How to Create a Travel Map Intro like Indiana Jones in Premiere Pro

Published on September 30, 2020

Video Effects

basic 3d, intro, lens distortion, lighting effects, premiere pro 2020, travel map, travel map intro

Travel map intro

You’ve probably all seen the Indiana Jones movies where they use a travel map fly over shot as an intro or transition to a new scene. Well I travel a lot and I always make video of my travels, I always wanted to make such a cool intro for my videos but I couldn’t find a way to do it in Premiere Pro. But now I finally found a super easy way!

The first thing you need is a stock photo or shot of a world map. Once you’ve selected one we can make a flight path that goes across the map. We can do this with the Essential Graphics panel. We make a new rectangle, animate the path within the Effect Controls and it’s as simple as that. And of course the path depends on where you put the end and beginning of the rectangle.

Basic 3D in Premiere Pro

This effect is already looking cool but we’re going to make it even more cooler by making it a bit 3D. And there is a way to do this is Adobe Premiere Pro. First we’ll nest the existing clip already. Then we make the map a bit less flat with the lens distortion effect. By adjust the curvature we can make it a bit more rounded, don’t worry about seeing edges.

Next is applying the basic 3D effect. By animating the swivel and tilt overtime it creates a feeling that we’re flying across the map. But we can still see some edges so we need to clean that up. With the transform tool we can use the scale and position and animate is as well so we don’t see any edges or borders and our countries of interest are positioned perfectly on screen.

Creating more depth

The effect looks great. But it lacks depth. So we’re going to nest the clip again and apply the Lighting Effects effect to it. This will create and artificial light source, by adjusting the color of it and some of it’s properties you can get a desired look.

You can always add extra elements to the effect. Graphic animations, elements like location tags or even footage of the country itself can spice it up. Play around a bit with blend modes to get a fun result.

Want to learn more awesome effects?

If you want to learn more effects like this in Premiere Pro or get even more advanced with vfx and want to learn After Effects, have a look at our Skillshare classes. We have a course that covers all the basics of Adobe After Effects, one that covers advanced editing in Premiere Pro and so much more. The best part about this is that the first two weeks are completely for free. Free knowledge!