The Generic Mapping Tools and Animations for the Masses

Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) is a well-known set of software originally developed for geosciences, allowing scientists in climate and solid earth disciplines to routinely create publish-ready maps and graphics. However, GMT users rarely make animations despite their undeniable benefit for understanding and teaching dynamic processes. As reading habits shift from print to digital, capitalizing on animations for illustrating scientific concepts is more accessible than ever. In the latest GMT version (6.5), we have added and refined the movie-making modules, alleviating the time-consuming steps that would hinder GMT users from making such animations. In this paper, we will explain how GMT's "movie" module works and provide six representative examples, from basic to more advanced, to show some of its key features. We hope our presentation will encourage the masses to routinely create animations for their publications. We live in an era where accessing digital information through all kinds of screens is easily possible. These media allow the display of animations and movies. However, in scientific publications, these formats are scarcely used despite their compatibility with most systems and their clear benefit to illustrate dynamic processes. In this paper, we show how the Generic Mapping Tools software facilitates the creation of animations ranging from simple to complex. With this article, we wish to help and encourage all those involved in scientific outreach to produce pedagogical content that is in tune with the uses of our time. Dynamic content (like animations) can be critical to show changes in science The Generic Mapping Tools software empowers users to easily create animations by taking over non-trivial tasks We encourage scientists to routinely create animations when discussing temporal or spatial changes