Sunday 20 April 2008

Animoto

To quote: "Animoto is a web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos using patent-pending Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology and high-end motion design. Each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music. Produced in widescreen format, Animoto videos have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer."

"The heart of Animoto is its newly developed Cinematic A.I. technology that thinks like an actual director and editor. It analyzes and combines user-selected images and music with the same sophisticated post-production skills and techniques that are used in television and film. The technology takes into account every nuance of a song: the genre, song structure, energy, rhythm, instrumentation, and vocals. Whether it's punk, pop, hip-hop or a classical Stravinsky piece, every Animoto video is totally customized. Even videos generated with an identical set of images and music will each have a completely distinct set of motion design. No two videos are the same. Videos can be emailed, embedded on websites including blogs and social network sites like Facebook and MySpace, and downloaded onto your computer."

The first step in producing the video is to select your images. You will need at least 10 images. Step two is where you select your background music. Music has 7 categories with 10 selected album snippets (30 secs) within each category. You can also upload your own music.

Finally, you create your video. You have two options:
i) Animoto Shorts which are 30-seconds in length and free for everyone. You can produce, remix, and share as many as you'd like.
ii) Full-length videos which are extended in length. A video's length is determined by the number of images and the music it uses. This will cost $3.

The process of creating the video can take several minutes. The end product is excellent. There is the facility to copy an embedded link which can be placed in a web page. Click here to go to their website.

Podcast Autocue

This free piece of software creates an autocue so that you can easily follow the pre-prepared text for your podcast. All you have to do is type your script out in a text editor like Notepad or Word, copy and paste it into the software and you're ready to start. It's really easy to use. In school, students can plan their script prior to the podcast to help ensure a successful outcome. Click here to get the download details from ZDNet.