BP2_Animoto

Animoto.com is a Web 2.0 tool that you can to turn your photos, video clips and  music into movie trailer type videos.   Photos and video clips can be uploaded from your computer or if you already store them online you can get them from there.  Animoto syncs with Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, and SmugMug.  Animoto has a collection of music that you can use or you can upload an mp3 file.

Click here for more info on Animoto.com.

I tried out Animoto at school to make sure that it would load up properly and was not blocked.  I have been having those problems with many of the cool Web 2.0 tools that I  have found.  Either the websites have been blocked by the district or they do not work on my ancient school computers because they are too slow.  Animoto work great.   It was easy to use and had a very small learning curve since it is so simple.  I simply chose my images, then chose my music, and finally finalized the project.  I chose some random photos that happened to be stored in my computer from few years ago.  Below is the result.  It literally only took minutes to make and it looks and sounds professional. 

 

The videos are unbranded, which means that the Animoto name will not appear in your video.  Your audience will never know how easy it was to make such professional looking products.  There are different levels of accounts.  Click here for more details on pricing.  With the free account you can create video that are up to 30 seconds and with the subscription accounts your videos do not have a time limit.  There is also an educator account available.  The cost of membership will vary depending on your needs.  The smallest package for educators is the "Class" package, which costs $99 per year.  This includes up to 50 accounts.  Up to 10% of those accounts can be teacher accounts.