Thursday, November 22, 2012

Turning Pics to Video with Animoto



This morning, the husband and I took Little m to Chicago's Thanksgiving day parade, and like usual I took a bunch of photos to commemorate the bebe's first parade.. well her second technically, but this was the first parade she was actually interested in and paid attention to! 

I take so many photos and videos on my iPhone these days, which is great, but I rarely have a chance to do anything with them - especially now that the business of the holiday season is upon us. I feel like I have a full calendar from now till January and definitely don't have the time to sit down and create a video. Well, that's what I thought until I heard about Animoto

If you've never heard of it, Animoto is a service that helps you make videos from photos that you upload from your computer, Facebook, Twitter, or photo sharing sites like Picasa. You can even download the Animoto iPhone or Android app to create videos with your phone's photos. This is something I'm definitely going to try in the future! Once your photos are uploaded, Animoto does the work in making the video. The video is fully customizable and you can choose to add your own music, text, and background style. Then you're free to share your video however you like.

Some things that I like about Animoto: 
- you can upload any song to set your video to
- there are tons of choices in background styles
- you end up with a cool video with very little effort

Some things that could be improved on: 
- the quality of the free video I received is not the best so it might be worth paying extra for HD
- my photos took longer than I thought to upload, about 10 minutes

But without further ado, take a look for yourself. Here's the video I made of Family Fun Day! Haha, that title's a bit of a joke with the hubs and I. He spent the last three months preparing for an exam and now that it's done we're free to have family fun days and it's awesome.



Overall, I really enjoyed trying out Animoto and can see myself using it again in the future. I am all for getting maximum output with minimum input! I love that I've found an easy way to actually do something with my pictures. If you're looking for other tips and tricks on taking awesome family holiday pics take a look at this Busy Parents' Guide video

Like my video? Make your own and enter to win a prize!

Animoto has graciously offered the code busyparents to my readers, which is good for a free video download. And that's not all! When you use that code to download a video between now and December 15, you'll automatically be entered to win a copy of "Capturing Life Through Better Photography" (MSRP $70) by Tamara Lackey, the woman featured in this episode of "Busy Parent' Guide: Photo & Video Tips for Parents for the Holidays." Additionally, you can use the code clever until December 15 to receive 20% off a year of Animoto service. All rules and requirements regarding this sweepstakes can be found here

I was selected for participation in this campaign as a member of Clever Girls Collective. 

2 comments:

  1. Oh I should also say that I know the pics look really dark, and that's because they are. The sun was not working in my favour and I didn't bother to edit them before uploading. Next time I probably should!

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  2. Loved it! Little m sure looked like she loved the parade. And for a few moments I felt like I was there with you all.

    Thanks!

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