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Once you have an Animoto account, you are ready to get started designing and creating
your video. To begin, click on Create One from the center
of the screen, or click on Create next to your name in the upper right hand corner.
When you get to the Choose a Style page, you can preview all of the styles by clicking
on each one. The style you choose will determine the look and feel for your video, so take
your time finding the right one. You can view all of the available style options,
by clicking on All from the options list. You will notice that some of the videos have
a PURCHASE VIDEO button under the description with the words Make a 30 second video for
free under the button, while some have an UPGRADE button.
Animoto uses a "freemium" model. This means they have both free and paid options available.
This video only shows you what you can do for free. For more information about the paid
options of Animoto (including access to all of the styles) go to animoto.com/pricing.
Once you find a style you like click on Make a 30 second video for free to go to the design
canvas. If this is your first time using Animoto,
they provide you with basic getting started steps -- you can view these if you want, the
same information will be presented during this tutorial.
This is the design canvas. You'll notice it is split into three sections.
The top section in blue includes the title and settings options.
The left section is the toolbar. And the center section is the workspace.
You'll see that Animoto gives you instructions for getting started; Use the plus sign to
add photos, videos, and text. and Use the music note to change song.
Each style is pre-assigned a song. If you don't like the song, you can choose a different
one from Animoto's extensive audio library, or upload your own.
It's important to understand that the tempo of the song you choose will affect the look
and speed of your video. I usually use the pre-assigned song, so I'm
going to close the music library. There are two ways to add images, I can click
on the plus sign from the empty tile and then click on the add photos icon, or I can click
on Add pics & vids from the toolbar. Both will take you to the same dialog box.
From the Add pictures and videos dialog box you'll see that there are a variety of places
to upload your images from; you can even select from Animoto's limited stock photo or image
library. If you have any of the listed social media
accounts, you can authorize the app by clicking on the icon and following the on screen prompts.
I'm going to upload my images from my computer, so I click on the first option: Upload Pictures
and Videos. This opens a standard file upload dialog box.
I can then browse to the location where my images are stored and choose the photos I
want to upload. If all of your images are located in the same
folder, you can select them all at one time by holding the ctrl key and clicking each
and then click Open. You'll see the images are added to the workspace
as tiles. But, what if they aren't in the order you want?
No problem, you can click and drag the tiles to arrange them just the way you want.
Next I want to add some text to my video. I can again, add it two ways; either click
on the plus sign from the empty tile and then click on the add text icon, or I can click
on Add text from the toolbar. Both will take you to the same dialog box.
From the text dialog box you can add title and subtitle text. You'll notice a number
at the right side of each area; this is how many characters you can have in that area.
So, I can add 40 characters to the title and 50 characters to the subtitle.
And now that I have my text, if I want to move it around I can just click and drag the
tile like I did with the image tile. Once you have all of the images and text added
to the workspace and arranged the way you want, it's time to preview your video.
Click on Preview Video below the toolbar. While the video preview is loading, add a
title and a description (if you want). If your video is just the way you want it,
click on Produce. If not, click on continue editing to return to the design canvas to
edit your video. Once you have finished editing, click on Preview Video again and Produce.
You will be redirected to the Video page while your production finalizes.
You are now ready to share your video!