I discovered the link to the
‘Animoto’ website http://animoto.com/ on one of the yahoo loops, thanks to Liz Bailey. You can create a 30 second video for free – and it’s EASY, even for someone
technically challenged like me!
You choose your background from a group of templates, select your music from a list, upload whatever photos you want to include, and add text. It tells you if you have too much for the freebie 30 seconds, so you need to be fairly economical with how much you include. You can then preview your video and make whatever changes you want. Once you're happy with it, you simply click ‘produce’ – and lo and behold, your video is ready.
Here’s the trial one I produced, which took me about 30 minutes. I think I spent about half of that time deciding what music to have, so don’t forget to turn your sound on.
I’m already thinking of making one for my next book. As it’s
set in Ireland, I have plenty of photos I can use, but may also need to
upload some Irish music, as I don’t think there is any in the Animoto list.
To make videos longer than 30 seconds, there is a monthly fee, but for the moment, I'm quite happy with the freebie option!