Create an animation—Visualize the Expansion of Public Transportation | ArcGIS

Create an animation
In the last lesson, you got all the data in order. Now you're ready to start creating the animation. You'll begin by
deciding what scenes you want the audience to see to best tell your story. You'll add keyframes at these locations,
or fixed points that you want the camera to zoom past during the animation. Once you've decided the visual
aspect of the animation by creating all the keyframes, you'll add explanatory text and supporting legends, and
finally export the animation as a video that you can share to the city's social media following to inform them about
the planned transit changes.

Add keyframes
First, you'll start the animation by adding keyframes. The Animation Timeline allows you to create and manage the
keyframes that define the flow of your video. The camera path, angles, speed, and layer visibility are all decided by
the keyframes you choose. This means you can author a full video by defining a set of important view states to
pass through.

1. On the ribbon, click the View tab. In the Animation group, click Add.

The Animation Timeline pane appears at the bottom of the map pane.

2. On the ribbon, click the Map tab and navigate to the START bookmark.
3. Turn layers on and off until the following are the only visible layers:
Transit Stops
Transit Lines
Light Gray Reference
Light Gray Base

Note:
To quickly turn all layers on or off, press Ctrl and click a layer.

4. In the Animation Timeline pane, click Create first keyframe.

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For the first section of the video, you want to provide an overview. You'll keep the camera in the same
location while cycling through important layers. This allows users to see the change in the scene without
being distracted by camera movement.

5. In the Contents pane, turn on the Walksheds - NOW layer.

6. In the Animation Timeline pane, in the Keyframe Gallery, click the add button to add a second keyframe.

The default duration between keyframes is 3 seconds, so your video is now 3 seconds long. You can view
more detailed information about your animation on the contextual ribbon tab. The default keyframe
append time, and the total duration of the animation, can be viewed and edited on the Animation ribbon.
You'll create all the keyframes first, and then fine-tune the timing later.

You need to turn on all the relevant layers, in the specific order, and move the camera around the scene to
highlight key information. Remember, the story you are telling is how many people are covered by the
existing rail coverage, and how many more will be covered after the new line is in place.

7. Turn on the Housing (by Neighborhood) layer and add a third keyframe.

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8. Turn on the Transit Stops - FUTURE and Transit Lines - FUTURE layers, then add a fourth keyframe.
9. Turn on the Walksheds - FUTURE layer and add a fifth keyframe.

The first five keyframes all use the same high viewpoint to provide an overview of the changes. They show,
respectively, the current rail system, its coverage for commuters, the predicted housing growth of commuter
housing, the proposed future rail system, and the improved coverage for commuters.

This is the core information of the video, but it's missing a more personal connection for people who live
here. The display is too abstract and too distant to resonate strongly with residents. The rest of the
animation will try to make a more personal and human connection with those watching.

10. Save the project.

Use a fade-in effect

Now that you've given an overview of the city, you'll zoom in to individual streets and stops. Once zoomed in, the
building data will display transit-stop-level housing information, rather than the coarse-grained neighborhood
level. To create the fade-in effect, you'll need to change the visibility several steps before you want to show the
layer fading in. If you turn it on without first making the layer transparent, it will flash on and off, distracting from
the visual.

1. In the Animation Timeline pane, double-click keyframe 4.

Double-clicking a keyframe zooms to that view and turns the corresponding layers on and off.

2. In the Contents pane, click the Housing (by Transit Stop) layer to select it.

Note:
Do not turn the layer on.

3. On the ribbon, click the Appearance tab. In the Effects group, set Transparency to 100%.

4. In the Animation Timeline pane, click Update.

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5. Double-click keyframe 5 and follow the same process to give the Housing (by Transit Stop) layer a
transparency of 100%.
6. In the Contents pane, turn on the Housing (by Transit Stop) layer and update the keyframe.

Now that you've established the layer's transparency, you'll make it visible. At the same time, you'll turn off
the Housing (by Neighborhood) layer. This iterative process is necessary because otherwise the keyframe
will capture the layer as visible, and it will flash on and off.

7. In the Contents pane, make sure the Housing (by Transit Stop) layer is selected. On the Appearance tab,
set Transparency to 0%.

At this intermediate step, both housing layers will be visible. During your animation, both of these layers will
be visible briefly before you turn the neighborhood data off.

8. Select the Housing (by Neighborhood) layer and set Transparency to 100%, and then click the add
button to add a sixth keyframe.

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Between keyframe 5 and keyframe 6, the Housing (by Neighborhood) layer will fade out, and the Housing
(by Transit Stop) layer will fade in.

Next, you'll move the camera through the scene at an altitude that makes viewers more immersed in the
content.

9. On the ribbon, click the Map tab and navigate to the FLY-THRU 1 bookmark.

10. In the Animation Timeline pane, click the add button to add a seventh keyframe.

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11. Add an eighth keyframe for the FLY-THRU 2 bookmark.

12. Add a ninth keyframe for the FLY-THRU 3 bookmark.
13. Add a tenth keyframe for the START bookmark.

You can now preview the entire animation. It should have a duration of 27 seconds.

14. On the Animation ribbon, in the Playback group, click the Reset button and click Play.

Content is now displaying in the correct order, and the fly-through will take the camera close to the ground
along the east-west proposed railway line in the north side of the view. Don't worry if the buildings layer
didn't appear—the display may not be able to keep up when viewed in real time, but when exporting to a
video file each frame will use as much time as it needs to render.

Add overlays
While the scene animation is now complete, you don't have any information explaining what the content means.
You'll use overlays to add a title, explanation text, and legend images. By default, overlays are added to the
selected keyframes, so selecting the right keyframes before inserting any overlay text or imagery is crucial.

1. In the Animation Timeline pane, click keyframe 1, press the Shift key, and click keyframe 10.

All the keyframes are selected.

2. On the ribbon, on the Animation tab, in the Overlay group, expand the Add Overlay gallery and click

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Outline Title.

A text box is added to the top of the map.

3. In the title text box, type San Francisco Rail Lines. Click the close button to stop editing the text.

4. On the Animation tab, in the Overlay group, change the text size to 36.

The title text size changes for all the slides.

5. In the Animation Timeline pane, select keyframe 2.

Next, you'll add legends explaining what the symbology on each keyframe shows. The legend images were
packaged with the map project, and are contained in the default folder structure.

6. On the ribbon, in the Add Overlay gallery, click Image. Browse to the Packages folder in your default
ArcGIS folder and open the TransitLineExtension package. Double-click commondata, then open
userdata and choose Legend1.png.

7. On the ribbon, on the Animation tab, in the Edit group, click Properties.

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The Animation Properties pane appears.

8. In the Animation Properties pane, click the Overlay tab and select the Legend1.png element. In the
Position section, choose the option in the upper right corner.

The Walking Distances legend moves to the upper right corner of the frame. You still need to add several
legend items.

9. In the Animation Timeline pane, select keyframe 3.

10. On the ribbon, add another image overlay and choose Legend2.png.
11. In the Animation Properties pane, select the Legend2 element and move it to the upper right of the
frame.
12. In the Animation Timeline pane, select keyframes 4 and 5.
13. Add another image overlay and choose Legend3.png, and then use the Animation Properties pane to
position it in the upper right of the frame.
14. Add Legend4.png to keyframes 6 and 7 and position it at the upper right of the frame.
15. In the Animation Timeline pane, double-click keyframe 7 to zoom to that point in the animation.

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You now have most of the background information in place. The last element you'll add is text explaining
the overall message of the animation.

16. In the Animation Timeline pane, double-click keyframe 1 to zoom to the start of the animation.
17. On the ribbon, in the Edit group, click Hold.

The hold option adds two seconds of still framing to the beginning of the animation. Instead of the camera
beginning to move immediately when the animation begins, it will be motionless for two seconds to allow
viewers to see the keyframe.

18. In the Animation Timeline pane, select the first three keyframes.
19. On the ribbon, in the Overlay group, add a Paragraph overlay and type or paste the following text: A city
relies on public transportation <enter> to move people between their <enter> homes and their jobs.
20. Replace the word enter with a line break, and then click the close button to close text editing.

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21. In the Animation Timeline pane, double-click keyframe 4.

22. Add another Paragraph overlay and type the following text: Especially when the city is growing.
23. Click the close button and select keyframes 5 through 7.
24. Add a Paragraph overlay with the following text: The City of San Francisco wants to <enter> extend the
current rail line <enter> to support this growth.
25. Click the red X to close the overlay text editor and select keyframe 10.
26. Add a Paragraph overlay with the following text: Learn more at <enter> www.[placeholder].com/page.

The animation is complete. Before you export the final product, you'll preview the animation to make sure
there is enough time to read the text you added. The video needs to be short, so people will watch it all the
way through, but not so fast that they can't take in the information.

27. On the ribbon, in the Playback group, click Reset, and click Play.

Your experience may be different, but it seems that while there's enough time to read the text, there's not
quite enough time to also take in the map visuals changing behind the text, especially when the proposed
rail lines first switch on.

28. In the Animation Timeline pane, double-click keyframe 5.

29. In the Animation Properties pane, click the Keyframe tab and change Length to 2 seconds.

30. In the Animation Timeline pane, select keyframe 6.

31. In the Animation Properties pane, change Length to 5 seconds, and then click the Overlay tab and select
the The City of San Francisco element.
32. Above Position, change Start Key to 6 and confirm End Key is set to 7.

By changing this timing, you've effectively carved out a 2-second window where there is no text displayed

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and the proposed rail lines are switched on. You've also made sure there's still enough time after this gap
for people to read the overlay text. Preview the animation again.

33. On the ribbon, click Reset and click Play.

34. Save the project.

Export video
Once you're satisfied with the animation, you'll export it to share. There are several presets that streamline this
process.

1. On the ribbon, on the Animation tab, in the Export group, click Movie.

The Export Movie pane appears. In the pane, you can choose a preset option for the video file
specifications. The default is YouTube, which is a medium-quality 128x620 .mp4 video file. If you choose
other presets, the view size will adjust to the selected aspect ratio. For this exercise, leave the choice set to
YouTube.

2. For File Name, choose the project folder or another local drive and click Export.

The video may take a few minutes export, depending on your machine and Internet speed. The section of
frames where layer transparency is being changed will take a little longer than the rest of the export.

3. When the export is finished, at the bottom of the Export Movie pane, click Play.

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You can now upload the video to a platform such as YouTube or Twitter, or host it on a web page, and share the
link.

You can find more lessons in the Learn ArcGIS Lesson Gallery.

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