1.You can use Heroglyph which already has route generator

2.Or try Particle illusion…use follow me particle type and change the first particle to a plane
Also key the size of the plane slightly and the x.y size in PI so that the plane has a fly feel rather than a move turn move etc

If I remember I think Paricleillusion SE is free but I am not sure if it allows you to change the particle

3.Or just use Vegas
You need a png of your plane which you track in track motion widow you can also tilt slightly back and forth in 3d in track motion to get that fly feel and pop in a shadow which will fall on the map
You can also make it look as if the plane is taking of and landing through your 3d track motion
And a png of your route which you progressively mask out in pan and crop window
Save your route png’s to project size and pop in a glow in Vegas and drop the transparency level of your route png if you haven’t already in your graphics editor
And obviously your map underneath

Out of the 3 choices I would just do it in Vegas

I've got PI but only recently bought it so don't know how to use it at this stage. Doing it in Vegas sounds easy the way you guys just say it. I guess I'll have a go at some stage, but it sounds like I have a lot to learn. Thanks for the responses.

Its sounds like you are discouraged

It’s a lot easier than you realise

Start with creating your graphics, if you get stuck just post and someone will respond.

I've used routeGen before and I think the level of sophistication, or that "look" that you're looking for depends mostly on the map that you import to it. The Indiana Jones look was an antique type map tattered at the ends and hand drawn...etc. You can have that with RouteGen... you just have to find a jpg of the map. Photoshop is a great place to go to come up with that sort of thing.

I didn't like the avi's that routegen produced so I took the bmp images it generated and placed those on the vegas time line instead and rendered that to M2T (what I needed at the time). This also gave me better control over setting speed, color and other things.

One hint... the map icon in routegen doesn't turn very professionally so try to avoid too many sharp turns in your map.

Yes, I was a bit discouraged - it seemed to be a lot of work for a few seconds on screen. However, I'm now re-encouraged (if such a word exists!) buy all the input. Many thanks everyone.

it seemed to be a lot of work for a few seconds on screen. - eh . . yes? . . . this is the "lot!" of the editor/compositor.

You are in a creative industry. Often our ideas lean heavily on the "only" s/w that is available AT THAT and at A PRICE! Along with this factor is the need to factoring-in the time needed to experiment<>learn<>acquire enough expertise to go on and then turn our concepts/ideas into reality ( whatever THAT means today!). However, your realisation is steeped in your own wisdom about this craft. Some people don't even realise what you are experiencing and expressed, and just walk away, muttering "it is just to hard!".

Do I get discouraged? Sure I do. I also get impatient with my own lack of skills at this "craft" (and it IS a craft!). But, and getting back to Pi, you have made a great investment. If I can help here, or "Off-World" I'll try . . .

Best regards

Grazie

I have an entire newsletter article showing how to do this. Look at Vol 4 #3.

here's one did completely in Vegas with masks. Pretty simple, you can almost just replace the media with your own (maybe round out the dots).



download

Wow, what great resposes from all you people! Thanks so much!
# Grazie - thanks for the encouragement. When reading posts from people such as
yourself, it's easy to get the impression that an expert is speaking forgetting
that even experts start from scratch
# Edward - thanks for the newsletter tip; I should have remembered that.
# Happy Frier - (great name that) I tried to download your effect but it said it wasn't
available

Sorry Frier, it was available. I just downloaded. Looks good. Where did the map come from?

video STILL hasn't "processed" & it's been there all day... I'll have to re-upload. >:(

map is from NASA. Public domain FTW. :D (btw, those world wide NASA maps are used in the game "Enemy Territory: Quake Wars" too. Pretty neat!)

Video works now.

Nice Stephen

Just wondering since the scene is so high shouldn’t the plane be replaced by the space shuttle?

LOL

Rory

Use true-type dingbats (Webdings is an excellent place to begin) in the text generator and move them around with pan/crop. You can change colour, add drop shadow, do what you like. Find fonts with cars, planes, boats, trains, whatever.

You have seen in this thread different ways to make the trail. I for one would not leave a trail in a case like this, but rather just let an object travel along. If I need to make several stops I'll mark them with a coloured spot, a tent, a hotel etc (Webdings again). Disney has made some very nice map-movers over the years, and the Indiana Jones one is great, too. But I still find it illogical to leave a trail as long as it is the movement itself that matters.
Tor

Good point

As you said if it’s the movement that matters

1 of distance especially if it’s a thin trail and moving slow
2 compared to a war documentary where the trail is normally a broad arrow moving quickly up and down into the objective

In these two comparisons the visual message given by the trail are different

So for my next family holiday clip I think I am going to have a headache tablet move from point A across the map
To a glass of water at point B on the map with nagging screaming chatter for audio

So the question is:

Do I use a thick arrow trail or a thin dotty one