Animoto now supports VIDEO clips!!

Ham1 · August 26, 2009

Very cool announcement by the guys at Animoto tonight. http://animoto.com/ They now officially support video clips!!! :clap:clap:clap

Some of the videos popping up on SmugMug are absolutely amazing

http://vincentlaforet.smugmug.com/Laforet-Videos
http://www.curtapanovich.com/
http://fusionisnow.smugmug.com/gallery/6801464_MwHfo/1/435338266_4zGd8#435338266_4zGd8-A-LB
http://davisimpact.smugmug.com/gallery/7111224_28DXm#455981404_LZctv

BUT, how do we mere mortals achieve this level of video editing? :scratch

Well, Baldy is pretty darn close: http://cmac.smugmug.com/SmugMug/Tahoe-Soiree/Baldys-pretty-good-Tahoe-video/7237761_XpVzu#465063390_3La8H-A-LB

enter Animoto....their service is so slick and easy to add music, photos and videos into one masterpiece. http://animoto.smugmug.com/Animoto-videos/Amazing-Videos/9326327_er55m#630089184_oq9P9-A-LB

We would love to check out your videos you make with their service. Go create and post them here in this thread. I have the Animoto people ready to support Dgrinners questions and suggestions.

Thanks,
Markham

AnimotoBecky · August 26, 2009

Indeed we do!
Thanks, Markham for breaking the news to Dgrinners!

I'm Becky and work at Animoto (as if the name didn't give it away), and I'm super-psyched to see Animoto vids on SmugMug already (and not just the ones I uploaded).

Please don't be shy about sharing your Animoto vids, as we're always looking for new Case Studies for our photography page, and photographers to feature in our Animoto for Photography newsletter.

Share your vids with theguys@animoto.com or me on here.

Briefly, some info on the new feature:

We support nearly 20 different video format types. Clips are limited to 5 seconds per clip for consumers and 10 seconds for pros. And you can either mute or include the audio.

LMK any other questions, feedback, etc that you have around this! Check out some examples at:

animoto.com/video

--- Becky

SamirD · October 1, 2009

I just saw this. I have thousands of pictures and video clips of car events that can easily be turned into music videos. How good are the resulting videos? I've been looking for a way to turn my video clips into something more for some time now.

SamirD · October 10, 2009

I played with a free account today and liked what I saw. But I have some questions.

When Animoto pulls a SM gallery directly, do the image size restrictions still apply? Are these images watermarked if they are in the gallery? Or does Animoto pull the original?

Ham1 · October 12, 2009

SamirD wrote:

I played with a free account today and liked what I saw. But I have some questions.

When Animoto pulls a SM gallery directly, do the image size restrictions still apply? Are these images watermarked if they are in the gallery? Or does Animoto pull the original?

Yes, size restrictions still apply. The images are not watermarked as Animoto pulls the original.

Stay tuned for more integration too!

Markham

SamirD · October 13, 2009

Ham1 wrote:

Yes, size restrictions still apply. The images are not watermarked as Animoto pulls the original.

Stay tuned for more integration too!

Markham

I had it pull watermarked images. It also didn't pull videos. The gallery was the following pulled directly to animoto:
http://newpics.huntsvillecarscene.com/gallery/9892149_68QED

Ham1 · October 13, 2009

SamirD wrote:

I had it pull watermarked images. It also didn't pull videos. The gallery was the following pulled directly to animoto:
http://newpics.huntsvillecarscene.com/gallery/9892149_68QED

Hmm can you show me or share the video?

NOTE: it will start to pull video clips shortly. It is not live quite yet.

SamirD · October 14, 2009

Ham1 wrote:

Hmm can you show me or share the video?

NOTE: it will start to pull video clips shortly. It is not live quite yet.

I tried two different ones, one where I manually uploaded video clips, and another where I told Animoto to retrieve them:
http://animoto.com/play/VVgk9PUB0MwKZdgGmDbOFA?autostart=true
http://animoto.com/play/qUErNTiBIegNWlKuenK5fg?autostart=true

Animoto's support says video retrieval is months away.

Shima · October 24, 2009

Ham1 wrote:

Hmm can you show me or share the video?

NOTE: it will start to pull video clips shortly. It is not live quite yet.

http://photos.cathoffman.com/Other/Animoto/10052731_ux2DU

as you can see from all my videos I made, it IS pulling watermarked images and not the originals...

any idea when this will be fixed? I really want to make a ton of videos, one per portfolio gallery, but don't want them all to have watermarks on them and look tacky... help?

Also I am really eager for it to pull video, currently when I choose to import video galleries it imports one screenshot per video instead

any idea on timeline for that?

Ham1 · October 26, 2009

Shima wrote:

http://photos.cathoffman.com/Other/Animoto/10052731_ux2DU

as you can see from all my videos I made, it IS pulling watermarked images and not the originals... any idea when this will be fixed? I really want to make a ton of videos, one per portfolio gallery, but don't want them all to have watermarks on them and look tacky... help?

Also I am really eager for it to pull video, currently when I choose to import video galleries it imports one screenshot per video instead any idea on timeline for that?

Sorry for the delay. A lot of the Animoto team and a few SmugMuggers were at Photo Plus in NY last week.

We are discussing and will get back to you on this.

Markham

Shima · October 26, 2009

Ham1 wrote:

Sorry for the delay. A lot of the Animoto team and a few SmugMuggers were at Photo Plus in NY last week.

We are discussing and will get back to you on this.

Markham

Thanks, glad you're all looking into it over there. In the meanwhile the work around for me is to lock the gallery down, remove the watermark on all images in the gallery, wait a while for that to take effect, export to animoto, once images are in animoto, put the watermarks back on, wait for that to take effect, and then un-protect the gallery. Looking forward to when all these steps aren't necessary

The two videos I uploaded this morning in that gallery were done with that method and they look fabulous when no watermarks are in the way to distract. It's great that you all are working so closely with animoto, I'm very excited for all that is to come!

AnimotoBecky · October 26, 2009

Hi Cat,

I believe we were e-mailing about this this weekend. Thanks for the heads-up, and I'm going to circle back with our TechTeam and see if we can get this fixed for you!

Shima wrote:

http://photos.cathoffman.com/Other/Animoto/10052731_ux2DU

as you can see from all my videos I made, it IS pulling watermarked images and not the originals... any idea when this will be fixed? I really want to make a ton of videos, one per portfolio gallery, but don't want them all to have watermarks on them and look tacky... help?

Also I am really eager for it to pull video, currently when I choose to import video galleries it imports one screenshot per video instead any idea on timeline for that?

Shima · October 26, 2009

AnimotoBecky wrote:

Hi Cat,

I believe we were e-mailing about this this weekend. Thanks for the heads-up, and I'm going to circle back with our TechTeam and see if we can get this fixed for you!

Yes we were! I saw you post on another thread and was like "hey I know her!" Also I'll be signing up for my full year later this week

I've been very impressed with everything since I started playing around with the trial heavily last week!

Ham1 · October 26, 2009

Shima wrote:

Thanks, glad you're all looking into it over there. In the meanwhile the work around for me is to lock the gallery down, remove the watermark on all images in the gallery, wait a while for that to take effect, export to animoto, once images are in animoto, put the watermarks back on, wait for that to take effect, and then un-protect the gallery. Looking forward to when all these steps aren't necessary

The two videos I uploaded this morning in that gallery were done with that method and they look fabulous when no watermarks are in the way to distract. It's great that you all are working so closely with animoto, I'm very excited for all that is to come!

Until we get this sorted out, I think the best work around is to 1) make your Gallery "Unlisted" and then 2) turn OFF your watermarks and then 3) make your Animoto video with unwatermarked images.

Then turn back on watermarks and make your gallery public again. Ugh, I know that is a pain of a work around. Sorry.

Markham

Shima · October 26, 2009

Ham1 wrote:

Until we get this sorted out, I think the best work around is to 1) make your Gallery "Unlisted" and then 2) turn OFF your watermarks and then 3) make your Animoto video with unwatermarked images.

Then turn back on watermarks and make your gallery public again. Ugh, I know that is a pain of a work around. Sorry.

Markham

Yeah if you scroll up to post #11, that's exactly what I've been doing for my work around. Can't wait til you get it sorted out though!

Ham1 · October 30, 2009

Shima wrote:

Yeah if you scroll up to post #11, that's exactly what I've been doing for my work around. Can't wait til you get it sorted out though!

Ok it is fixed! We pull the Original (unwatermarked) photo if you have watermarks enabled on your gallery now.

Enjoy!
Markham

SamirD · October 30, 2009

Any solution for the video pulling issue?

Ham1 · October 30, 2009

SamirD wrote:

Any solution for the video pulling issue?

That was fixed as well. Is it still br0ken for you?

SamirD · October 30, 2009

I haven't tried it yet. I was waiting for fixes before I looked at Animoto again. I'll take a look as soon as I get a chance.

Shima · October 30, 2009

SamirD wrote:

I haven't tried it yet. I was waiting for fixes before I looked at Animoto again. I'll take a look as soon as I get a chance.

I tried and confirmed that it's working! No more need to remove my watermarks!!!

Thanks guys, you rock!

Next Step - Convince you all that Export to Animoto doesn't need to be under the buy menu, since I often use slideshows to showcase portfolio folders that I don't want random strangers to purchase prints from :lurk But that's just my 2 cents, unlike the watermark thing which probably had much more interest, that's a minor thing most likely

So happy the watermarks aren't exported anymore

:D

Shima · October 30, 2009

SamirD wrote:

Any solution for the video pulling issue?

I didn't try this though... can I now pull video into animoto? ::goes to try::

Shima · October 30, 2009

Shima wrote:

I didn't try this though... can I now pull video into animoto? ::goes to try::

IT DOES WORK NOW!!!! That just made my day all over again, watermarks no longer importing was exciting, this might be more exciting!

Shima · October 30, 2009

Found a glitch w/ the watermark thing....

-Export to Animoto from SmugMug works properly and no watermarks appear.
-Import from Smugmug through Animoto still grabs watermarked versions.

Video imports properly as video via either method though, so that's working as expected. Might need to have animoto fix something on their side for the import from smugmug glitch?

SamirD · October 30, 2009

I've played with it a bit and one suggestion I would like to make (and I know this one may not be the easiest to implement) would be the ability to choose which pictures from Smugmug make it Animoto from the Smugmug interface.

For example, have a screen just like in the bulk delete or rotate tool to choose which pieces of media make it to Animoto. I think there's a lot of waste happening when one of my galleries of hundreds of images either can't all import into Animoto, or I only want select images to be a part of the video.

I know a workaround would be to copy the images to another gallery, but since that's not easy in SM either, I'm spending time re-uploading, and I might as well just upload directly to Animoto. But stepping outside of a direct Smugmug to Animoto link wastes time in the upload process. All of this is inefficient and makes the workflow more difficult to implement in a streamlined fashion. And for me to use Animoto the way I envision, it has to be a pretty quick process. I hope to churn out almost 100 videos a month or more with the commercial account.

AnimotoBecky · November 2, 2009

Yep, I agree the flow could be more efficient for instances when the gallery has a large # of images. We have a 300 image cap on vids (which admittedly few videos reach), and SmugMug users certainly have more than that in some of their galleries/don't necessarily want all their gallery images in a given Animoto vid.

We'll revisit this when making improvements to the integration. Thanks for the feedback! Great to hear user experience regarding the flow.

SamirD wrote:

I've played with it a bit and one suggestion I would like to make (and I know this one may not be the easiest to implement) would be the ability to choose which pictures from Smugmug make it Animoto from the Smugmug interface.

For example, have a screen just like in the bulk delete or rotate tool to choose which pieces of media make it to Animoto. I think there's a lot of waste happening when one of my galleries of hundreds of images either can't all import into Animoto, or I only want select images to be a part of the video.

I know a workaround would be to copy the images to another gallery, but since that's not easy in SM either, I'm spending time re-uploading, and I might as well just upload directly to Animoto. But stepping outside of a direct Smugmug to Animoto link wastes time in the upload process. All of this is inefficient and makes the workflow more difficult to implement in a streamlined fashion. And for me to use Animoto the way I envision, it has to be a pretty quick process. I hope to churn out almost 100 videos a month or more with the commercial account.

r9jackson · November 10, 2009

Yes, still have watermarks

Shima wrote:

Found a glitch w/ the watermark thing....

-Export to Animoto from SmugMug works properly and no watermarks appear.
-Import from Smugmug through Animoto still grabs watermarked versions.

Video imports properly as video via either method though, so that's working as expected. Might need to have animoto fix something on their side for the import from smugmug glitch?

I just did a video tonight and it does have watermarks. I did upload from Animoto though. Next time I will run it from SmugMug.
See my video on my blog at: Random Thoughts of a CIO.

Ham1 · November 10, 2009

r9jackson wrote:

I just did a video tonight and it does have watermarks. I did upload from Animoto though. Next time I will run it from SmugMug.
See my video on my blog at: Random Thoughts of a CIO.

Nice

Yep, pull from Animoto you'll get watermarks. Push from SmugMug you won't see watermarks

Markham

Shima · November 10, 2009

Ham1 wrote:

Nice

Yep, pull from Animoto you'll get watermarks. Push from SmugMug you won't see watermarks

Markham

Yup I can confirm this. I *think* Becky from animoto says she's got the techs working on fixing it so it won't do this when it pulls from Animoto, but not sure of an ETA.

AnimotoBecky · November 12, 2009

Yes, when you push images to Animoto from SmugMug, it doesn't have the watermarks, but retrieving SmugMug photos from Animoto does include them. Awaiting to hear on how this issue is being resolved from our TechGuys...

Shima wrote:

Yup I can confirm this. I *think* Becky from animoto says she's got the techs working on fixing it so it won't do this when it pulls from Animoto, but not sure of an ETA.

BeemerChef · November 13, 2009

I pull my photos from my hard drive, resize them with a free software from VSO that will do a bunch at the time, and music from also my hard drive converted from MP4 to MP3 with another free software.
For the first time I am uploading the Video MP4 resolution to Smugmug so I can embed it into my Blog from Smugmug in a larger screen size and sharp images at the same time.
Animoto's size for a sharp video is very small and I know they are working on it.
Any better idea about posting on a Blog a larger sharp size video?
Be well...
Ara & Spirit

* Here is a larger size, you can see it is not very sharp.</SCRIPT">

AnimotoBecky · November 16, 2009

Yes, we are working on it. Thanks for all the tips on the workarounds you've been finding in the meantime!

BeemerChef wrote:

I pull my photos from my hard drive, resize them with a free software from VSO that will do a bunch at the time, and music from also my hard drive converted from MP4 to MP3 with another free software.
For the first time I am uploading the Video MP4 resolution to Smugmug so I can embed it into my Blog from Smugmug in a larger screen size and sharp images at the same time.
Animoto's size for a sharp video is very small and I know they are working on it.
Any better idea about posting on a Blog a larger sharp size video?
Be well...
Ara & Spirit

* Here is a larger size, you can see it is not very sharp.

Animoto now supports VIDEO clips!!

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