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Animoto – End of the Slideshows Era

on November 12, 2008 in Tech for Life

Image slideshows have been around for a while. We are used to wading through the monotone pace of image slidheshows from our albums in computer or photo services such as Flickr, Picasa, etc.

Animoto aims to put an end to image slideshows as we know it.

Animoto is a web application that takes your images and a song of your choice and creates a short video with incredible image transitions that sync with the rise & fall of vocals, rhythm, etc in the song.

Before diving into the details lets see how quickly I can create an Animoto video.

How to Create a Video in Animoto?

  • Sign up for a free account
  • Choose to do a short 30-sec video or a full length video
  • Choose to upload images from your computer
  • Or pick one of the following services: Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, Photobucket, etc.
  • I chose Flickr & chose a set from my Flickr account after authorizing Animoto to access Flickr
  • Then wait a few mins when Animoto gets your images and processes them
  • Once it grabs your images you can choose to keep them all or delete the ones you don’t want
  • Then choose a song from their collection or upload your own.
  • Then finalize your video with a title and description and let Animoto works it’s magic.
  • Email the video, download it or even embed in a webpage to share in with others. (like I have done here)

If you had more than 15 images Animoto will warn you that you some images might get cut off or you can choose the full length version.

Here’s my Animoto creation

It took a good 10 minutes for the video to be created but looking at the output it was well worth the coffee break I took while waiting for it. (Feed readers may not show this, so click over to see the sample video)

Mind you I didn’t spend hours doing this, probably less than a min in selecting pics and a song. :-)

Story behind Animoto

Animoto was created by folks who wroked in the video industry and this was born out of their desire to bring the professional film like effects we see on TV and films to everyone.

Animoto works by analyzing and combining user-selected images and music with the same sophistication that goes into post-production techniques used in films and television.

The technology takes into account every nuance of a song – the genre, song structure, energy, rhythm, vocals, etc.

And guess what? No 2 videos are ever alike. Ever. Even with the same set of images. That’s the beauty of Animoto.

So, would you be giving this a try?

Update: 12/03/08

Animoto has added some Holiday cheer by making it easy to create a holiday greeting! Check it out.

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  • http://www.effortlesshr.com/ Aaron@HR Software

    Wow.. Those transitions are amazing. I would have loved to come up with this idea but for now I guess I will just use it.

    Aarons last blog post..November is National Flu Awareness Month

  • http://haiku-poems-blog.blogspot.com/2008/11/thanksgiving-haiku-poems.html kouji@thanksgiving haiku poem

    that does look pretty good. :)

    i don’t see myself using this on my current blog, since i try to keep that one lean, so it loads quickly. but maybe i could use this on a more photo related blog, maybe for sharing images with friends.

    looks promising.

    koujis last blog post..thanksgiving haiku poem

  • http://news.hitmeister.de/ Olaf@Hitmeister News

    Wow, that is pretty incredible . . . even reading your post before I saw the video, I was saying “bleh, it can’t be much better than any other picture slide show. But wow, even the transitions were not all corny or anything. Very cool find! I can definitely use this for some of my projects.

    Olafs last blog post..Shrek 3 – Der Dritte jetzt endlich auch auf Blu-ray Disc

  • http://www.shankrila.com K

    Olaf, glad you liked it. I tried longer videos and they are even better when you give it time to add more transition effects and it does match the music!

  • http://www.shankrila.com K

    kouji, you are right! It’s best suited making shows for friends and family than for blogs especially since you can download videos or even order DVDs.

  • http://www.andrewflusche.com Andy@Reckless Driving

    Awesome find! You gotta love cool utilities like this, especially when they’re free. :)

    Andys last blog post..Stafford County Traffic Court Lawyers

  • http://www.great-wall-of-china.org Kevin@Great Wall of China Facts

    Hello,
    Thanks for sharing this information. I have never heard of this before. I have always been interested in doing something like this but never knew it existed. Thanks for sharing your video too!
    Thanks!

  • http://poputech.com Popular Technology

    I was introduced to this software when I was looking for new flv formats… i say it’s really a great idea :)

    Popular Technologys last blog post..Hello Kitty C1 Netbook Can Make a Few Scratches

  • http://www.rbrproductions.com/duplication.htm Richard@DVD Duplication Chicago

    That is an amazing program if it can really sync music and pictures into a a video that quickly. That video is very impressive for only spending very little time on it.

  • http://phoneservice.tblog.com/ jane@Cheap local phone service

    That is a great program. You can make some nice slide shows and add your own music. I am impressed with this program. I bet people will make some good video like slide shows that will be popular.

    janes last blog post..georgia local phone service provider

  • http://highyield-investments-and-savings.blogspot.com/ Tony@High yield savings account

    Animoto looks good. Very interesting video program. I have to try it for some videos i want to add to a site. Thanks great tip and find.

  • nate

    ANIMOTO SUCKS ASS – ONE PROJECT FROZE AND I CAN’T EDIT ANY OTHER PROJECTS IN MY ACCOUNT AFTRER PAYING FOR PROFESSIONAL ACCESS

    ANIMOTO SUCKS ASS!

    since you fail to reply to my repeated emails:

    I was working on a single project that hung during rendering.

    totally unrelated projects had previously been created, so i went to edit one or ANY OF THEM – and am always brought back to the failed project.

    I have deleted the failed projects from my account, and am still brough to edit that project when I click editing remix.

    Your careless reply was to just create another project from scratch, which doesn’t help at all because I can’t even find out where I set the music to begin.

    I PAID YOU IN FULL UP FRONT FOR PROFESSIONAL LEVEL ACCESS.

    QUIT BLOCKING EVERY PROJECT IN MY ACCOUNT BECAUSE ONE FAILS ON YOUR END AND YOU DON’T CARE ENOUGH TO FIX IT EVEN THOUGH IT’S BEEN 4 DAYS THAT I HAVE BEEN REQUESTING SUPPORT!

    IF YOU WON’T FIX IT, GIVE ME ANOTHER ACCOUNT SO I CAN CREATE THEM FROM SCRATCH ALL OVER AGAIN AND GET THESE CLIENT PROJECTS FINISHED!!!!

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  • http://toxic-black-mold-removal.blogspot.com/ amy@mold removal

    That is a great program. Almost like a free video movie editor. Anyone can use it and have alot of fun thanks.

  • http://www.internetmoneymaster.com/ Jake@Ways to make extra money

    I was about to say how cool Animoto looks and consider looking into it until I read Nates comment.

    @ Nate: Relax mate. It sucks that you had this happen but try giving them a call and explaining them the situation. Yelling never helped anyone.

    Jake@Ways to make extra moneys last blog post..How To Make Extra Money

  • http://www.businesssupplyblog.com Ken@office supply blog

    That’s really a neat service. I can see where it will make old fashion slideshows obsolete. However, if you were doing a presentation style project that needed specific information (like text, charts, etc.), could you still do that in animoto? I gave the animoto site a quick once over, but didn’t see any references to that question?

    Ken@office supply blogs last blog post..Best ergonomic chair (at any price)?

  • http://www.shankrila.com K

    Did you know you can leave your Twitter ID as well while you comment here? I am just testing mine. :-)

  • http://davidwihl.blogspot.com David Wihl

    Don’t be lured by animoto – the demo looks great but when you try to do anything substantial, it doesn’t live up. See my review: http://davidwihl.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-not-to-create-video-photo-story.html

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