GeoGazette

Make your first story

Two ways in. Write a story and let the AI build it, or open a .ov file that already exists. Both end up at the same place: a document you can play, illustrate, narrate, publish and export.

The fastest route: start from text

1

Open the AI Studio

AI Studio takes a piece of writing — a history, an explainer, a field report — and builds a story from it. You will need an account for this one.

2

Paste your writing and generate

It finds the places you mention, resolves them to real coordinates, breaks the text into scenes, and works out where the camera should go for each one.

Write in whole sentences. The narration is the text you gave it, so anything that reads badly aloud will sound bad aloud.

3

Watch it, then export the file

The preview plays the real document. When it looks right, use Export to download the .ov. That file is now yours and it is the whole story — keep it, edit it, open it anywhere.

The other route: open a file

1

Go to the player

The player needs no account. It opens with an example already loaded.

2

Open your own .ov, or pick an example

Open .ov reads a file from your machine — YAML or JSON. The five bundled examples are in the sidebar, and each one is a working demonstration of something different.

3

Make it yours

Illustrate suggests a picture for every scene and generates the ones you choose. Export video renders an MP4 with spoken narration. Share publishes it to a link that plays for anyone.

All three are covered in Play, illustrate, export, share.

Writing one by hand

A .ov is YAML, and a minimal one is short. This plays:

name: first-story
version: 1.0.0
profile: geostory

story:
  title: "A Very Short Story"
  crs: "EPSG:4326"

basemaps:
  - id: bm
    name: "Esri Dark Gray Canvas"
    type: xyz
    url: "https://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/Canvas/World_Dark_Gray_Base/MapServer/tile/{z}/{y}/{x}"
    max_zoom: 16
    attribution: "© Esri"

settings:
  default_basemap: bm

places:
  - id: pl_reykjavik
    as_written: "Reykjavík"
    resolved:
      name: "Reykjavík"
      point: [-21.94, 64.15]
      kind: city
      provider: manual
      resolved_at: "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z"
      confidence: 0.9

audio: []
media: []
layers: []
annotations: []

scenes:
  - id: sc_01
    sequence: 1
    title: "Where It Starts"
    place_id: pl_reykjavik
    timing: { mode: derived, intended: 8 }
    content:
      caption: "A city on the edge of a spreading ridge."
      narration: >-
        Reykjavík sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where two plates
        pull apart about as fast as a fingernail grows.

attribution:
  - "© Esri"

Save it as first-story.ov and open it in the player. Note what is not there: no audio file, no images, no recorded camera move. The narration is text and the camera is a coordinate, which is what lets this one file be the whole story.

Where to go next