AEScripts GEOlayers 3 for After Effects

About AEScripts GEOlayers 3 for After Effects

Maps in motion graphics are usually built the hard way: a flat map is traced or imported, labels are typed by hand, and any change of location means starting again. This panel replaces that with real map data pulled straight into the composition, styled with the compositor's own tools and animated on the timeline like anything else.

Layers come in separated rather than flattened, which is the whole point. Roads, water, land use, borders, buildings and labels arrive as individually addressable elements, so a road network can be coloured and animated on its own while the water sits behind it untouched. Vector data stays vector, so a zoom stays crisp instead of turning to mush.

Animation between locations is handled by the panel rather than by hand. Two positions are set as keyframes and the transition is computed with the zoom level adjusted through the move, so a journey from a continent view down to a street corner arcs sensibly instead of racing across the surface at a fixed altitude.

Beyond the base map there is data plotting: point sets from a spreadsheet placed at their coordinates, paths drawn between locations with animated draw-on, choropleth style shading driven by a value column, and terrain height data used to build an elevation view. Everything produced remains standard compositor layers, so any effect or expression already in use applies to it.

What is included in this build

• Real map data imported directly into a composition as editable layers
• Separated layers for roads, water, land use, borders, buildings and labels
• Vector data kept as vector so zooms stay sharp
• Automatic animation between two locations with intelligent zoom through the move
• Point plotting from spreadsheet coordinates with per-point styling
• Animated path drawing between locations
• Value driven area shading from a data column
• Terrain height data used to build elevation views

Changed in version 1.18.0

• Faster loading of very large map areas
• Improved label placement at high zoom levels
• Additional map styles added to the preset list
• Better handling of spreadsheet data with irregular coordinate formatting
• Fixed a case where animated paths lost their easing on render

Installation walkthrough

These steps assume a clean machine. If a previous release of the same application is present, deal with that first, since an overlapping install is the most common cause of a setup that stops halfway.

1. Close the host compositor completely before installing.
2. Extract the archive and run the installer as administrator.
3. Allow script access to the file system in the host application preferences, or the panel will not load.
4. Open the panel from the window menu of the host and dock it beside the project panel.
5. Set the cache folder before pulling a large map area, since tiles accumulate quickly.

System requirements and file details

Frequently asked about this title