Animoto and FileFlash
It’s easy to forget. I find I’m looking at so many different things on the Internet and subscribing to so many new services that it can be simply overwhelming. I need a coordinating centre and a way to keep track of where I’ve been and what I’ve subscribed to. Maybe this blog can help serve that purpose, as well as encourage me to post some reviews. So let the games begin.
I recently came across a site called Animoto at www.animoto.com that allows you to create a 30 second video from about 15 to 20 still images, for free. Longer than that and you have to pay. It’s more exciting than it sounds because the transitional effects are sophisticated and you can choose an audio accompaniment from a variety of music clips (or you can use your own).
You need to sign up first to use the service, which I did, and then I selected a series of 25 photos that were taken of one of my computer classes. I did a bulk resize to make the photos quicker to upload, chose some music and set the rendering process in motion. It’s best to go away and do something else while your video is created but once it’s done you can embed it in various online sites such as FaceBook, Blogger, MySpace, Friendster etc.
Here is the URL of the Animoto video.
I succeeded in adding it to my FaceBook page and I even tried to embed it in this page. However, I was unsuccessful, even though it can supposedly be done. I’ll keep playing around with it but I was able to post it to Blogger. All in all, I’d say it’s an interesting way of presenting your photos. You can import photos from Picassa and Flickr, although I haven’t tried that yet.
Another find of the weekend was a new, drop-down menu generator. My old one didn’t work under Vista and I was having to actually edit the Javascript to make menu alterations, which was tedious in the extreme. I got this little program from a site called FILEFLASH that contains freeware as well as shareware and commercial products. This is the URL on the FileFlash site where I got the program that is officially called Sothink DHTML Menu Builder Free Edition (V3.7). I need this menu generator for the opening page of Sekolah Global Jaya’s Intranet (not accessible to the outside world at the moment but we are working on making it accessible via the school website at www.globaljaya.com). This little program should give me the motivation to undertake a long overdue revamp of the Intranet opening page.
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