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Thoughts About Adding Animated Traffic

By Wes Jones

Let’s say you have a wicked sci-fi map. But you want to take it to another level? What about animation? What should you think about when adding an animation?

Animations and camera angles are tricky. What I learned quickly is:

Simpler = Better

Especially if you are new to it.

Take this map, I wanted the roads to come alive with traffic. I wanted all sorts of lines moving, and for there to be stops and flows in the traffic. It was too much. After a couple of failed attempts, I simplified the animation.

I prepped all the work in ArcGIS Pro and then using this handy tool took it over to Adobe. I didn’t have to do it that way because when doing animations there are so many workflows. Here are a few links that will hopefully get you started.

ArcGIS Maps SDK

Animated Symbols ArcGIS Pro

ArcGIS API for JavaScript

For this map, the goal was to animate the transit and simulate traffic. I ended up making a very simple dashed line for the roads. For the rail, I made some circular shapes with a little distortion trailing them. That was it. Two very simple animations. But I think they do a good job adding movement to the map. I am not joking when I said, I went simple.

I now feel ready to try something one step more complicated and I really can’t wait to start adding more movement to more maps.

Until we meet again

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