In a nutshell: Animoto.com generates slick, eye-catching slideshows edited to match the pace and tone of music you select. The result isn't always perfect -- but any service that delivers this much dazzle for this little effort deserves a place in the creative worker's bag of tricks! Sign up using discount code huvtxyne, and you'll get five bucks off.
The End of Slideshows?
There are dozens of software titles out there capable of converting your photos into a slideshow. With a click of a mouse, you can add music. Another click, and the "Ken Burns effect" will set your photos into motion. Dressed up with some lively music and eye-catching animation, even your Uncle Ed's fuzzy vacation photos can seem to tell a story.
Automatically generated slideshows are convenient, but they have their limitations. Because the software doesn't know what's in the picture, it may pan away from the focal point of the photo or -- worse -- zoom in for a close-up of the wart on Aunt Edna's nose. A poorly chosen soundtrack can transform bland slides into a truly disturbing multimedia experience.
And -- until now -- the number one problem with automatically generated slideshows has been this: due to their limited set of transitions and their dreamy pace, they all tend to look alike.
That's where Animoto.com comes in.
How It Works
Upload photos to Animoto.com. Choose a track from their music library (or, if you like, supply your own). Take a bio-break and, by the time you're back, Animoto.com will have produced a dazzling, eye-catching music video that synchs on-screen action to the beat and tone of the soundtrack.
Let me repeat that: in minutes, you get a slick, visually-dazzling music video -- the sort of thing that used to require hours and hours of painstaking, professional, post-production -- with zero effort on your part. You pick the photos. You choose the music. You click a button. You're done.
(I showed this to an Emmy Award-winning videographer -- known for his remarkable ability to jazz up dull footage in post-production -- who actually got a little angry. "Services like that," he said, "are going to put a lot of post-production people out of business.")
Limitations
Animoto.com isn't perfect. While it does a very clever job of editing slides together in a way that complements the music and catches the eye, like iPhoto, the software behind the site doesn't know what's on your photos. As a result, the occasional problematic choice -- a bad pan to the left here, an unfortunate zoom in there -- will still occur. But with an all-access pass, you can mix and remix the same slides again and again for no additional charge ... so when things go awry,you just point, click, and produce an all-new clip.
And -- no bones about this -- Animoto.com is designed to be a point-and-click solution. If you want to spend hours twiddling with this pan or that zoom, or if you want to invest hours lovingly selecting every transition and effect, then this is not a solution for you.
On the other hand, when the district sales manager gives you fifteen minutes to "whip up a little slideshow" for his favorite rep's retirement party ... Animoto.com will quickly become your very best friend.
Pricing
Thirty-second "shorts" cost nothing to produce. You can create longer pieces -- around ten minutes or so -- for three bucks a video ... or buy an all-access pass (enabling unlimited production of videos up to ten minutes long) for as little as $30.00.
RemarkablyCreative.com readers can sign up for an all-access pass using discount code huvtxyne, and get $5.00 off the price of an all-access pass. (When you do, they'll also give me three months service for free.)
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