Just a reminder in response to r9jackson. Videos uploaded to SmugMug are limited to 10 minutes. The song length is not a factor for us. Everything (video and song tracks) has to be under 10 minutes currently for SmugMug. Animoto may be handling it a little differently.
I agree, that Animoto rocks for making these simple. But, you do have to understand that making it simple does require you to give up some control over the limits, etc. If you want more control, you do have to do it yourself.
As our release notes indicate this week, we did fix a problem on our end related to Animoto video uploads. Hopefully that did help some of you.
I agree, that Animoto rocks for making these simple. But, you do have to understand that making it simple does require you to give up some control over the limits, etc. If you want more control, you do have to do it yourself.
Or, in many cases (including mine) if you want it done at all you have to do it yourself because Animoto just doesn't work.
Re: Animoto, upload from smugmug doesn't use the high resolution available
I decided to give animoto pro a try despite the issues raised in this forum. I have to say I'm happy with the process, the product and the service. Yes I would like to have certain features added, but my videos using pics from smugmug look good at all video sizes, the process is quick and easy for me, and I'm already selling videos.
I look forward to animoto just getting better from an already good starting point.
Re: Animoto, upload from smugmug doesn't use the high resolution available
Here's a couple of my animoto videos featured on my smugmug galleries page:
www.liflanderphotography.com/galleries
I burned hires dvd's from the iso files using the free software animoto recommends and they play and look great.
I got good answers on a couple of tech questions that I sent to their help desk.
Mark - I'm glad it worked for you. I just went back and used my free hi-res upgrade on the project that I tried, and tried, and tried, and tried...and yet tried again to accept my full-res images on. It went right through this time so I assume whatever problems were there have been fixed.
Animoto is what it is: a simple and quick way to make a quick-and-dirty slideshow. Sometimes the results are great, sometimes they're not - you can always regenerate the project and see what happens.
My complaint was that the stupid thing simply DID NOT WORK and nobody really seemed to give a darn. Complaints to Animoto resulted in nothing. Complaints here resulted in nothing. Multiple comments and complaints from others resulted in...nothing. Smugmug service is absolutely terrific but Animoto's service was non-existent and that lack of customer service totally obliterated whatever attraction the slideshows had...at least for me.
Having said all that though, it seems to be fixed. If that's the case and you like the results then it's a decent service, but based on the lack of support I can't eagerly recommend it.
I must have subscribed after the problem was fixed, so I've been lucky. I can certainly understand the feelings of others on this thread based on their experience. I hope for all of us that animoto quickly improves their service.
FWIW that project from several months ago that wouldn't work did render into a higher-res "DVD" quality video with no problems at all. It still shows my watermarks (which I thought it wasn't supposed to do), but the way Animoto crops and moves things that's not a big issue.
I stand by what I said but I think it's only fair to report it does seem to be working now.
We fixed the weirdness that was occurring to users who didn't have a Pro/Power account and now we export the hi-res video file to SmugMug. Can you let us know how the dealing of image files is for you currently?
We fixed the weirdness that was occurring to users who didn't have a Pro/Power account and now we export the hi-res video file to SmugMug. Can you let us know how the dealing of image files is for you currently?
This error seems to have resurfaced.
Image dimensions: 510x768
This image may not be optimal quality.
Did Anomoto process the video for you and give this warning or the video was never processed?
Animotos hi-res video is 720p which translates to 1280 * 720 image area. The error or warning seems to suggest that the image you used has smaller dimensions.
I created video from basic Smugmug account with bigger images and didn't have any issues.
Did Anomoto process the video for you and give this warning or the video was never processed?
Animotos hi-res video is 720p which translates to 1280 * 720 image area. The error or warning seems to suggest that the image you used has smaller dimensions.
I created video from basic Smugmug account with bigger images and didn't have any issues.
Let me know if you need further help with this.
Hopefully last nights bug fix did the trick, but at the time I was just importing images direct into Animoto. I hadn't gotten to creating the video yet. I have pro accounts on both sides. I ended up working around it by uploading the images direct from my computer.
Also, unless you're seeing an extra spiffy feature I haven't managed to find, Animoto's Hi-res export is 480p.
Hopefully last nights bug fix did the trick, but at the time I was just importing images direct into Animoto. I hadn't gotten to creating the video yet. I have pro accounts on both sides. I ended up working around it by uploading the images direct from my computer.
Also, unless you're seeing an extra spiffy feature I haven't managed to find, Animoto's Hi-res export is 480p.
now that I investigate further, it seems to be related to the specific album I'm importing. I tried with a different album and it was able to bring images over though their sizes were inconsistent. My original attempted album still reports as:
Image dimensions: 510x768
This image may not be optimal quality
Comments
I agree, that Animoto rocks for making these simple. But, you do have to understand that making it simple does require you to give up some control over the limits, etc. If you want more control, you do have to do it yourself.
As our release notes indicate this week, we did fix a problem on our end related to Animoto video uploads. Hopefully that did help some of you.
http://help.smugmug.com
Or, in many cases (including mine) if you want it done at all you have to do it yourself because Animoto just doesn't work.
Smugmug Rocks. Animoto fails.
I decided to give animoto pro a try despite the issues raised in this forum. I have to say I'm happy with the process, the product and the service. Yes I would like to have certain features added, but my videos using pics from smugmug look good at all video sizes, the process is quick and easy for me, and I'm already selling videos.
I look forward to animoto just getting better from an already good starting point.
Mark
LiflanderPhotography.com
LiflanderPhotography.com
Here's a couple of my animoto videos featured on my smugmug galleries page:
www.liflanderphotography.com/galleries
I burned hires dvd's from the iso files using the free software animoto recommends and they play and look great.
I got good answers on a couple of tech questions that I sent to their help desk.
LiflanderPhotography.com
LiflanderPhotography.com
Animoto is what it is: a simple and quick way to make a quick-and-dirty slideshow. Sometimes the results are great, sometimes they're not - you can always regenerate the project and see what happens.
My complaint was that the stupid thing simply DID NOT WORK and nobody really seemed to give a darn. Complaints to Animoto resulted in nothing. Complaints here resulted in nothing. Multiple comments and complaints from others resulted in...nothing. Smugmug service is absolutely terrific but Animoto's service was non-existent and that lack of customer service totally obliterated whatever attraction the slideshows had...at least for me.
Having said all that though, it seems to be fixed. If that's the case and you like the results then it's a decent service, but based on the lack of support I can't eagerly recommend it.
LiflanderPhotography.com
I stand by what I said but I think it's only fair to report it does seem to be working now.
http://animoto.com/photography/upgrade
Pro-Exclusive Styles are here:
http://animoto.com/photography/elegance
Animotos hi-res video is 720p which translates to 1280 * 720 image area. The error or warning seems to suggest that the image you used has smaller dimensions.
I created video from basic Smugmug account with bigger images and didn't have any issues.
Let me know if you need further help with this.
http://msphoto.smugmug.com
http://twitter.com/tasmanic
Hopefully last nights bug fix did the trick, but at the time I was just importing images direct into Animoto. I hadn't gotten to creating the video yet. I have pro accounts on both sides. I ended up working around it by uploading the images direct from my computer.
Also, unless you're seeing an extra spiffy feature I haven't managed to find, Animoto's Hi-res export is 480p.
now that I investigate further, it seems to be related to the specific album I'm importing. I tried with a different album and it was able to bring images over though their sizes were inconsistent. My original attempted album still reports as:
http://msphoto.smugmug.com
http://twitter.com/tasmanic
http://gallery.emagery.net/Portraits/Faircloths/17185953_LK74mJ#1303108809_X5pXGk9