From The Guys at Animoto » New Features & Products

A few new features: shuffle, multi-drag, & auto-scroll

animoto — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:32:17 +0000

By popular demand, we’ve cranked out a few more highly requested features:
– Shuffle all your images around in random order with the click of a button
– Select blocks of items by holding down Shift
– Drag multiple items around your workspace
– Easily move images up and down with the help of auto-scrolling

Admittedly, we probably should have got these things done a long time ago. Once you start using these features, you’ll probably be like us and think, “how did I ever use Animoto without these?” Sometimes we’re guilty here of focusing too much on the “big cool stuff” and forgetting to tackle the smaller more obvious things.

Anyway, enjoy! There’s more where this came from, so stay tuned….

~ by jason on september 24th, 2009.

Animoto + Video: the buzz…

animoto — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:17:29 +0000

Here’s some of the press so far on Animoto’s new video clips feature. Have you tried it?

	“Animoto just got even more awesome.”
	“Animoto makes video edits a snap.”
	“The result is something to behold.”
	“Keep your audience riveted.”
	“Extremely snazzy.”
	“The results? Simply stunning.”
	“Very impressive…. Love it…. So cool.”
	“I’m a huge fan of Animoto, the kings of easy to produce videos.”
	“One of the most impressive new ideas on the web.”
	“Animoto does a great job making the process simple and intuitive.”

~ by jason on september 8th, 2009.

Use video clips from our awesome collection

animoto — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:42:19 +0000

Need some cool video to beef up your Animoto videos? Check out our video clips collection courtesy of Getty Images and iStockphoto!

Sunsets, fireworks, flowers, sharks, aerial shots, planes, trains, automobiles, buses, boats, the American flag, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire States building, the Great Pyramid, the Colosseum, the Space Needle, and tons of other video clips to try out.

~ by jason on september 1st, 2009.

It’s here… Animoto + Video!

animoto — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:01:33 +0000

Hey everyone, a HUGE announcement:

As of today, you can add video clips to your Animoto videos! Watch a few sample videos below and find out more here: http://animoto.com/video

You will not believe how good your vids are going to look. And using video clips in your Animoto videos couldn’t be easier–no need for a complex video editor! Just follow these three steps:

Upload clips from your camera or phone (iPhone 3GS anyone??), or use some from our collection (thanks to iStockphoto and Getty Images).
Choose your highlights. You can choose highlights of up to 10 seconds each, though we recommend using only 3-5 seconds as that works best within the flow of an Animoto video.
Create the rest of your video as normal, and you’re done.

Here are a few sample videos for you to check out:

So, you know when you’ve got tons of pics AND vids of your kids or some recent trip or party or whatever, and you scratch your head wondering how to share them? I think we all know the Right Answer now.

~ by jason on august 26th, 2009.

Asynchronous Uploading

animoto — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:16:30 +0000

Animoto now supports aynchronous uploading.

This means you no longer need to wait for the entire batch of files to upload before moving on in the video creation process. Now, each image thumbnail appears as each image has completed uploading so you can save time by immediately doing things like inserting text, re-ordering, spotlighting images, etc.

~ by jason on august 12th, 2009.

Animoto for Real Estate

animoto — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:53:16 +0000

Press release:

Animoto for Real Estate Launches to Give Brokers and Agents
Powerful Video Creation and Marketing Tools

Online real estate broker Redfin signs on to equip all of its agents with Animoto accounts

San Francisco, CA – August 5, 2009 – Animoto® (http://animoto.com), thevideo creation platform that lets anyone quickly and easily create professional-quality videos from their own photos, music and text, today expands its commercial-use offerings by launching Animoto for Real Estate (http://animoto.com/business/realestate). The new site showcases the numerous ways Animoto helps real estate agents and brokers effortlessly create stunning videos to promote and market properties within minutes. Animoto for Real Estate launches today in San Francisco at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference, where the company was nominated for an Innovator Award.

“In today’s competitive real estate market, a good first impression is the key to securing a listing, generating buzz for a listing, and selling a home,” said Brad Jefferson, CEO & Co-founder of Animoto. “Animoto for Real Estate helps guarantee a good first impression of a home or agent so the agent can focus on closing.”

At launch, Animoto also announced that online real estate brokerage Redfin will equip http://www.redfin.com/their agents nationwide with Animoto for Real Estate accounts.

“Our research shows that a prospective home-buyer will look at the photos of a house nearly 20 times over in the 24 hours before making an offer,” said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. “And Internet consumers spend one third the time touring properties that their traditional counterparts once did. So the challenge for listing agents all comes down to creating an online experience with high emotional impact. The way Animoto couples music, motion, text and photography creates a far more powerful medium for selling a home, with higher conversion rates than photos alone.”

Animoto for Real Estate makes marketing properties and real estate services easy and affordable, eclipsing the current time-consuming and expensive video creation solutions on the market. Animoto videos are compatible with all MLS video standards, and give agents the ability to create and market open house videos to maximize their advertising efforts and follow-up with potential buyers.

Built on the Animoto for Business platform, Animoto for Real Estate is a $249 annual subscription service that provides unlimited access to create, present, view, share, download and sell professional-quality videos. In addition to all the standard Animoto.com consumer features, Animoto for Real Estate incorporates features designed specifically for agents and brokers, including:

Easy video embedding on websites and blogs with no programming or technical experience required.
Easy video posting to YouTube and other popular social networking sites.
Unlimited DVD-quality video downloads that can be burned to DVD to present to a client or showcased at an open house or other real estate event.
A text feature that allows agents to easily incorporate important listing information within the video such as location, square footage, and number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
Access to Animoto’s commercial music library of 300+ royalty-free songs.
Optional Call-to-Action button to drive viewers back to your site or listing.

The heart of Animoto is its Cinematic Artificial Intelligence® technology that thinks like an actual director and editor using 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. No two videos are ever the same; even videos generated with an identical set of images and music will each have a completely distinct set of motion design.

For more information about Animoto for Real Estate please visit: http://animoto.com/business/realestate.

About Animoto

The founders of Animoto Productions include veterans of the entertainment industry who share a passion for helping people better share their stories and express themselves through online media by innovating technologies in the field of video production. Animoto Productions, founded in August 2006, is based in New York City with an office in San Francisco. Visit http://animoto.com.

The new & improved video player page

animoto — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:29:17 +0000

As previously mentioned, we’re undergoing a massive overhaul of our entire site to introduce a bunch of improvements and also lay the groundwork for exciting stuff to come.

Our latest release features a newly re-designed video player page. Improvements include:
— A cleaner more minimal look that showcases videos at 1.5x their previous size
— Load times that are 50-85% faster, depending on your user type
— Visual HTML emails that include cover images for your shared videos
— Editable video titles and descriptions
— Expandable video toolbox for common features and downloads
— Sexier comments using user avatars (profile pics)
— Better sharing, including one-click sharing to Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter
— Better embedding, including a customizable embedded player size

The new video player page:

The new expandable tool box:

The old video player page:

~ by jason on june 23rd, 2009.

Animoto iPhone App 2.0 has arrived!

animoto — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:51:20 +0000

The new version of our app is ready to download from the App Store! It’s still free, so head here to grab it: http://itunes.com/app/animotovideos

Huge new features in this one, including:
— Sync to your Animoto.com account
— Download videos for offline viewing
— Longer videos with an All-Access Pass
— Lots more songs, new genres
— Better image fitting/placement in your video

Since first launching the Animoto iPhone app just over 5 months ago, we’ve picked up over 300,000 users. Most of the new features developed for this release were in response to feedback we’ve been getting from you all, so thank you.

Also thanks to everyone for their patience. We had originally planned on having this update released over 10 weeks ago, which is when we first submitted it to Apple for approval. But it only now just got approved. We’ll try to be diplomatic here and spare you a blog entry full expletives.

To learn more about our new iPhone app, head to: http://iphone.animoto.com

As always, we love to hear your feedback. Danke!

~ by jason on june 22nd, 2009.

Send a Father’s Day video greeting

animoto — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:54:22 +0000

As you may or may not have remembered, Father’s Day is this Sunday! Send your dad (or grandpa or brother or husband–or any other father in your life) an awesome video greeting made from your pictures.

Our designers have created a playful setting for your video card, so now all you have to do is choose a few pictures, select a soundtrack, and email it off to your pops.

To learn more and watch a sample video click here.

~ by jason on may 17th, 2009.

Twitter + Animoto = crazy delicious

animoto — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:51:25 +0000

You can now Tweet your Animoto video directly from the video player page with the click of a button.

I think this now makes us Oscar-worthy.

What the heck is Twiiter, you say?

~ by jason on may 22nd, 2009.