You've been using WMS since the start of this book. You are an expert with GetMap requests, so it's perfectly clear to you that such a request can only produce a static map, that is, a representation of your data according to the styles and other parameters you submitted with the query.

Sometimes it may be useful to produce a dynamic map, something more similar to an animation. In fact, an animation is composed of an ordered sequence of pictures, so a map animation only requires you to produce an ordered sequence of maps.

A common use case is a map changing its extent to simulate a move over the data. In this recipe, you will learn how to produce a small animation, which shows a map moving toward the east.