Animoto - no more dull slideshows

by Dolores Parker Aug 23rd 2007

Animoto is a fun way to add some hollywood to your old, dull, same as everyone else's slideshow. You know those family vacation, special event, or even worse - yawn corporate outing or shareholder meetings. Animoto isn't the kiss of death to Powerpoint unfortunately, but it will add some zip and keep people's eyes open when it's "your turn" to show 'em something.

In beta, Animoto is a web application that generates a professionally produced video with music using your photos. At its core is a technology that analyzes and combines your images and music with the post-production savvy of a hollywood film editor. Below is a sample video produced in 5 minutes (or less) for this post.

The service is free for as many 30 seconds videos as you want, or $3 each for extended length videos. They also have a $30 annual pass that provides unlimited access. While you do have the option of uploading your own music, Animoto has a slick library of its own divided into 3 groups, Indie Rock, Electronica or Hip Hop.

You have the option of emailing your video, embedding it on your blog or website and posting it as a widget on your social network of choice. See screenshot below:

Nice touch is you retain all rights to your content. Animoto assumes no copyright to your material. And coming soon is the ability to download videos to your computer, and send videos to your cellphone.

We like Animoto's no hassle ease of use and its professional results. We definitely would like to see the ability to add your own captions or titles, maybe even illustrations to further customize your creation - and with that perhaps less reliance on the overdone, stick a fork in it, the ever present, Powerpoint presentation.

The founders of Animoto are veterans of the entertainment industry and are headquartered in NYC.

Tags: animoto, photo, slideshow, video

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

thehack said 12:57AM on 8-24-2007

30 seconds can't be to many photos. Of course if your just doing the highlights I suppose that is enough. Now the important question is can it jazz up my amatuer porn shoots?

http://geekwonk.com/

RJ said 10:47AM on 10-02-2007

I am beginning to love Animoto for its simplicity and easy of use. The 30 second shorts are enough to get an idea of what it can do and usually can fit about 15 photos...

Permalink:
http://www.rjponzio.com/2007/09/27/animoto-killed-the-slideshow/

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