We played this video at the goodbye assembly for Margaret Read MacDonald on Friday afternoon. (We’ll have to settle for a link today. The embed code is not working for some reason.) We wanted a quick video or slide show to summarize the three days for everyone. Pressed for time, we needed something that would be easy to make and exciting to watch. We turned to Animoto. It turns photos into slide shows and synchs the photos with music. From camera to video on the desktop, here’s how I made the video.
The Steps
- Extracted the photos from the camera into iPhoto.
- Exported the photos to a folder on my desktop with the settings medium quality and large size.
- Logged in to my Animoto Pro account (free for educators).
- Selected Create Video > animoto originals > Full Length.
- Uploaded the photos, arranged them by dragging and dropping, and added some text slides.
- Selected music from the Animoto collection (could use own collection too).
- Selected an image pacing speed of 1/2 and a video cover image .
- Added a title and description and selected Create Video.
- Waited about 10 minutes for it to render.
- Downloaded the video to my desktop.
I completed all of those steps in just under one hour. That included some discussion with Beth Gourley about the title slides and some text slides. Not bad. I wasn’t totally pleased with the video created though. Some of the photos I uploaded and some of the text slides I created did not make it into the video. At least they were not prominent enough to be noticed. With more time I would have remixed this. Animoto gives us a remix button that creates a totally different slide show. But it was nearly 2pm and I had to set this up at 2:30, so I took what I had at the moment. I could still remix it though as it’s still sitting in my video collection.
Animoto is a great way to create exciting movies from photos. You can even add videos. You can synch it with the music in the Animoto collection or add your own. I think a voice over would work well. But by itself, it’s not creative video making at all. It’s really just uploading and button pushing. To get creative, try downloading your video and then importing it into your favorite video making application like iMovie. I think Animoto videos make excellent transition pieces or introduction type movies. Give it a try!
