How to create an animated point map

In addition to letting you plot points over time on a map, our 3D map template lets you animate between states to show a point's path over time. This is great if you want to show where something or someone has traveled over time. Here's an example:

To create an animated point map, you will need to create an animation group. Here's how:

1

In the datasheet in the Points tab, create a new column for your animation group and assign it to Animation Group in the Select columns to visualise area. In our example of public transportation in Chicago, the column trip_id shows an ID for each train. And as each of our trains will be stopping at different points (which are specified with latitudes and longitudes in the subsequent columns), there should be multiples of each ID to animate between.



2

Switch to the Preview tab to see your 3D map in action. If your points aren't animating, you probably didn't get the time format right – here's how to fix that. If you can see your points animating across the map, congratulations! Here's what our example looks like at this point:

It's animating very quickly and our points are a bit too large to make out the exact stops. To change the animation speed,

3

Scroll to the bottom of the Timeline settings and change the timeline duration. You can also turn off the pulsing of the points by setting Pulse duration to zero.