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In this manual you can read how you can use the new functionalities of MRA Animate. MRA Animate can be used for routes and for tracklogs. With MRA Animate you can create an animation of a route or a tracklog, and add text and photos in the animation at desired places. You can download the animation and convert it to an .mp4 file.

This manual covers the functions for animations in tracklogs.

• Start an animation in a track 
  • The relationship between "speed" and zoom
• Different features in the animation 
  • Feature - Add text and images
  • Feature - Intro and outro
  • Feature - Add a song
  • Feature - Make animation public
  • Feature - Share page
  • Feature - Choose map layer
  • Feature - Record animation

Start an animation in a tracklog 

• Open the desired tracklog under 'Tracklogs' on your profile 
• Select "Animation" in the menu bar on the left.

There you will be presented with the animation menu, where you can adjust various settings.

The relationship between "speed" and zoom

If you set the speed too high, and zoom out far on the tracklog, the animation will go very fast. This is at the expense of the animation quality of the tracklog. If you set the speed too low and zoom in too far, this can also be at the expense of the quality of the animation. The relationship between the speed of the animation and the extent to which the roadmap is zoomed in is therefore important.

Different features in the animation 

Feature - Add text and images

If you click on any point in the tracklog, as you would add a waypoint when creating a route, you will see the following screen.

You can then name the "moment" in the tracklog. If you click on "confirm", you will see another screen.

In this screen you can add a photo to the moment by clicking the upload button. You can also add a description or other text to the moment by pressing the pen. If you have added a photo or text to the moment in the tracklog, they will appear when the red track circle of the animation has arrived at that moment of the tracklog.

An image in the animation then looks like this:

A text in the animation then looks like this:

You can decide for yourself how long a text or an image is shown at moments. You can set this by setting under "Text" how many seconds the text appears on the screen. For images, you can also set the amount of seconds the image appears.

Feature - Intro and outro

You can set an intro and an outro, which appear respectively at the beginning and end of the animation. You can also set how long the intro or outro appears on the screen.

The intro and outro are always the same, and look like this:

Feature - Add a song

You can add a song to the animation, which will play as soon as you start the animation.

Note: The song plays only once and starts at the start of the animation. If your animation is longer than the song, the song will not replay. If your animation is shorter than the song, the song ends when the animation ends.

You can choose a number from the list, or add a number yourself. If you choose your own number, it will not be stored in your MRA account due to copyright rules. So if you share your animation, you can only choose a song from the list.

Feature - Make animation public

You can make the animation of the track public by selecting "Yes" under "Public".

Feature - Share page

You can share the page of the animation by clicking "Social page". You will then be redirected to a new tab where the animation with your settings can be seen. You can share the link of this tab with friends and family. When they click the link, they will land on the page with your animation. That looks like this.

Look out! If the settings are not set to "Public", the page cannot be shared. So you must first change the settings to "Public" before the option to share the page appears.

Feature - Choose map layer

You can choose the map layer in which the animation is shown. You can only choose the map layers shown in the animation menu. If you choose a different map layer via the toolkit, the default map layer of the animation is automatically switched to.

Feature - Record animation

You can record the animation by clicking the "Record" button.

Look out! In order to record the animation, your screen must be at least 1100x800 pixels. Open the browser in full screen to be able to record the animation.

If you then pressed "Record", you will see the following:

Look out! The higher you set the video quality, frame rate and resolution, the longer it will take to convert your video to an .mp4 format. Also, the animation cannot be more than 2GB to be able to convert to an .mp4 file. Finally, only the latest version of Google Chrome is currently supported to record the animation.

If you clicked on "Record", you will be presented with a screen asking the browser which part of the browser should be recorded. You click on "Chrome Tab".

You can then click which tab you want to share before recording. You click on the open tab of the MRA website.

Look out! If you have added a song or audio to the animation, you need to press "Share audio".

The animation is then recorded live. Once the animation has been recorded, you will see some new options appear in the menu bar. You can now download the animation. This will then be downloaded in a .webm format.

You can also convert the animation to an .mp4 format. You can only convert the animation after downloading it. When you have downloaded the animation, click on "convert recording". A new tab will then open where you can upload the video and convert it to .mp4 format. Here you press "upload video".

Then upload the video in .webm format, and press "convert video".

When the conversion is complete, you can download the recording in .mp4 format.