Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2021: Week 11

A multi-animator project or multiple animator project (abbreviated as MAP) is a term for animation created by the collaboration of multiple animators.

Unlike vidding or anime music videos (AMVs), which typically arrange clips of existing media into collages, MAPs are typically composed from frames originally created by fan animators themselves. MAPs may or may not include original music and voice acting.

Most MAPs are uploaded to YouTube. MAPs are popular in feral fandoms, particularly Warrior Cats fandom, although they are created for a myriad of fandoms and even original characters.

The term likely originated from Warrior Cats fandom, and indeed the first instance of "MAP" comes from a Warrior Cats multi-animator project that was posted on YouTube on Jul 22, 2012. This MAP, hosted by LadyTeelia, included nineteen artists animating to the song "Lights Out" by Mindless Self Indulgence ("MSI"). Its description acknowledged that it was the first to coin the phrase "multi-animator project," or "MAP." This video was referenced in a 2019 blog post about MAPs by blogger Sara Catterall.

MAPs have a reputation for taking a long time- even years- or going unfinished and becoming cancelled. Likely in response to this, there are challenges to create MAP parts in a certain amount of time, such as 24-hour or 72-hour MAPs. Many reanimated projects—animations remaking the entirety of a TV show, film, or other piece of media—are MAPs involving up to hundreds of fan collaborators.