The 12 Days of Techmas - Day 9: Animoto

Animoto claims to be the "end of slideshows" and it might just be. Well, probably not but it is a nice alternative. Using Animoto you can create up to a 30 second movie for free. It is incredibly simple to use because it does most of the work for you. As a bonus you can sign up as an educator to get an all-access pass for you and your students for 6 months! With the all-access pass, you can create full-length videos, have the ability to download them and create greeting cards. There is also an option to create a classroom and sign your students up under your name so that you can view their work. Click below to get registered.

Animoto for Educators

When you create a video, you begin by starting picking from a variety of themes. These are similar to the design templates in Powerpoint.


After you have a theme, upload all of your pictures (see the video in this blog if you need to resize your pictures) and begin arranging them in the order you want them to be seen in the video. You can add in text slides, such as a title, as well as rotate pictures that are sideways. If there are particular pictures you want to emphasize or create a greater focus on, you can click on the picture and then select spotlight.


The next step is to choose your music. You can upload a song from your computer (like something you've created after reading this blog) or choose from a vast selection in the Animoto database.


Before you finish your video, you can choose the speed at which the images are shown during the video. After this, simply give the video a title and brief description and select create video. It will take a few minutes for the video to be processed, after which you are able to view, edit, share or remix the video. If you're not happy with it, make changes and remix until you are. There are many options for sharing your video, such as downloading, email, embedding, facebook, youtube or twitter.


Here is my Christmas Animoto video:



TOMORROW: Answer Garden & Urtak - 2 for the price of 1!