Making an “animated” map example

Polygon Method

Say you want to demonstrate a changing pattern over time like changing demographics or election returns. The following illustrates how to do that for a look at the increase in Hispanic population over a couple of decades.

ArcMap Steps – making the maps

1. Get a data set like both US County data from 1990 and 2000, then using properties/general tab rename each to reflect the census year.

2. Create ethnic % maps (Hispanic could be best) for both time periods.

3. Using the File tab then Page and Print Setup change layout from Portrait to Landscape layout

4. Make a separate map for each time period and save it to jpegs in a special folder.


Powerpoint Steps

1. Open a PowerPoint presentation, insert each jpeg into a different sheet,

2. Transitions tab – choose the type of transition you’d like between each map.

a. Then go to the upper right corner and change the Advance Slide from On Mouse Click to Automatically After by clicking on the radio button and then set the time to say 1 second. Do this for each slide

3. Continuous loop: Using the Slideshow tab,

·  find and click on Set Up Slideshow

·  In the window that appears window change things to Loop Continuous by clicking the radio button then OK

4. Start slide show and watch.

SEE J:\saldata\Envs221\Animate map for examples.

Line Method

Now let us say you want to show the progression of a trip along a line or linear route.

1. Obtain appropriate data say for interstates in the US or digitize in lines, say for the Ski to Sea race. Here we will take a trip from B’ham to Portland via I-5. So load the Interstate layer into Arc-Map.

2. Using the Select Icon by line, first select all the lines you will need for your final project (parts of I-5 going from B’ham to Portland). Then copy those and create a new smaller data set with only that part of the Interstate system.

3. Now starting at B’ham select the first section of the Interstate and make a map with that selected part highlighted.

4. Make a layout map of this part and save it as a jpeg.

5. Now continue until you have maps of each section as jpegs.

6. As you have done above put these jpegs into a PowerPoint and animate them. If you are clever you could add illustrations with each line segment (like pictures of landmarks or other information) to appear in the slide with the line segment.

Originator: p. buckley
Date: 6/4/2013
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