The proliferation of home and business computers has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of animated maps in private, institutional, commercial, and academic settings. As authoring software that allows the production of such maps becomes cheaper and easier to use, animated maps will continue to become more numerous and sophisticated. This increase in the number and complexity of animated maps and the resultant need to automate their design and production calls for novel cartographic approaches. This paper stems from a project involving the design of animated maps for a typical multimedia product. An important element of the animations were the transitions between maps of different scales. An explanation of an algorithm to choose map scales suggests how aesthetic judgments can be incorporated into the automated production flow for the finished product.