Guide · 5 min
How to animate flight paths on a map
Animate flights as realistic great-circle arcs that cross oceans and the date line correctly, with a plane icon, for travel videos and round-the-world recaps.
Updated
Choose the Plane transport in MapAnimate and click the departure and arrival cities. The flight is drawn as a great-circle arc (the real shortest path), crosses the date line the short way, and the follow camera zooms out to keep the whole flight in view.
Step by step
- Open the editor and choose Plane as the transport.
- Search for your departure city with the search box and click it on the map.
- Click each following airport in order.
- Pick Satellite or Midnight for a dramatic look.
- Set Map shape to 3D globe in the Style panel for long-haul flights.
- Use the Overview camera for a whole-world recap, or Follow for flight-by-flight.
- Export the MP4.
Why flights are curved
The shortest path between two points on a sphere is a great circle. On a flat web-map projection those paths bend towards the poles, which is why a London to Los Angeles flight curves up over Greenland. MapAnimate draws plane and helicopter legs as great-circle arcs, so your map matches reality.
Crossing the date line
Flights across the Pacific, such as Auckland to Los Angeles, go the short way over the date line instead of across the whole map. The camera follows smoothly too.
Round-the-world recaps
The Round-the-World template chains seven flights and opens on the 3D globe: with the Overview camera the planet turns as each arc draws in turn, which makes a good opening or closing shot. Switch Map shape to Flat map to see every flight at once.
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