Greetings,
Hope you are having a great Spring Break. Today I will be sharing with you the video I created in animoto. I will also be sharing with you the various steps in creating the video. So let's get started. When going through this tutorial I would recommend pulling up this blog article side by side on your computer screen as you follow the various steps. You can also print it out and follow along if you choose to.
The first thing you want to do is pick a video style. The video style will add a theme to your slides and will have an impact on the movement of your slides. You can also preview your slides to see the various themes that will be in your video.
After you have selected your theme, you will need to upload or add pictures or videos you want to put into your movie. You will need to select Upload to add your pictures to your project from your computer.
In the picture below you will see the pictures I selected to use in my video. Once the pictures are ready you will have several options to select from. You will be able to Add More Pictures, Add Text, Spotlight, Rotate the Pictures, Duplicate, Delete and Shuffle the Pictures. After you are satisfied with your choices, click on the Done button.
If you choose not to use your pictures on your computer, animoto gives you the option to use their pictures and videos in your video. Listed below are the various themed pictures that animoto will allow you to use in your video.
Here are the video themes you can add to your video if you wish.
You can even choose to add pictures form a photo hosting web site from the following accounts listed below.
Once you have assembled the pictures the way you want them and the order you want them to play, you will go to Step 2: Music. Listed below you will see the second option with the plus sign and it is the Upload button. This feature will allow you to add your own music from your own computer. Animoto also has a range of music to choose from, if you want to use their music.
Listed below are the different types of genres of music you can choose from to add to your video.
After you have added the music you want, then you can move to Step 3: Customize your video. You will be given the choice of Image Pacing, Video Length, Video Style and various other Options. After you have selected your preferences, simply click on the blue Continue button.
Now you are ready to add your title to your video and description. There is also a place to put your name as the Producer. How cool is that? When you are done with filling in this information, you are ready to create your video. Just click on Continue.
Now you will see the animoto production screen. This process will go through the following stages: Processing, Composing and finally Producing. For a 30 second vide, it may take anywhere from 3 - 5 minutes to go through the three stages of video production. Remember the various stages are all done on the computer and automatically.
When your video is finally finished, you will see a screen like the one below. You will have the option to re-mix up the images again to produce another movie if you wish. You can also download it to your computer or share it using Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or even email it to all your family and friends.
If you click on the My Videos tab on the top of the screen it will take you to where all your videos are stored. You will also see Untitled Projects, these are projects that were not completed. If you click on the Edit Project button you will be given several choices such as Edit, Create New Video, Rename and Delete. If you chose to click on Delete, you will not be able to get the video or project back.
If I move the mouse over the light blue are under the title of my Video "Majestic Places of the World", it will show the following details about the video:
1. Length of the Video
2. The type of Style
3. The Description of the Video
4. The Number of Views
5. The Music you selected.
Here is my final 30 second video that I created with my pictures and the music I selected. Click on the play button to see it.
I hope you enjoyed the detailed tutorials with screen shots. Next week I will be sharing with you Part 4: How to Promote your Video. See you next week.
Once you find your audio on your computer, you will need to click on the open button at the bottom to bring it into Audacity. This will bring the clip into Audacity on a neew audio track. Now, this is a good point to talk about copyright issues. You are suppose to only use the first 30 seconds of a song or 10 percent, which ever comes first. You can also write the writer of the song and ask for permission to use it. Once you bring your audio in you can edit it, cut it up and take the 30 seconds or less that you want to use for your intro or outro. When you have added your background music you will want to save your completed file by going to File -> Save Project This will create a special Audacity file format that you can come back and edit later on. See the picture below.
You can also find songs for use in your podcast on 
Now you are ready to compress all your audio files to create one single track and create an Mp3. By using an Mp3 format it will produce a high quality file in a very small size. This is where you will use the LAME file that we downloaded in an earlier blog post. To compress your wav file into a MP3 follow these simple steps: 
