Turn on your sound speakers, press the Play button on the above movie, wait for the loading counter to reach 100, and then briefly enjoy a snappy little thirty second movie.
The above Animoto music clip was made using some “Sponge-Bob and Patrick Adventures” pictures that my students made using Layers in Adobe CS3 Fireworks.
Animoto is a web application that requires basic IT skills to create a professional looking “music video” using photos supplied by the user. It has its own music soundtracks that can be used, so we do not have to worry about uploading songs ourselves. (Although we can do this if we want to).
Animoto then “automagically” processes our photos, syncs them with the music, and creates a short vibrant music video for us, that is a bit like a 30 second advertisement or movie trailer.
In Animoto it takes 12 to 15 pictures to make a 30 second video, and it seems that the free video limit is in fact 30 seconds. Otherwise credits have to be paid, (which means spending dollars to purchase these credits).
We think it costs about $30 US to buy credits, but we do not know how many total minutes or animations this might get for us.
The PDF document below, gives full step-by-step instructions and details about signing up and using Animoto for the first time.
If you would like to have your own copy of this PDF, then simply click the save disk icon button on the PDF viewer, and you should be able to save it to your own hard disk.
Alternatively, you can view or save the PDF by clicking the link below:
(Click the Browser's Back Button to return to this Blog).
Click here to open or save the PDF
Here is an Animoto from Jaqui Sharp's excellent Education Blog at: http://jacquisharp.blogspot.com/.
This Animoto shows that we can take a few PowerPoint slides saved as JPG's, add some Clip Art of Bees, and end up with a very nice litttle Animoto to view prior to the PPT presentation.
Animoto is also excellent for making Online Greeting Cards. We could for example get around 10 or 12 photos of a person's friends, or of Christmas scenes, upload appropriate music, and thereby create an electronic card that we could then email to a group of people. (Use the "Share" option in Animoto to send the email link).
For me, the 30 second free limit on Animoto left me wanting more. A one to two minute video would be a lot better, as it would give time to tell a proper story with plenty of Text frames and Spotlight frames. But for a longer video, we have to start paying dollars, and so that’s where the Buck stops for me !
Still, thirty seconds of free fun was ok, and it will be interesting to see what my students come up with using Animoto next term.
Enjoy,
Passy
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