Drawing Animated Line on Map

MilesCrew wrote on 6/26/2009, 1:03 PM

I'm an amateur so there may be a better way, but the only thing I've done like that is with masking and keyframes. I had an old neon sign that was constantly lit, but I wanted it to actually "write" the neon sign letters as the video progressed. So, I had an overlay of the letters lit up, I hid it with masking, and progressively showed it with keyframes.

So, you could try having an overlay of the line only to place on top of the map. You could progressively show the line and make it look like it's drawing it.

Hope that makes sense.

Jøran Toresen wrote on 6/26/2009, 1:08 PM

Maybe this ” Route Generator” is something for you? I haven’t used it myself.

http://www.routegenerator.net/

Jøran Toresen

xberk wrote on 6/26/2009, 1:14 PM

Drawing on maps

Here's the thread that discusses it. I'd like to do this myself but having spent the time investigating the suggested solutions. Love to know how you come out on this and see some of the results.

blink3times wrote on 6/26/2009, 2:24 PM

RoutGen works.... although I'm not in love with their approach to generating a video from your work. It converts your movements to a huge series of BMP images and sews that together with BMPtoAVI

RouteGen does have a playback button so that you can see your work before you convert it. What I do is use the playback button in conjunction with a screen capture program (camtasia) to capture the route in action. I find this method a bit more reliable.

Jøran Toresen wrote on 6/26/2009, 2:41 PM

You can also use a video editor called EditStudio PRO. I bought it several years ago because of two features: It has a Route Tracer for animating routes or graphs and a Knock Out effect for removing on-screen text or graphics (like logos). Version 6 costs $89.

http://www.mediachance.com/video/index.html

Jøran Toresen

reberclark wrote on 6/26/2009, 3:55 PM

If the route doesn't double back on itself you can have the map image and a copy of it with the route on it and do a wipe between the two which gradually reveals the route while apparently leaving the map the same.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 6/26/2009, 3:57 PM

Uses all masking & it pretty easy.

Galeng wrote on 6/26/2009, 9:01 PM

Another way is to drop your map image into just about any photo editing software that supports layers. Create another layer for your map route and just draw your route. Save just the drawn route as a png file. In Vegas, place it above the track with your map and place a wipe transition on it.

As mentioned before, it just can't loop back over itself.

Galen

Byron K wrote on 6/27/2009, 2:28 AM

Great suggestion and the link to the other thread.

I have Particle Illusion but didn't think about using it for animating a map route. I'll have to play with the app to see what particle effect will work best.

Thanks!
Byron

TheHappyFriar wrote on 6/27/2009, 5:16 AM

multiple layers (one layer for each part of the line) would allow you more control.

I guess the issue is how much time you want to put in to it!

TorS wrote on 6/27/2009, 5:20 AM

I am always looking for the simplest solution and I have never undertood why so many people think they need to draw a line on the map to show a route. But questions like this have come up I don't know how many times.

Here's my advice:
Use a nice little graphic font representing the means of transportation and move it with the Vegas text generator (or pan/crop). You may add realistic sound (airplane, car, footsteps etc) and you may leave a graphic symbol at your stops (tent, hotel, picture of the people you visited etc.).
These kind of expediting manouvers should be kept as that, not turned into part of the entertainment and not allowed to go on and on.
Tor

PS.
creative variant 1: If you use an airplane you could change the shadow dynamically to indicate altitude.
creative variant 2: I suppose you could copy the moving events to another track, fade it slightly and shift it a little. Do this a few times and you will have something like a comet's tail behind the moving graphic - eventually fading out completely.

xberk wrote on 6/27/2009, 7:30 AM

I have never undertood why so many people think they need to draw a line on the map to show a route.

There are times when drawing a line seems best. I've done this ever which way since I'm doing a very long travel video series. Here's a short example going around Cape Horn where I thought drawing a line worked best.

Drawing a Line clip Private Video Password is: vegas

Complete Cape Horn video (4 min) no password needed

MarkWWW wrote on 6/27/2009, 8:18 AM

Try a search on "mapliner" which will find a program chienworks wrote that may do what you want.

Mark

Rosebud wrote on 6/27/2009, 1:58 PM

A way is to create a gradient map in Photoshop and use it as a mask:

Sample files

The result.

.

xberk wrote on 6/27/2009, 2:55 PM

A way is to create a gradient map in Photoshop and use it as a mask:

This is brilliant. No screen capture to get this, right? Can you explain briefly each step?

jrazz wrote on 6/27/2009, 3:17 PM

Here is a link to a veg file of the same concept as mentioned above with the wipe. I made it as an example for someone over on creativecow.net who wanted to show a cardiac rhythm as displayed on an EKG .

Feel free to use it however you wish.

The Link.

j razz

reberclark wrote on 6/27/2009, 3:45 PM

ROSEBUD: Wow! That works really well. I will use that from now on!

But why the gradient? Why not just a straight B&W mask? I couldn't discern any change of color or brightness in the red path near the end.

EDIT: and where are the "E's" in "Orleans" and "Angouleme?" :-)

2nd EDIT: Sorry, I asked JRAZZ this first! It was meant for ROSEBUD. oops.

xberk wrote on 6/27/2009, 4:16 PM

In Rosebud's method there is no wipe. The trick ( I think) is to draw a line over the map in Photoshop using a new layer. Delete the base layer, leaving only the line. Isolate this line ( I'm trying a white line) in a black field. Fill the white line with a gradient fill so that the gradient when used as a "multi-mask" in Vegas will gradually reveal the line through a RED (or whatever color) field as the "lumiance" is keyframed from High In: 1.00 to 0 and Low in: 1.00 to 0....I'm not getting an even line like Rosebud....and I'm lost as to why this works ... The question is, will it handle a line that goes "south" to start out with and then goes "north" later?

Rosebud wrote on 6/28/2009, 12:06 AM

Xberk,
I'm sorry but my English is not good enough to give you a good explanation :((
You can found a tuto in my French forum here:
http://www.cameravideo.net/forum/31157-post27.html

The Google translation:
“you create a black background (Photoshop V7)
you add a layer in the Paths tab and you realize the path with the pen.
you activate the Pencil tool (color: white shape)
-in the Form tab (top right) you active dynamics of color and you control rules Blur.
-to set the value to the right of Blur, he must go to "touch": begins with 2000.
-in the Paths tab, click the second icon from the left bottom (contour plot of the form)
-if the result does not invalidate your layout (Ctrl + Z) and increases or decreases the value of field blur, and then again in the preceding paragraph.”

And you can found a simply example HERE.

Gilles
.