Q: how did you make that color expanding across the land effect in HOJ and HOTEWIG?
A: the trick is to take the image of the full map, duplicate the file, then use the lasso selector to outline what you want, copy, select all, delete, paste, then open a blank black image, select all, copy that, go back to the isolated territory file, then paste, undo, select all, copy, redo, paste. now you have an outlined territory on black background, on an image file the same exact size as another image which includes the whole map. then import both those images into your video timeline, and perform the movements you need, get the movements copied to both images, put the partially black one on top, then key out the black, edge feather, then tint the color. can also double layer and composite  the cut-out one, as desired. to make it expand, you can use a simple crop line with edge feather, keyframed in before and after positions, or if you need it to go at an angle, you can use a rectangular mask shape at an angle. maybe even use a circular mask shape and have that expand. the key to the game is making sure your 2 images (one of the full map and one of just the territory on black background) are exactly the same dimensions, so that way you can easily apply the exact same movements to both of them. In a 3D environment such as history of the world, this is done with video files. render the globe moving as you want, with the full map on it, then replace the globe map with a same sized map with only the desired territory, and the rest black. re-render the exact same sequence, with exactly the same start and end time. then import both videos into your 2D timeline, and stack them, and key out the black, as before