User's Guide

Infographics 3D Map Kit

Contents

Chapter 1

Introduction

Chapter 2

Installation

Chapter 3

Project Structure

MainComp

CustomColor

Elements

3D Line Express

3DLineExpress Panel

3DLineExpress Effect

Camera Control

Camera Control Effect

Area Selectors

Country Selector

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

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State Selector

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FAQ

Introduction

Infographics Map Kit is designed for easy creation of a nice-looking presentation

Installation
1. Place script InfoMapKit.jsxbin into the "ScriptUI Panels" folder within your After Effects.
Windows: After Effects CSx\Support Files\Scripts\Script UI Panels
Mac: After Effects CSx/Scripts/Script UI Panels
2. Start Adobe After Effects
3. It is important that you allow the scripts to read from and write to disk.
To allow scripts to write and read files , choose Edit > Preferences > General (Windows)
or After Effects > Preferences > General (Mac OS)
and select the Allow Scripts To Write Files And Access Network option.
Note for Windows users
If you run into any problems try Right-click ing on the application and choosing Run as administrator option, even if you are
logged it as Administrator.
4. From the Window menu, select InfoMapKit.jsxbin
5. At the first start,script will perform an automated install necessary pseudo-effects.To apply changes, you should restart the After
Effects.
6. Now you can start using Infographics Map Kit. I hope you enjoy it!

MainComp Composition

This is the primary composition where you will work. Please do not change it name.

Layers
CameraControl
This layer allows to control the Main Camera.
Usa State Selectror / Country Selector
Allows to highlight a state of USA or a country
USA_States / WorldMap
Shape objects.You can easily change their color.

Custom Color Composition

Here you can easily customize the color scheme

Procedures
To change the color scheme.
1. Choose an element by clicking on the layer(A) or on the color box(B)
2. Open the Effect panel (if it not already open) and set the item color (C)
3. You can use an existing palette (D) or define your own colors.

Elements

This folder contains a few animated elements.

Just drag and drop them into MainComp if necessary

3D Line Express Panel

Procedures
To create a 3D Line
1. Choose a composition by clicking on it
2. Change amount of segments (if necessary) and shape of a line
3. Click on Create. This may take some time, you can watch the progress in the Info panel

To duplicate a 3D Line
1. Choose a layer with 3D Line in the timeline by clicking on it
2. Click on Duplicate

Interface
3D Line Express Group
Create
Create line in the selected composition using all settings below.Each line has a unique name, do not change it.
Duplicate
Duplicate selected 3D Line composition and make it unique . If you use standard Duplicate (Edit>Duplicate) it will create a
instance of the 3D Line and therefore changes in one line will affect the other one.
Segments
Sets the number of divisions for the line.The more segments used, the smoother the curve appears. Maximum = 100
Tapered/Rectangular
Determines the shape of the line.Tapered: specifies that the line are tapered at both ends. Rectangular: specifies that the line
have rectangular shape
Top Camera Position Group
Sliders 6allow you to move the Top Camera.

3D Line Express Effect

Each newly created line has pseudo-effect that manages it.
Do not delete this effect! Without it the 3D Line will displayed incorrectly.

Interface
Direction, Slope, Length, Width, Height
These parameters are shown in Figure.
Show
Arc length of a curve expressed as a percentage.
Color
Sets the color of 3D Line.

Point On Line group

Percent Along Path
Moves the point along the line based on a percentage of the arc length.
PointPosXY, PointPosZ
Shows the position of the point on the line.

Camera Control Effect

Change the position of the Camera Control layer to move the camera .
Everything else is operated via the Camera Control effect .

Interface
Distance, Elevation, Rotation, Head Tilt
These parameters are shown in Figure.
Easing
Allows to make the movement of the camera is more realistic. Also adds a little wiggle.

Camera Optics group

Blur Level
The amount of depth-of-field blur in an image. A setting of 100% creates a natural blur as dictated by the camera settings.
Lower values reduce the blur.
Field of View
The width of the scene captured in the image.
Focus Position
Sets distance at which objects will be in focus.

Country Selector Effect

Interface
Color
Sets the color of the selected countries.
Opacity
Sets the opacity of the selected countries.
Country Selector
Displays selected country on the map.

USA State Selector Effect

Interface
Color
Sets the color of the selected states.
Opacity
Sets the opacity of the selected states.
State Selector
Displays selected state on the map.

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FAQ
3D Lines works very slowly.
CS6 Only:
1. Install 11.2 Update
2. Disable Show Cache Indicators (via drop-down menu, top-right of Timeline Panel)
CSx :
Try to reduce the numbers of line segments.

3D Lines stopped working

CSx :
You accidentally changed the name of the main composition (MainComp).

On another computer project opens with error (project contains X references to missing effects), what
should I do?

CSx :
In fact, project still working pretty well. But if you want to avoid this error, run InfoMapKit.jsxbin once on that machine.

I see a "noised line" in the borderline between the focused areas and the beginning of "blur" of the
unfocused areas

CSx :
It's an After Effects bug. The solution is to bump the comp up to 32bpc or turn off the Depth of field in camera settings.
I have still a couple questions....

Mail to me: oleg@yarko.tv

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