Animoto.com
Directions to create an Animoto video:
1. Select all your photos or video clips before starting. Save to your documents folder. This makes video creation a lot faster. Be sure to cite the source of your photos if not your own.
2. Go to animoto.com. Sign up for an account or sign in if you already have one.
3. Select “Create Video.”
4. Click to select a “Video Style” from the list of themes. Not all styles are accessible to educator accounts. Choose “Create Video.”
Next Step: Images
5. The first step is to select your images. Choose upload from computer to use images you’ve already collected and saved.
6. You can also use images (mostly graphics, not photos) from the animoto collection.
7. Access to other sites to retrieve images is blocked so this is not an option.
8. To rearrange pictures, click and drag images into the correct position.
9. Look at the toolbar at the bottom of your images. Choices include adding more pictures, adding text, spotlight, rotate image, duplicate image, delete, shuffle
How to add text slides:
10. If you want just one or two lines of text, you can use the text option in the image menu.
11. If you want a whole slide with more text, you will need to use PowerPoint.
a. Create your text slides in PowerPoint. When saving, give it a name and then under “save as” choose JPEG. This allows animoto to treat it the slide the same as a picture or photo.
12. Click done when finished with imagery and text.
Next Step: Music
13. One of the best things about animoto is the huge selection of music to choose from.
14. Music is grouped according to the type of music. Browse the collection and play a sample. Choose one you like.
15. Music can also be uploaded from disk but beware of copyright. By copyright law, you can only use 30 seconds of a song.
16. Animoto will automatically time your images to the music. Different tempos result in a different appearance to your video. If you do use your own music (30 second loops) be sure to give credit.
Finalize Your Video:
17. If you want to change anything or speed it up/slow it down this is the time. Once you click continue, animoto will begin producing.
18. Producing the video can take a long time depending on the number of image and text slides (average is 5-10 minutes). You can open a new tab and do something else while waiting.
Saving and Sharing Work:
19. Once produced, you video will be available at animoto.com until you delete it.
20. If you decide you want to change something, use the video toolbox & select edit. (Note: You will have to re-produce the video.)
21. You can also download as mp4 so you can take it with you or use in another application. You can also purchase high-resolution DVDs and they will be mailed to you.