Creating the most used map animation tool: GEOLayers - Markus Bergelt

Markus Bergelt is a motion designer and the person behind GEOLayers, a video editing plug-in simplifying the creation of map animations in Adobe After Effects. Most map animations you’ve seen online are most likely made with this plug-in. We touch what makes map tricky to animate, how to simplify the process, the state of software development and of course, about Markus’s business model behind it all Sponsor: OpenCage Use OpenCage for your geocoding needs with their API: https://opencagedata.com/ Geomob: https://thegeomob.com/ Listen to this episode audio only as a podcast on your favourite app - Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/minds-behind-maps/id1563147579 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0u5guiZGHRBKtaYjWVIedz?si=7b896042b95d4ceb Shownotes Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books. - GeoLayers: https://aescripts.com/geolayers/ - geolayers.app: https://www.geolayers.app/ - Johnny Harris: https://www.youtube.com/@johnnyharris - Markus’s cameo in a recent video: https://youtu.be/d-gjsTh4cQg?si=CR3a6MaMrfkkAejO - Search Party: https://www.youtube.com/@SearchParty - Felt: https://felt.com/ - Procreate dreams: https://procreate.com/dreams - Jason Boone’s episode: https://youtu.be/TOPsRdJgBhc?si=IPAd2uNdI29XyRDt - Podcast recommendation: - Syntax podcast: https://syntax.fm/ Timestamps (00:00) - Intro (02:26) - Sponsor: OpenCage (03:52) - Markus Describes himself (04:29) - GEOlayers in simple terms (05:50) - From Motion Designer, to Map Animation Developer (07:51) - The team behind GEOlayers (08:20) - How does a Motion Designer turn into software engineer? (10:45) - Tricky nature of Map Animation (13:10) - OpenStreetMap (14:57) - Markus before and after diving into GIS (17:01) - Map projections (20:01) - Business Model & Funding (24:08) - Self Funding (26:38) - Being your own user (27:37) - GEOLayers used on Youtube (30:23) - Working with creator, example of Johnny Harris (32:20) - Paid Support (33:33) - Focusing ones time on what you enjoy doing (35:11) - Making a web app (42:35) - Subscription models (46:34) - Expectations in modern software business models (49:22) - High tech barrier to entry (55:01) - Inspiration from 2 other projects (01:05:32) - The future of GEOLayers (01:07:21) - Local vs Web based software (01:16:13) - Marketing & Social Media (01:20:50) - Book/podcast recommendation (01:23:18) - Support the podcast on Patreon - Support the podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mindsbehindmaps - My video on an introduction to satellite images: https://youtu.be/xy5qR0cBFGs?si=H1Jskd_R5umDXFUA - Website: https://mindsbehindmaps.com/ - My Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaxLenormand - Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/MindsBehindMaps - Read Previous Issues of the Newsletter: http://tinyurl.com/nzc796ym - Edited by Peter Xiong: https://twitter.com/cellobuddy - Find more of his work: https://symphoniclandscapes.squarespace.com/