So I heard about a young startup called Animoto that automatically creates music videos from photos and MP3s, and I finally got around to giving it a shot. I was really surprised...this is simply very cool! The video above took literally less than five minutes to create. I took some of our highlight shots from our various Grooveeffect Galleries, uploaded a mix I put together for our MySpace page, and Animoto created this video for me...effects and all were done automatically.
From Animoto's "About Us" page...
Their first release is Animoto, a web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos using their own patent-pending technology and high-end motion design. Each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music. Produced on a widescreen format, Animoto videos have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer.
The heart of Animoto is its newly developed Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology that thinks like an actual director and editor. It analyzes and combines user-selected images and music with the same sophisticated post-production skills & techniques that are used in television and film.
So for the non-geeks among us, it has some pre-programmed effects and whatnot, and it matches them to the beat of the music you upload. And it does a damn good job. 30 second samples like the one above are free, and for longer-run videos you have to pay $3 or get a year-long all access pass for $30. Considering that I take mad pictures for both Grooveeffect and personal things, these guys just might be getting $30 from me soon enough...
