Introducing "One True Media"

The ability to add pictures and do so easily is one of the advantages of a blog over other types of communication. If we have a large number of pictures, a "slide show" allows us to display those pictures in a small amount of space.

I have used Photobucket and Animoto on this blog. I included them in a list of my Top Ten Web-Based Tools. That list was published in Barbara Blackburn's recent book The Principalship from A-Z.

A good friend put me on to another option: One True Media.

To compare and contrast:

• All three offer free accounts.
• Animoto and One True Media allow you to add music. In fact, One True Media automatically assigns a music track and allows you to change it. Photobucket has no musical option.
• Animoto's free account limits the length of the slideshow to 30 seconds. One True Media and Photobucket seem to be unlimited inthe length of the presentation.
• Animoto mixes the pictures in a very imaginate way. One True Media may have editing capabilities, but if it allows you to do what Animoto does, it would take some work.

Below is a sample of each. Judge for yourself which you like best:

One True Media:

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Animoto



Photobucket

Introducing Animoto

I read about a site called Animoto.com and gave it a try. If a picture is worth a thousand words, probably the best way to tell you what the site is all about is to show you:



After creating an account (which takes less than a minute), you can create your first video:

1. Upload pictures from your computer or other source (such as flickr). You must have at least 10 pictures.
2. Select the music. Animoto lets you choose the genre and choose from a list of music within that genre.
3. You upload the video.

It takes a little while for the site to put your video together, and you know what they say about a watched pot. So, go and do something else and before you know it, you will have an e-mail telling you it's ready and giving you a link to your video.

The site is free if you are creating short videos (around 30 seconds). To create longer ones costs a fee. You can save your video to your computer. You also have the ability, as we show here, to embed the video in a blog.

The demonstration video I put together, using photos of our dogs, took less than 5 minutes to create. Most of that time involved waiting for the computer to complete the upload of the pictures.

I shared this site with Pattie Thomas, principal at R. L. Young Elementary School, and by the next morning, she had created a video of her own and posted it to her school blog.

If you are looking for a time-saving way to create a short "commercial" presentation, Animoto is a good one.