I had promised some of you I would post information about Animoto, the video software I learned about last week. The link is http://animoto.com/. Once you're on the homepage, you can click the Sign Up link at the top to see the different options. Animoto Lite is free, but you are limited to 30 second videos. Animoto Plus is only $5 per month, but $30 per year (that's like half-price!). You might want to sign up for one month at $5 just to check out all the additional features and then you can decide whether or not you want to purchase a full year membership. Animoto Pro and Animoto Reseller are much more expensive and probably way more than what you'd ever want to do in a classroom.
I did go ahead and sign up for an Animoto Plus account because I wanted to check out all the features a teacher might want. Very quickly I was able to create my "I Love Tigers" video. Here is the link if you want to see it - http://animoto.com/play/GvZl6F5580EeAe9G919CGg. I selected one of their pre-made templates, just uploaded a few of my tiger pictures (being careful about copyright, of course) and a quick part of a song I happened to have on my computer. The "work" of putting together the video was all done by Animoto!
So how do you do it? Simply click on the Create Video button at the top of the page. Select a video style (template). You can click Preview to see a sample. The templates are clearly marked as to which ones you have access to and which ones require a pro membership or above. Once you decide on a video style, click Create. The next step is to load the video with images (or video clips - I did not have any clips to work with, so I did not do this with my first one). You can upload the images from your computer, or retrieve them from other sites, or you can start by selecting some images from their collection. If you decide to upload an image, simply click the plus sign by Upload and browse to find the image. Once you add your first image, you will be taken to the editing screen. At the bottom are the selections you can make - add more (add another image), add text, spotlight (a particular part), rotate, duplicate or shuffle, plus you can delete anything here as well. Once you've made all your selections, you can simply drag and drop the different pieces wherever you would like them to go. Click Done when you are finished.
The next step is to select the music. Again, you can select from their vast library of music or upload music from your own computer. (Just be careful about copyright issues!) You can preview any of their music easily to find just the right one. Once you have selected your music you can customize it by starting the music at any point in the song - just click the "Choose start point ->" link. When you're done, click Continue.
The last step is to finalize your video. Once you are done, click Continue. Add a Title for your video, a description (if desired) and your Producer Name (I use cctyger for things like this). Click Create Video.
It will take a little while for Animoto to produce your video. You can watch the "circles" on this page as it processes, composes, and produces your video or you can go do something else. It will e-mail you whenever your video is ready to view. Eventually the video will show under your "My Videos" menu at the top of the page.
That's how easy it is to produce an Animoto video! While I was typing this, I fixed a quick Happy Birthday video (with Charmed music - I couldn't find the Happy Birthday tune that quickly). http://animoto.com/play/iyo3EdUYaLfvEN7PjLD0yQ is the link in case you want to check it out sometime. At the very least, go to Animoto and sign up for the free account and try a quick 30 second video using their images and music and see how easy it is!
I HOPE ALL OF YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL OPENING DAY! MAY IT BE THE SMOOTHEST OPENING DAY EVER!
