user14723: This is my first go at asking a video production related question...
I have a programming / data science background.
I have about 30,000 spatial co-ordinates (i.e x , y coordinates) These have come into existence over about 15 years.  I want to animate this.  
So, I need a programmatic approach - there are just too many points.  
Also, when each point appears...I want it to initially appear at say 100% opacity and then over about 15 frames fade to about 30% opacity. 
What tool is the best to do this in...?
I am not sure if After Effects has sufficient programatic control..?
What about Flash..?  (i.e Adobe CC Animate).
Eventually, I want this animated series of points to be a layer and I will stick it on top of a base map. And do some other stuff.  So eventually, the layers will be composited in After Effects.  
What tool should I use to create this animation...?
Thanks,
Mark

user10931: I would do this in Blender, which uses Python as a scripting language.  This gives you a powerful way to "fly" through the data as it animates.
If you are happy with just a static perspective of the map with the points being animated, R has an extraordinary range of graphing capabilties that can be used to generate animations.

user17014: I often use Processing for simple graphics or scripting projects, which would be difficult to achieve with After Effects expressions. If you prefer coding in C++ to Java, you could look at OpenFrameworks which is a similar tool. Both are designed to make it easy to experiment visually while using the data processing tools of a coding environment.
tomh mentioned the GeoLayers plugin for After Effects but, while it's a really nice tool, I'm not sure it's designed to deal with data sets like yours.

14723: <p>This is my first go at asking a video production related question...</p>

<p>I have a programming / data science background.</p>

<p>I have about 30,000 spatial co-ordinates (i.e x , y coordinates) These have come into existence over about 15 years.  I want to animate this.  </p>

<p>So, I need a programmatic approach - there are just too many points.  </p>

<p>Also, when each point appears...I want it to initially appear at say 100% opacity and then over about 15 frames fade to about 30% opacity. </p>

<p>What tool is the best to do this in...?</p>

<p>I am not sure if After Effects has sufficient programatic control..?</p>

<p>What about Flash..?  (i.e Adobe CC Animate).</p>

<p>Eventually, I want this animated series of points to be a layer and I will stick it on top of a base map. And do some other stuff.  So eventually, the layers will be composited in After Effects.  </p>

<p>What tool should I use to create this animation...?</p>

<p>Thanks,</p>

<p>Mark</p>
 10931: <p>I would do this in <a href="https://www.blender.org/" rel="nofollow">Blender</a>, which uses Python as a scripting language.  This gives you a powerful way to "fly" through the data as it animates.</p>

<p>If you are happy with just a static perspective of the map with the points being animated, <a href="https://www.r-project.org/" rel="nofollow">R</a> has an extraordinary range of graphing capabilties that can be used to generate animations.</p>
 17014: <p>I often use <a href="http://processing.org" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Processing</a> for simple graphics or scripting projects, which would be difficult to achieve with After Effects expressions. If you prefer coding in C++ to Java, you could look at <a href="http://openframeworks.cc" rel="nofollow noreferrer">OpenFrameworks</a> which is a similar tool. Both are designed to make it easy to experiment visually while using the data processing tools of a coding environment.</p>

<p>tomh mentioned the GeoLayers plugin for After Effects but, while it's a really nice tool, I'm not sure it's designed to deal with data sets like yours.</p>
