Chetal Gazdar shows how to use expressions in After Effects to create a map navigator effect.

After Effects makes it easy to add a visual effect for when someone says “lock on the target.” You could easily create a map navigator effect manually, but you could also allow for expressions to do the heavy lifting. In Chetal Gazdar’s latest tutorial, he covers the easiest way to create a search effect over a map.

The technique includes a smart zoom in effect when the target is over various parts of the map. Once all set up, you’ll have control over the map navigator effect by merely moving and scaling one layer in After Effects.