Map animations

map_transition

I am trying to use Blender to animates some maps. I have had a little success in using country boundaries but it always seems to never look that good.

The image attached I think is using masks? How would I go about “blocking” out other areas to highlight a specific area of a map?

Conversely, instead of blocking out the rest of the map, can I color the country of interest, so it would have a highlighter effect? Again my attempts are more solid and “hard” where this boundary is subtle… Maybe I need to use the transparent BSDF better?

like this:

map_highlight2