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Hello, My name is Anna Stirling and today I will be showing you how to use Animoto.
Animoto allows you to turn your photos, video clips and music into stunning video masterpieces
that you can share with anyone - easily and for FREE! To begin using Animoto go to animoto.com.
Once at the site you will need to create an account, this video will not go over the account
set up process, but signing up for a free account is very easy. Just click on the Sign
up for free button on the home page and follow the on screen instructions. If you are an
educator, you can sign up for a free Educator Plus account that will provide you with additional
benefits over the regular free account. To sign up for the educator account scroll to
the bottom of the page and click on Animoto for Education. Once you have created your
account and are logged in you can begin creating your videos. From the Animoto home page click
on Create Video in the upper right hand corner. You will see that you are walked through the
steps of creating a video on screen. Step one is to choose a style for your video. There
are many to choose from and each creates a different look and feel to your video. If
you have a free account some style options will not be available to you. When you click
on a style you see a preview of the style, if you like it click Create Video. From the
video page you can begin creating your video. I recommend changing the title first, so you
don't forget later. Click on the words My Animoto Video on the left side of the blue
bar, type the title of your video and press enter. Next, you can adjust some of the options
or begin adding your images. Each style has a preset music selection, but you can change
it if you like by clicking on Change Music. Animoto has a wide variety of songs you can
choose from, or you can upload your own music if you like. I am going to keep the default
music for my video so I will just click on the x in the right corner to close the Choose
Music dialog box. Now I'm going to add my photos. I will not be using any video clips
in this presentation, but you could add video clips if you have them in this section as
well. To begin click on Add Pics & Vids. When the Add Pictures and Video dialog box opens
you will see that you have a variety of options of where to import images from. You can link
a bunch of social media sites including facebook and instagram, or you can upload images from
your computer. I am going to upload images from my computer, so I click on Upload Pictures
and Video at the top of the dialog box. This opens a standard browse window and I can navigate
to where ever my images are saved and select them to upload. You can select multiple images
at a time by clicking on one, holding down the control or command key and clicking another.
This will allow you to upload all your images at once if they are in the same folder. Once
you have all the images selected, click open. The window will close and you will see status
bars as your images open. Depending on the number and size of the images the actual upload
time will vary. If your videos didn't load to the video canvas in the order you want
them, you can rearrange them. Simply click and drag the image to where you would like
it. You can also add text to you video to add emphasis or describe an image. Just click
on Add Text. You have two areas to enter text, the Header box and the Text box. Text entered
into the header box will appear larger than the text in the Text box. You can enter text
in one or both of the boxes. To the right of each box you will see a number, 22 next
to Header and 30 next to Text. This is the number of characters you can enter. Characters
consist of letters, numbers, spaces and punctuation. Once you have added all the text you want,
click Save. You can rearrange text blocks just like images, click and drag it to the
spot where you want it. Now that you have all the elements of your video, click preview
Video to see your creation. The preview can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 1 minute
(or maybe longer) depending on the amount of content you have included. If you like
what you have created, click Produce. If you want to make changes to any part, click Or
continue editing. Once you click create you will see a status bar for video production,
again, this can take a while depending on the amount of content, so you can be patient
or you can move on to another project and come back to this later. If you wait for your
video, you will be redirected to the Video page. Here you can view your final video and
share it. If you would like to embed the video in a CMS or website you can use the embed
code. Click on Sharing under the create video button and choose Embed Code from the dropdown
menu. Copy the Code by clicking on the button, then paste it in the html editor of your CMS
or website. You can access all the videos you have created from the My Videos page.
Congratulations! You just made your first Animoto Video. There are additional options
not discussed in this video, so spend some time playing with it to see what you can create.
Happy Creating!