

A paper-style explainer shot of Yemen’s Red Sea coast lit in red with ships moving along it, rebuilt in Maptake from a popular After Effects tutorial.

Agent · new video

Opens in the editor, free to start. Your words are filled in; you press send there.

Open this project in the editor All examples

Opens an editable copy in your own account, on any plan. Change the places, the words and the timing; the look stays.

Guide: Switch from GEOlayers · Highlight a country

How it is built in the editor

  1. New 16:9 project at 60 fps. The basemap is set to one beige paper colour, with roads, rivers, borders and land cover turned off.
  2. Terrain relief on, with soft shadows and highlights lit from the north-west, drawn under the areas.
  3. Sea depth as ten imported area layers, deepest first, each a darker blue.
  4. Yemen’s border as a crimson stroke with a thin dark outline that grows with zoom; neighbouring coasts in their own colours.
  5. The word YEMEN laid flat on the map surface, rotated 48°, fading in at 1.4 s.
  6. 22 ship dots as image labels, most of them drifting with position keyframes.
  7. Five camera shots with easing: push in, dive, turn, settle.
  8. Effects on the whole video: blur outside an elliptical focus, lens fringe, film grain and two gradient overlays.

What is in the project

5 camera shots · 23 labels · 20 areas. Every one of them is a layer on the timeline that you can select, retime or restyle.

Words on screen: “YEMEN”.

What is on screen: A paper-style map of the Red Sea coast: Yemen’s shore lit in red while dark dots of ships move along it.

Make your own version

Open the project, then change it by hand on the timeline or ask the agent in the chat. Ideas to start from, with a sentence you can give the agent:

  • Another coast with shipping traffic.

    “Keep the paper look and the camera moves. Make it the Taiwan Strait, with Taiwan’s coast lit in red and ships crossing.”

  • A port city instead of a country.

    “Same look. Push into the port of Rotterdam, with ship dots moving into the harbour.”

The free plan opens and edits this project and exports up to 1280 px, videos up to 10 seconds, with a watermark, for personal use. Satellite, 3D terrain and audio in exports, 4K and commercial use come with Pro. See plans.

How it was made

Built by hand in the Maptake editor, without After Effects or a plugin, as a rebuild of a popular After Effects map tutorial on YouTube. Every layer, camera key and label is editable.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, Natural Earth. Tiles © Protomaps. Satellite imagery: Esri.

More after effects tutorials, rebuilt