How to make a map animation for free (no After Effects)

To make a map animation for free, start from a finished map scene, ask Claude to change the places and words, and render the MP4 on your own computer with npx hyperframes render. You never touch a timeline or map software, and the render costs nothing.

Scenes has map animations ready to copy: a globe that zooms to a country and pins a city, a night map that pans along a glowing route, a map with big country labels, a flag that fills a country's outline, a distance line and a size comparison. Each was made from one prompt, and that prompt comes with the scene.

All the map scenes are vertical 9:16, so they fit Reels, Shorts and TikTok as they are. Five of them are also in a free maps pack at scenes.design/free/maps, which doesn't use your daily copies.

Scenes to start from

Step by step

  1. Open the Globe zoom scene and copy it

    Open Globe zoom in the Scenes Library and press Copy prompt. You get the prompt that made the scene; Copy code gives its HyperFrames code. Browsing is free, and free accounts can copy 2 scenes a day.

  2. Paste it into Claude or Claude Code

    Paste the prompt into claude.ai or the Claude app to see the scene build as a live preview. For an MP4 you need Claude Code: paste the prompt there, or set up the Scenes skill once (see Docs) and pull the scene into a folder.

    node ~/.claude/skills/scenes-library/pull.mjs globe-zoom my-map

  3. Change the words in plain English

    Tell Claude what you want, for example: "zoom to Kenya instead of Japan, pin Nairobi, and make the fact card say 55 million people". Claude changes the country, the pin and the text, and keeps the motion.

  4. Check it and render the MP4

    HyperFrames renders the MP4 on your own computer, free, as often as you like. You need Node.js installed. Check first: it reports anything off-frame or broken.

    npx hyperframes check my-map
npx hyperframes render my-map

Questions

Is there a free map animation maker?

Browsing and previewing every scene is free, and free accounts copy 2 scenes a day. The render is free because HyperFrames makes the MP4 on your own computer, with no watermark on the video.

Do I need After Effects or GIS software?

No. Scenes are HTML, CSS and JavaScript (HyperFrames code). Claude edits them from plain English and HyperFrames renders them to MP4. You never open a timeline.

Can I get the map as an MP4?

Claude chat shows a live preview but does not export video. To get an MP4, use Claude Code and run npx hyperframes render in the scene's folder.

Can I animate any country or city?

Yes. Name the country or city in your request. For a small town, give Claude its latitude and longitude so the pin lands in the right place.

More