The story begins in ancient Egypt.
Focus
Zooms in on one place. Its outline traces in and the country rises off the map.
Best for one country, city or region
New in 2.0
12 map types, 4 styles, vehicles
Maps that move with your story.
Say a place, a journey or a number in your script and AI Director draws the map for it. Countries rise off the page, routes carry a plane or a ship, and the globe turns to wherever the story goes.
- 12map types
- 4map styles
- 4vehicles on routes
- 6colour sets
- 7,000+cities built in
Twelve ways to show a place
AI Director reads each line and picks the map that fits it. Four of these are new in 2.0. Switch the style to see every map in each look.
Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo: East Asia's giants.
Pins
Marks two to six places one after another, each with a label on a pointer.
Best for several places in one line
From Lisbon, round Cape Town, on to Mumbai.
Route
Draws a journey from the first place to the last, leg by leg.
Best for voyages, trips and expeditions
The front ran through France, Germany and Poland.
Spread
Fills several countries one after another.
Best for empires, alliances, anything that spreads
Our story takes us to Brazil.
Globe
Spins the globe round to face one place.
Best for setting the scene worldwide
Brazil lost 42%, Argentina 31%, Peru 12%.
Shade
Colours each country by the figure the narration gives it.
Best for rankings and comparisons
It all happened in Japan.
Dive
Turns the globe and falls from space down onto one place.
Best for a dramatic opening on a location
Ships left Shanghai for Rotterdam and New York.
Flows
Lines run from one place out to each of the others.
Best for exports, migration, spread from a source
From Germany into Poland, Belgium and France.
Campaign arrows
Bold arrows push from one place into each of the others.
Best for invasions, an army's advance, a conquest
Greenland would fit inside Brazil.
True size
Lays one country over another at its real scale.
Best for "how big is it really" comparisons
Tokyo 37 million, Delhi 32, Shanghai 29.
Bubbles
A circle on each place, sized by its number.
Best for populations, totals and cities
New York to London is 5,570 km.
Distance
A line between two places, with the distance on a badge.
Best for how far apart two places are
Routes that travel
A route can carry a plane, a ship, a car or a train along its line. AI Director only adds one when your narration says how the journey was made, and you can change it any time.
Plane
Flights, airlifts, a leader flying in.
Ship
Voyages, sea trade and naval journeys.
Car
Road trips and drives across a country.
Train
Railways, with carriages that follow the line.
Matches the rest of your video
In the Clean style, maps take the same colour set as your text cards and charts, so every graphic in a video looks like it belongs together.
Midnight
Violet
Deep sea
Forest
Ember
Paper
Made for YouTube too
Every map type is laid out again for 16:9, not stretched from the vertical version. The same project exports either way.
Focus
Zooms in on one place. Its outline traces in and the country rises off the map.
Pins
Marks two to six places one after another, each with a label on a pointer.
Route
Draws a journey from the first place to the last, leg by leg.
Spread
Fills several countries one after another.
Globe
Spins the globe round to face one place.
Shade
Colours each country by the figure the narration gives it.
Dive
Turns the globe and falls from space down onto one place.
Flows
Lines run from one place out to each of the others.
Campaign arrows
Bold arrows push from one place into each of the others.
True size
Lays one country over another at its real scale.
Bubbles
A circle on each place, sized by its number.
Distance
A line between two places, with the distance on a badge.
Accurate by design
Turn on Maps in AI Director. It shows a map only where a line names a place, a journey or a figure, and it never puts anything on a map that you didn't say.
Only what your script says
Every place, number and distance on a map comes from the narration. If a line doesn't give a map what it needs, AI Director uses a simpler one instead of guessing.
Real places, looked up
Countries, continents and over 7,000 cities are built into the app, so every pin, border and route lands where it should.
Timed to your voiceover
A map stays on screen while its places are being read out, then the video moves on.
Yours to edit
Change the map type, the places, a label, the style or the vehicle on the Visuals screen, then redraw the shot in one click.
Drawn on your computer
Maps are drawn and encoded locally. No API key, no provider and no per-map cost.
9:16 and 16:9
Every map type is laid out for vertical Shorts and for landscape YouTube videos.
FAQ
Questions about maps
How animated maps work in Vid Optimus, what they cost and how to change them.
Still have a question?
Send us a message and we'll help you out.
Contact us
Do animated maps cost anything extra?
No. Maps are drawn on your own computer, so they need no API key and there is no per-map cost. They are included in every plan.
How do I turn maps on?
Turn on Maps in AI Director. It then shows a map wherever a line names a place, a journey or a figure for a place, and picks the map type that fits the line.
Can a map show a place or number that I did not say?
No. Every place, number and distance on a map comes from your narration. If a line doesn't give a map what it needs, AI Director falls back to a simpler map or a text card rather than making something up.
Can I change a map after AI Director picks it?
Yes. On the Visuals screen you can change the map type, the places, the labels, the style and, on a route, the vehicle. Then redraw the shot in one click.
Which map style should I use?
Clean takes your video's own colour set, so it always matches. Dark neon suits night-time, tech and crime stories, Vintage atlas suits history, and Blueprint suits explainers. Set one for the whole video under Map style, or give a single map its own style.
Do maps work for Shorts and for YouTube videos?
Yes. Every map type works in 9:16 for Shorts and Reels and in 16:9 for YouTube, from the same project.
Get started
Put your story on the map.
Free for 7 days. No card needed. Works on Windows and macOS.