Other Professional Effects for Maps

1.  A nice invasive species map from the Center for Bioenvironmental Research.  The user is able to interact with the map by clicking on the different buttons to move around, in, and out.
http://is.cbr.tulane.edu/PortalsAndPathways.html

2.  A video created by Visualize Early Washington that incorporates various 3D map elements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKY45I9Bsho&feature=youtu.be

3.  An animated 2010 earthquake in Haiti.  The animation for the earthquake and the appearance of vibration illustrates the earthquake event so well.  The video also zooms into the most pertinent areas to show the details of the volunteered geographic information through Open Street Map as well as refugee tent camps in blue.
http://vimeo.com/9182869

4.  An Attack Map of Pearl Harbor that integrates MANY different techniques and effects to create an extremely professional product.  From the splash screen to the sound to the ability to pan and zoom, this really is outstanding!
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor/ax/frameset.html

5.  This Women's Voting map has a really nice pre-made transition "popup" that comes out of the top of the when you click on a country.  It also possesses 3 maps in one where you can change what types of information you are looking at.
http://777voting.com/

6.  The side popout when double clicking a state is a nice feature with a ton of info in this Measuring of America Map.  Included is demographics, education, socioeconomic and it really integrates the map with the ranking pyramid well.
http://www.measureofamerica.org/maps/

7.  Nice video game map that lets the user add notes to any icon on the map for later use. Click on a zone and then an icon.  It has smooth hotspot transitions built in.
http://gw2cartographers.com/#/en/

8.  Nice Flash map with a very slick hoverover list of available, fresh ingredients when you click the state. It includes the season at the top as well as links within the state's information.
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/seasonalcooking/farmtotable/seasonalingredientmap