Tips for Creating Great Video with Animoto
Posted By admin on October 7, 2009
Need a way to easily create videos for your marketing campaigns? Animoto is an online, easy-to-use tool for creating quality videos that can be used for both personal and professional purposes. All you have to do is upload pictures to the Animoto website, select background music to play with your video slide show from the numerous choices on the Animoto website, or upload music directly from your own computer. Just include text frames to help viewers through your transitions and you’re finished.
While Animoto takes a lot of the leg work out of creating professional-looking videos, a few tips can make your videos and slide shows look even better. Marketing agencies have seen the benefit of creating these Animoto videos, and have been so impressed with the results several have posted videos on their websites.
Here are some tips to create better videos with Animoto as well as some tips from the creators of Animoto:
1. When uploading photos, always choose photos or graphics with a landscape orientation as portrait photos can sometimes format oddly during the video rendeing process.
2. Animoto automatically sets the frame time, however, if there are select images you really want to emphasize, you can select the “spotlight” button.
3. When including text with your video, always ensure that there are pictures on either side of the text slide else your text will lack any moving video in the background.
4. Your choice of music determines the transition speed. If you select a slow instrumental song, your music video will have slow transitions whereas if you choose rock, the transitions will happen fast.
5. Animoto consumes around 15-20 images for their 30 second shorts. If you upload more images, they are likely to be discarded in the final video so pick the best shots before starting the render process. For full-length videos, the images limit is 300, but the number of images you need really depends on the music selection and the pace you choose.
6. While the 1x speed is great for fast, engaging videos, you can choose the 1/2x speed for a more traditional slideshow.
7. You can brand your entire slideshow by creating an image with your logo and inserting it in the last frame.
8. To prevent images from getting cut off in your slide shows, try placing a 50 to 100-pixel border around the image to prevent loosing the edges of your pictures and create a more professional-looking image.
9. If you have a full-length video (business) account you are able to turn off the “created by Animoto” and music credits text that appears at the end of the slide show. Before your create your video, you are presented with an option to turn off this text.
With Animoto and the above advice, you can generate very professional videos with little time and money.
