Animation Tool

[jtroberts]

Purpose

• New Animation Tool that allows users to create smooth animated sequences of map data by selecting a bounding box area, defining a time range, and configuring export settings. Users can export animations as GIF, MP4, or image sequences with optional text overlays.

Proposed Changes

• Bounding Box Selection: Draw on the map or enter coordinates manually to define the animation area (screen-aligned rectangles)
• Time Range Configuration: Set start/end dates and time intervals (second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year, decade, century) with step multiplier
• TimeControl Integration: Automatic synchronization with MMGIS TimeControl and TimeUI
• Export Settings: Configure frame rate, play direction, and loop settings for export
• Text Overlays: Optional title and timestamp overlays on exported frames
• Scale Bar: Option to include or exclude scale bar in exported frames
• Export Options: Export as GIF, MP4 video, or individual PNG image sequence

Issues

• ([New Feature]: Animation export #769)

Testing

• Added Animation Tool to existing mission and tested all tool options

Future Work

• Include legend in animations
• Support rectangular bounding box in polar projections
• Possibly simplify animation configuration steps
• Remove weird flickering when generating animation frames
• Synchronizing Animation Tool with other tools
• Caching animation frames onscreen for smooth playback on the map

[github-actions]

✅ Version Already Updated

This PR includes a manual version update to 4.1.3-20251030

No automatic version bump needed.

[tariqksoliman]

Awesome and thanks! No formal review yet since it's still a work in progress but I will deploy it.

• This error:

AnimationTool.js:1028 Export error: SecurityError: Failed to execute 'toDataURL' on 'HTMLCanvasElement': Tainted canvases may not be exported.
    at AnimationTool.js:1615:1

If this raster layer was on: https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=y&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}

• Should have a standard tool header like the other tools (name + help icon)
• Panning the map while the video was being made captured the pan in the video as well