How to Animate a Travel Route on a Map

Step by step

1. 1

   Pick the scale of the story

   Route Pin Travel shows a multi-stop trip, with pins dropping along a dashed line. World Flight Routes shows arcs across a dotted world map, and Dot Globe Connections does the same on a spinning globe. Country Highlight marks one region, and City Grid Delivery follows a route through abstract streets.

2. 2

   Know what is fixed

   Routes and cities are built into each preset, so you cannot type your own stops. Route Pin Travel runs London, Paris, Rome, Cairo, Dubai. You control Primary, Secondary, Accent, Thickness, Scale and Easing. Country Highlight adds Title and Target X and Y, which move the highlight to any region.

3. 3

   Set the pace

   Defaults are 7.5 to 10 seconds, up to 60. Speed sets how fast the arcs and globe run, and the globe starts at 0.1 for a slow spin. Route Pin Travel takes its pace from Duration, so add seconds to slow the line. City Grid Delivery's Variation generates a new street route.

4. 4

   Export the whole shot

   All five presets start on a dark solid fill, so MP4 is the natural choice for a map that is the whole shot. To lay a route over something else, set Background to Transparent and export WebM with alpha for CapCut or Resolve, or a PNG sequence for Premiere Pro.

5. 5

   Label it in the edit

   Only Country Highlight carries its own label. In Premiere Pro, drop the MP4 on the timeline and add place names with the Type tool, timed to when each pin lands. Cut in DaVinci Resolve the same way, using a text title above the map clip.

Where it is used

• Company reach slides

  An investor or recruitment video illustrating global offices or customers with Dot Globe Connections, cut under the voiceover line about where the company operates today.

• History and geography

  An educational video marking the country under discussion with Country Highlight, with the region lighting up and the label appearing as the narrator names it.

• Logistics and delivery ads

  A local courier or food delivery ad using City Grid Delivery to show a marker reaching a pulsing destination pin, with no real map data or map provider involved.

Presets

5

Default duration

7.5 to 10 seconds, up to 60

Routes

Built into each preset, not editable

Aspect ratios

16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:5

Which format should you export?

MP4 at full frame. A route or a globe is usually the whole shot, and the compression is better without an alpha channel.

Format

MP4 · WebM · PNG sequence

Alpha

WebM or PNG sequence

Resolution

720p to 8K

Aspect

16:9 · 9:16 · 1:1 · 4:5

License

Commercial use included

Three tips that make it look intentional

• Two or three stops per clip; more turns the map into a diagram.
• Let the line finish before the label appears.
• Use a muted map and a bright route so the path is the only thing moving.

Three things people get wrong

• Drawing the route faster than the viewer can follow the geography.
• Pinning ten cities in one beat, which turns a journey into a scatter plot.
• Using a map projection that makes the route look wrong for the distance described.

Frequently asked