There are free online options that are just as useful and often easier for younger or less experienced users. The three sites I will profile today are OneTrueMedia.com, Masher.com and Animoto.com. All of these sites offer you similar products but with different tools and styles. Using these sites you can upload your own photos, videos and music to create a video. The sites will provide you with an array of ways to view your video creation from Facebook and embed codes to purchasing DVD's. So, from my observation and usage here is the Cool, The Mediocre and The Hot Mess.
Cool
- All of the sites offer free accounts. But, Animoto & OneTrue Media will limit the length of your video (see the Mediocre)
- All of the sites will allow you to use photos and videos from their site but you can also upload your own
- All of the sites have a large library of music you can use to add to your video or you can upload songs from your computer.
- All of the sites offer you a link to post your video on Facebook or other Social Medias as well as the opportunity to share a link or copy an embed code to use on your blog or webpage.
- Animoto: is superbly easy to use and even my Kindergarten age child can use it.
- OneTrueMedia: Shows you the progress of your uploading media so you can see how long it is going to take for you to start your project, the other sites don't do this.
- Masher: Allows you to arrange your media on a time line very similar to those used in Windows Movie Maker and iMovie so users familiar with those programs will have an easier time with it.
- Animoto will allow you to log off and walk away while it finishes your video and then email you a link to it for future sharing. This makes it easier to use as an inclass project as you don't have to spend class time waiting for it to finish.
- Animoto will also allow you to set your video to automatically start (with embed code) when someone goes to the page and you can also loop it. I like to use it for commercial and book talk projects.
- Animoto will allow you to add text for free where as OneTrueMedia won't
Mediocre
- OneTrueMedia and Anmioto both will only let you make very short (30 second) videos unless you pay to upgrade to a premium account. *Animoto does have a free upgrade to an educational account, but it must be renewed every 12 months and it takes them several days to review your application and approve it.
- OneTrueMedia shows you all the premium add-on's and allows you to edit your video with them, so you need to be very clear with students to only use the free items; And, there isn't a lot of variety of free items to use.
- Text is a premium feature, but if you want a title you can add one by using a PowerPoint slide you have converted into a Jpeg.
- Masher has some cool video effects, but they take a while to load.
- Masher also won't easily let you rearrange the pictures once you have navigated away from that page (ie to add music or themes)
- Animoto won't allow you to edit transitions but you can choose themes that dictate the transitions and order/highlighted pictures. It is kind of like throwing your video into a Kaleidoscope to see what comes out.
Hot Mess
- Masher: If your connection isn't a fast high speed the site takes forever to load and doesn't tell you it is loading at all. So, kids with little patience or teachers sitting at home with an internet connection that keeps fluctuating will spend a lot of time jumping around which the site does not like. It can also be more time consuming than the other sites in my opinion so may not be good for an inclass project.
Examples: I created these first two using the same images but you can see the difference in the video qualities. However, the Animoto video was created for my class webpage using my free educator account.
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
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