What to do with all those Pictures…?

Check out the Video at the End!

I have too many pictures. However, despite having thousands of pictures, I hardly ever use them. Occasionally one or two of them find their way into some brochure, web page, or some other medium, but that still leaves, in my judgment, far too many of them just sitting in cold and dreary isolation.

That’s where Animoto shines its light of hope and gives these pictures a chance to shine, and, I must add, with VERY little effort on my part. If you’ve used Animoto, then stop reading and go do something else. If you haven’t, well then, sit back for a couple of quick minutes and let me enlighten you.

Animoto is a web-based program that analyzes the pictures you’ve either uploaded OR from one of your social profiles (like Flickr, Facebook, etc), then analyzes the music you’ve uploaded or selected and then it matches your pictures to the song with custom and high quality animations and transitions as a completely unique video.

Why I Love Animoto…

• Saves me Time.
• It’s Quality
• Great use of pictures.
• It’s Cheap - $20 per year to make as many as you can!
• Referral Program - If you refer a friend, that friend gets $5 off the $20 fee and IF they sign up, YOU get 3 months of full access FREE. Speaking of which, if you want to save $5 now, here’s my referral code: http://animoto.com/?ref=zapsdqnt

Somethings I would change about Animoto…

• Make it free to download Hi-Quality Videos - Yes, there is a small fee to download a High Quality version of your video (it’s only $5, but still)
• Add more editing capabilities
• Include movies with the pictures - It would be TOTALLY AWESOME if you could upload a short video clip here and there into the video.
• Get rid of the Animoto logo at the end - At the end of each video, there’s an Animoto logo. You can pay a bit extra to get the video without it…OR you can do a quick editing job.

Now that my likes and dis-likes are done, allow me to take you through the process and show you a finished result:

Step #1 - Upload Pictures

I’ve uploaded pictures directly from my hard drive (which took a little while but I just did other stuff while I waited). Afterwards, if there was any pictures that needed to be rotated, I simply click on the picture’s icon, and click the rotate button until it is correct. If there is a picture I want to be a bit more emphasized in the video, I click the picture and click the spotlight button. If there’s a picture I don’t want in there now, I simply click it then click delete. You can reorganize the pictures just by dragging them.

After I do all of this, I normally add text at the beginning and end. And then, I add a couple of blank slides at the end (makes it easier to cut off the logo at the end). Once you’re done, click “Continue”.

Step #2 - Select Music

Just cuz, I’m gonna use Boomin’ by Toby Mac for this video. You can upload your own, but I don’t wanna.  They have a fairly decent selection of songs, even though their Christian section is limited, but you can always upload any mp3 song you got.

Click “Save & Continue”

Step #3 - Finalize

Here there’s just a couple of options. The first is the length of the video: I’m doing full length. But make sure you have enough pics to make a full length video. The second is the speed of the pictures. This is useful if you have a lot of pictures and you need to crunch more in or just want t faster paced video OR if you have too few and you need to stretch them out. I’m going to do normal for now. The last is just a cover thumbnail for the video.

Once you’ve done all this, click Continue and then enter whatever info you want in the next fields.

CLICK CREATE VIDEO.

Step #4 - Wait

One of the nice things about Animoto is that you can close the window, turn off your computer and come back later and get your video once it’s done processing and rendering. No need to worry about system freezes or crashes. No need to worry about leaving your computer on. It’ll just email you when it’s done and you go get it.

Step #5 - Redo it (OPTIONAL)

IF, for some reason, you’re not too impressed with the transitions and timings, just tell it to re-do it and it will try again. You can also mess with the order of the pictures or the text or the spotlights or add more or take some out or whatever.

Here’s my finished product:

What you waiting for?! Sign Up! -> Animoto.com