App for journalists: Animoto, for animated video slideshows

Credit: Image from pexels.com

What is it? An app for making animated slideshows, using images, short video clips, text and music.

Cost: Free (to create videos in HD, remove watermark and edit on desktop, there are different subscription plans available)

Devices: iOS, Android

How is it of use to journalists?

Using apps such as Quik, Plotagraph and Flyr, journalists can produced short animated videos to accompany, summarise or tease their stories on social media.

With Animoto, they can animate the footage shot in the field on their smartphones, such as images and short video clips, using the more than 40 styles available in the app.

How it works:

Tap the '+' button in the bottom right-hand corner of the app to get started.

Swipe through some of the app's featured templates, or tap 'see all styles' to browse the collection and preview each option.

You will also notice some of them are marked 'Instagram style', so they come with a pre-set, looping song. These templates are slightly more limited than the others, meaning they only support up to seven images, which cannot be combined with text and video clips.

Once you have selected your style (in the example below we picked Animoto Original), preview the song the template comes with at the bottom. It can be changed by selecting another song from the pre-set list, which features different musical styles, or by adding your own – however make sure you own or have obtained the rights to use it first.

Tap the arrow button on the top right to start adding your media. A maximum of 20 images and video clips can be imported from the camera roll, and clips can't exceed five seconds in the free version of the app. Note that images and videos have to be added from two separate folders, so Animoto won't display both formats when viewing the camera roll.

Next, add text either a standalone slide in your package, which will feature it more prominently in the video, or as a caption, which will position it under the image in question. You can also drag elements around to re-order them before previewing your project.

Previewing is optional and should take about 30 seconds or slightly longer depending on how many multimedia elements have been added.

If you are happy with the end result, tap 'save and produce' and the app will re-direct you to the homepage, where the video will appear once it has rendered. Your slideshow can then be saved to camera roll, or shared to social media platforms.

Testing the Animoto app for video slideshows. pic.twitter.com/7BhcnSPLkJ

— Mădălina Ciobanu (@madalinacrc) October 6, 2017

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