To add a map layer for the current slide select Map Assistant… from the menu. To edit an existing map layer, select it and open the Map Assistant again. You also can open this assistant via the layer context menu or the button in the Map Options.
Map Region
The blue frame in the map view indicates which map region will be rendered. you can move this blue frame by dragging it. Drag the corner points or edges of the blue frame to resize it. A label will always display the map dimensions in pixels.
If you scroll or zoom the map view, the blue frame may move outside the visible area. Click on to move the blue frame to the currently visible region.
If you want to add a zoom effect to your map, it should be a little bigger than the Stage size of your slideshow, or pixels will get blurry when zooming in. An example: for a 4k slideshow (3840 × 2160) and a 10% zoom range the map should be at least 4224 × 2376 pixels in size. Simply setting the Zoom Range slider to 10% automatically takes care of that.
Map Style
You can choose from a few different map styles. The visual appearance of the rendered map can later be customised by applying layer effects. The various combinations of map style and layer effects takes a bit of experimentation to find the exact right match.
Locations
Locations mark cities or places that you visited. They are displayed as circular dots and are always visible on the rendered map. If you want a text label for a location you currently have to add a separate text layer above the map layer and position it next to the location dot.
To add locations first switch to the Locations tab in the assistant. You can add locations in several ways:
- Click anywhere on the map to add a location
- Right click on the map and select Add Location from the context menu
- Click on to load the waypoints from a GPX file. Any tracks in this file will be ignored.
To delete a location again, right click on the dot and select Delete Location from the context menu.
Travel Routes
A travel route is displayed as an animated line on top of the map. To add a travel route switch to the Route tab. You have two options to create a travel route:
- Import a GPX file that was recorded by a GPS device or fitness watch, or downloaded from the internet
- Create the route manually by clicking on the map
Importing an existing GPX file is by far the simplest method to create a travel route. There are various websites that let you create travel routes and download them as GPX files. To create a travel route manually in the Map Assistant you can:
- Click on the map to append a new point to the route
- Drag an existing point to move it to a new location
- Hold down the ⌘ key and click on an existing point to delete it
- Hold down the ⌥ key and drag a line segment to bend it into a curve
- Right click on a point to show a context menu with various options
Map Options
Route Segment
Here you can define which part of the route gets displayed. Usually you want to display the whole route (0%- 100%), but for multi-day routes, you may want to animate just part of the route. In this case change the Start and End values until you see the correct segment in the Stage.
If you chose to display a segment for the second or third part of a route, you can optionally display the previous segments of the route with reduced opacity. This helps to see current segment in the context of the overall route.
The Animation Speed curve define when and how fast the travel route is animated. If for example you want the map the be visible for a while before that animation starts, and the map to be visible after the route animation ends, then choose a speed curve something like this:
Route Head
If you want an animated icon at the head of your travel route, then click on one of the included icons.
- Click on the dashed outline to select no icon.
- Click on any of the included icons to select it.
- Click on … to load your own icon. We recommend using a PNG file with alpha.
Depending on the icon you chose, you need to set a couple of options:
- Check “Rotates” for icons that should orient along the travel route. This is useful for icons that are seen from above, like the airplane, car topview, or the arrow.
- Check “Flips” for icon that should always appear upright, like persons, ships, etc. “Flips” will make sure they will change their left/right orientation depending on the travel direction.
- Check “Colorize” if you want to give the icon a color other than black.
Route Style
Here you can select the color, line style and width of the travel route line, and of waypoints or location points. The size of waypoints should be larger than the line width to clearly stand out. You can also set different colors for waypoints to differentiate them from the route line.
Effects
Color Correction, Black & White, Sepia, and Watercolor can be used to modify the visual appearance of a map layer. This requires some degree of experimentation to achieve the desired look. Here are a couple of examples.
