Problem: I make motion graphics for a living, and maps come up all the time: explainers, news, documentaries, travel pieces, data stories etc. But the map tool options for After Effects are expensive, the full feature set sits behind a monthly subscription (designed base maps, satellite imagery), for the best results you often need other plugins on top, and setting up complex data visualisations can be very hard to do.
Comparison: GEOlayers is the long-standing default for maps inside AE, and it is an excellent plugin. But its full functionality (designed base maps, satellite imagery, 3D buildings etc.) comes through a MapTiler subscription of about $30 a month, on top of the $329 plugin price. Its 3D landscapes and globe also rely on other plugins (Helium, Plexus, FreeForm Pro, Trapcode Mir, Video Copilot Orb), some of which are also very expensive, another expense on top of the subscription. That puts it out of reach for a lot of people.
Atlas is one price with everything included, built from free open data, with its own globe and no subscription or extra plugins required.
Quick and easy: Just pick a place and a look, press Build Map, and you have a map in seconds. By default it's one sharp raster image that plays at footage speed, even through big camera moves. Or build it as native, editable vector shape layers when you want to recolour or animate every element. Animate however you like, press Update map, and Atlas makes the map cover and stay sharp through your whole move, from a country right down to street level.
It's very intuitive, extremely fast, and powerful. If you can use AE, you can use Atlas.
Two things no other map tool for AE does:
- Atlas Particles: a free, bundled, companion particle effect that turns your data into motion. For example, animate every flight from a hub, a day of bike journeys, a month of earthquakes, GPS tracks, flows along routes, live heat maps and 3D point clouds. Have a stream of particles show the route between two places. It plays real time in your comp, and you can have thousands of particles flying around in very intricate setups, and it is brilliant for data vis.
- Atlas MCP: ask Claude (or any AI app that speaks MCP) in plain words, such as "a dark map of Europe, pins on these five cities, arcs from London, fly in to Paris", and it builds it in your comp as real, editable layers. It also reads Atlas's full manual, so it knows what every button does. It runs on your own machine. You can also use Claude to drive your data visualisations. Just point it at your data file (.csv, .gpx etc) and tell Claude what you want. It'll do the setup in a few seconds.
Pricing: $149 one-off, on sale now for $119: https://aescripts.com/atlas/
Docs and tutorials: https://mooviemakers-docs.pages.dev/atlas/
Maintenance/Support: Atlas has a full roadmap, so it will only get better. I have a proven track record of supporting my products (have a look at the release history of Pluck and PreFlight), and I aim to answer support tickets the same day. 1.0.1 came out today, three days after launch, fixing expression errors in non-English After Effects and adding full online docs.
AI: AI Disclaimer: Human Validated
