Watch Bill Cobb’s animoto-created video then click the “more” link to learn how he did it.

I was thrilled to open my email this morning and find a note from a very happy Video Production Tips reader who had just discovered animoto.com for easy video editing.

Bill Cobb, a real estate appraiser in Baton Rouge, Louisiana uses video online to promote his business services.  Online video has helped Bill expand his business quite a lot.  His videos have dominated google results for over a year now.    Bill finds that to be such a thrilling prospect that he says he sometimes can’t sleep at night he is so excited about the opportunities available with online video.  (My kinda guy!)

But like most people, Bill found video editing to be a bit confusing and terribly time consuming.   So when he read my recomendation to try animoto.com for easy video editing, he checked it out.

The results thrilled him so much he wrote me an email of gratitude.  (I love hearing from VPT readers.)

WHAT IS ANIMOTO?

Animoto is an over-the-web video editing service that is so easy my dog could do it!  (She is a very talented dog.)

Seriously, animoto is incredibly easy. There is essentially NO learning curve.  To use animoto, you simply upload some pictures and royalty free music.  (They also have a stock library you can chose from.) Then, you click one button and the animoto software analyzes your music and images and automatically edits them together with complex motion effects.

This is all done AUTOMATICALLY.  All you do is upload and give a few instructions.

Even if you knew exactly what you were doing, editing all these complex motion effects would take HOURS.  Speaking as someone who has edited video forever, it is an incredibly time-consuming, tedious process.   For me to re-create Bill’s video on Final Cut (or any other video editing program) would literally take five or six hours.  And that’s if you know exactly what you are doing!  With animoto, it takes about five minutes once you have everything uploaded.

I showed animoto to a friend who has also been doing video for about 30 years and we both agreed that it is something that could make people editors like us obsolete!  Kinda scary actually, but time marches on.

The only drawbacks I can see to animoto is that their logo is on the video and the videos are all dominated by fancy motion effects.  That’s great, but honestly, sometimes you don’t want all those motion effects.  Sometimes, less is more.

Now, that is not much of a drawback but I have to come up with some reason to let people-video editors like me keep their jobs! It’s no fun being replaced by automation!

After your video is complete, animoto makes it extremely easy to distribute all over the web, or download it to your own hard drive.  You can put it on You Tube, My Space or any other site you want.  You can email it.   Animoto will serve as the host.

Animoto is also very reasonably priced.  You can do a 30 second video for free.

Check out animoto for the easiest, fastest way to edit video you will ever find.  Thanks so much to Bill Cobb for letting me know how much he liked animoto.  Keep making great videos Bill!

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips
Lorraine Grula
Internet Video Gal