Maps and globes
A map tells the viewer where things happen. Paraplex makes two kinds: a globe that turns from one place to the next, drawing a line on each leg, and a flat map framed on your places, with the countries you name raised from it. Every pin, line and turn is an ordinary layer with keyframes, so you can retime or restyle any of it.
Make a map
- In the dock, press and hold Chart, then choose Globe or Flat map under Maps. You can also search for Map or globe… with ⌘K.
- Under Route, in order, type the places the piece travels between, one to a line.
- Under Other places, pinned, type any places to mark without joining them to the route.
- Under Countries in color (globe) or Countries raised (flat map), name the countries to pick out, with commas between them.
- Click Add globe or Add map.
The map starts at the playhead. If the route runs past the end of the piece, the timeline grows to fit it. One Undo takes the whole map out again.
Naming places
| Write | For example | What the map does |
|---|---|---|
| A large city | Tokyo, New York, NYC, Cape Town | Pins it and names the pin |
| A country | Japan, USA, UK | Pins its middle |
| Any point | Base camp @ 27.99, 86.93 | Pins it at that latitude and longitude, with your name |
Latitude runs from −90 (south) to 90 (north), and longitude from −180 (west) to 180 (east). You can write the letters instead of signs: Base camp @ 27.99 N, 86.93 E.
If the map doesn't know a name, it says so and adds nothing. Write the place's latitude and longitude instead.
The countries are the world's 177 at a small scale. A very small country, like Singapore, is too small to raise or color: pin it instead.
Globe or flat map
| Globe | Flat map | |
|---|---|---|
| Moves by | Turning to face each place in turn | Drawing each leg in turn |
| The countries you name | Colored on the globe | Raised from the map, rising in one after another |
| With no route | Turns slowly, west to east | Shows your places, or the whole world |
| Best for | Journeys across the world | A region, or places close together |
On a globe, a place's name fades as its place turns round the side, and comes back if it turns into view again. When a flat map's places are half a world apart, it shows the whole world.
The look
- Style: Night (a dark sea, gray land, warm lines), Atlas (pale land, a blue sea, red lines) or Archive (paper tones, for older stories).
- Lines from place to place: the lines between the route's places. Off, the places still come in one by one, with nothing between them.
- Names beside the pins.
- Latitude and longitude: grid lines over the sea.
- Each leg: how long the move from one place to the next takes.
- Lean (flat map): leans the map back so the raised countries stand up from it. At 0° the map faces you and the countries show their color exactly.
- Colors: the sea, land, borders, the countries you named, lines, pins and names. Choosing a style sets all seven.
Change a map afterward
A map is a group named Globe or Map in the Layers panel:
- A globe's Turning globe group holds the Earth, and each Line, Pin and Label. The turns are keyframes on Turning globe.
- A flat map holds the Map picture, a layer for each country you named, then each line, pin and label.
Retime the turns, lines and pins in the timeline like any keyframes. To change the places or the colors, delete the group and add the map again: the window keeps what you typed.
Ask the assistant
The assistant makes maps too: "fly a globe from London to New York to Tokyo", or "a flat map of Europe with France, Germany and Poland raised, leaning back". It can also draw lines out from one place to many, such as "lines from London to New York, Lagos and Mumbai", which the window doesn't.