Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Animoto.com Is an Excellent Free Tool for Video Trailers

On occasion, I tear myself away from the computer and actually read a magazine or two for news about what's happening online. I came across an article about Animoto.com, which allows users to upload photos or graphics from their computer, or from an online photo management site like Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, or Photobucket, and have the Animoto turn it into a dynamic trailer. You can even add music to it (theirs or yours) and create a music video type trailer in minutes. Like many online services, there is a free version and a paid version. With the free version (my kind of price), you can upload the result to YouTube, Facebook, or other social networking sites.

How good is it? Just for fun, I decided to make a trailer for an upcoming AirSafe.com podcast on airline accidents of 2008. I uploaded a bunch of pictures, hit the button, and waited for the result. You can see the fruits of Animoto's labor for yourself below (or at Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_Xe4ClgMR0).

Trailer for 2008 Year in Review



By the way, the music in this trailer is from the song "Time and Place" from the Canadian group In-Flight Safety. Yes, that is the name of the group. How could I possibly pass up the chance to use their music?

If you think this looks like something you can use, go sign up today. By the way, the paid version allows you to download the finished product, but you can also do something creative like upload it to YouTube, use Mediaconverter.org to do a conversion into a format of your choice like MP4 or WMV, and then download it to your hard drive. Just a random suggestion.

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