NETsavvy: Animoto

What is it in a nutshell?

Animoto is a web-based application that produces visually striking presentations by inserting dynamic transitions between images, text, and/or video clips. Animoto can further enhance a presentation by synching the visuals to an audio track, which can be either music or voice narration. Animoto claims that the rhythm of the audio track, along with other audio characteristics, is used by its "cinematic artificial intelligence technology" to determine the nature of the visual transitions for each presentation; in other words, an energetic audio track will result in a visually fast-paced slideshow, while a low-key audio track will result in a more visually subdued presentation. The presentation to the right, which should have started playing automatically when you arrived at this page, is an example of an Animoto presentation that employs images pertaining to Shakespeare.

Background

Animoto was developed in 2007 by a team who had experience making music videos for MTV. By 2009, one million users had registered directly with Animoto, and another two million had used the Facebook version of the application. Animoto continues to evolve as more features and options are gradually added to the application.

Specific types, brands, or competitors

Animoto is a specific type of what might be called "presentation enhancers." Animoto's competitors ostensibly include Slide and Masher, but in reality the target demographic of those two applications sets them apart from Animoto: both of them seem to be intended for students in elementary school and junior high school (the visual effects of Slide and Masher are jejune -- for example, bubbles appearing over an image, and images framed by hearts or kittens). A feasible alternative to Animoto might be Windows Live Movie Maker, which also allows a user to create sophisticated transitions between images and/or video clips, and also allows the resulting presentation to be synched to an audio track. Windows Live Movie Maker gives a user more control over the resulting presentation (for example, the time that each image appears), but Animoto conveniently automates much of the process. To put it another way, I can create a presentation with Animoto in less time than with Windows Live Movie Maker, but the presentation might or might not be exactly what I want. An Animoto presention using images pertaining to Shakespeare is here, and a Windows Live Movie Maker presentation (which uses the same music and images) is here; view them both for comparison.

Functionality

Animoto is very easy to use. Essentially, there are just a few steps in creating a presentation:

  1. You select the images (jpg, jpeg, gif, tif, tiff, png) or video clips (mp4, avi, mov, mpg, mpeg, mpg4, m4u, flv, and more) that you want to use, and add text as you see fit



  2. You select the audio you want to accompany the images (e.g. music or voice narration in MP3 format).




  3. You select a few limited parameters such as the pacing of the transitions, the theme or "skin," and the length of the final presentation.



  4. Finally, you add some meta-data (such as a title and description) and press "Create Video"; Animoto then renders the presentation within a few minutes. A video demonstrating these steps can be found here.

An Animoto presentation can be embedded in a web page or shared to a huge variety of social media platforms, including YouTube and Facebook (an example of an Animoto presentation on YouTube can be seen here -- note that the quality of the images has diminished slightly, due to the YouTube conversion process). An Animoto presentation can also be downloaded, either as a standard-quality mp4 or as a hi-resolution video. The presentations can also be set up to loop continuously -- that is, when the presentation reaches its end, it starts again from the beginning.

The free version of Animoto allows a user to create presentations up to ten minutes in length, and offers six themes or "skins" to choose from. The "pro" version, which costs $249 per year, allows a user to create presentations of any length and offers a larger number of skins apply to a presentation. Animoto also offers an education version that permits users to create videos of any length. Requests for the education version take several weeks to process, and must be renewed every six months.

Impact on teaching

An Animoto presentation is not really a replacement for the standard PowerPoint presentation. A PowerPoint presentation works best where the presenter has slides that he or she wants to comment on at a pace controlled by the presenter during the presentation. An Animoto presentation, in contrast, proceeds at a pre-determined pace; while one could pause the presentation in order to comment on an image, doing so would undermine the very nature of the Animoto presentation. Animoto, therefore, is probably best used as an adjunct to other presentation tools, and in situations where the images being presented do not require explication by the presenter.

Impact on learning

An Animoto presentation could be effective in introducing certain aspects of a topic to students, especially those aspects that are visually appealing. For example, in a history course, an instructor might begin a new unit by creating an Animoto presentation using images from the era in question. The Animoto presentation could then play in the background -- that is, on a screen behind the instructor -- while the instructor introduced the topic. Essentially, the Animoto presentation would give context and resonance to the content that was being delivered via a lecture or class presentation.

Accessibility issues

Animoto uses Flash, which means that any text used in the presentation is rendered as an image; accordingly, it is not readable by screenreaders.

Best practices

  • Think of an Animoto presentation as an adjunct, not as a replacement for any other presentation tool such as PowerPoint.
  • While you can add text to an Animoto presentation, it's best to keep the focus on the visual interest of the images.
  • Animoto can be effectively used to create presentations with an emotional impact. No one has ever cried during a PowerPoint presentation (at least not in a way that the presenter intended); in contrast, an Animoto presentation, especially one that combines music with the artfully transitioned images, can be emotionally engaging.
  • Animoto is especially effective when used to convey a narrative arc -- that is, to show the stages of an event in sequence, with an image from one stage "dissolving" into an image representing the next stage, rather like the "montage" effect used in movies to suggest the passage of time. For example, nine photos of an infant -- with the first photo taken just after birth and another photo taken each subsequent week -- would lend themselves well to presentation via Animoto. (You can see such a presentation here.)
  • Don't use Animoto just for the heck of it, and don't try to use it where a more traditional tool would work better. An example of an ineffective use of Animoto is here -- its content could be delivered much more effectively via PowerPoint or in a mere text-based document.

Hardware and software requirements

Since Animoto is a web-based application, you need access to the web to make a presentation. You also need to have Flash 10 installed on your computer, and you need to have Javascript turned on in your web browser. You also, of course, need to have images (and, presumably, a music or other audio file) to serve as the content of the presentation. You can use Animoto using any current web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari), and you can use it on a PC or Mac.

Impact on support and training

Animoto is very easy to use, so it's hard to envision a user requiring support or training. (In contrast, instructors who want to use Windows Live Movie Maker might benefit from a workshop to show them the ropes of that program.)

Examples of use

Animoto is being used by many instructors at other institutions. One interesting example is at the University of Texas, where students in a Rhetoric course were asked to create an Animoto presentation pertaining to a shooting that had occurred on campus the previous day: students took photos of the aftermath (for example, of reporters standing in front of cameras), and then used them to create Animoto presentation. One learning outcome of this project was for students to realize how the same photos, packaged in different Animoto "skins," resulted in very different perspectives on the tragic event. A description of that assignment is here, and one of the resulting student presentations is here. Some universities are also using Animoto to create recruitement presentations, such as this one from Boise State University.

More information

The bottom line

Animoto is an effective tool for a narrow range of purposes. It should not be used to replace other presentation tools -- such as PowerPoint -- but it can be a powerful way to introduce the visually-interesting aspects of a topic and to elicit emotional engagement with the material.