Learning Curve

Thought I would create a refresher “how to” to help you finish your Animoto Movie Trailer. Here’s your lesson plan for Friday, November 20. After you login to your account (your gmail + school password–if you followed directions) and you select “full length version,” you see this screen:

You probably have selected “Upload from your computer.” Save your images to desktop (easier to grab and import). You are now in the first step of Animoto: Images, and you have a grid on which you can arrange and rearrange your images by dragging and dropping. If you get confused, look at the right side where you will see information on Images and tips for the section.

After your images upload, you can add text by selecting the “Add Text” option on the bottom. The way you save your work when you are in “Images” is to click the “done” button on the bottom right. That saves your work.

If you have to leave (end of class) and you want to return to your work, this is how you retrieve your work. Login. Go to “Create Video.” You will get this message in a yellow banner. Notice that you can see the images (text is there too) that you had uploaded in your last session. Click CLOSE. IF for some reason you do NOT see your images, DON’T PANIC. Click on the word Images on the left side and your images will appear.

If you want to add more text than Animoto will let you put on the two text lines, you can make a PowerPoint text slide. After your slide is done, you want to make a screenshot. You do that by using “Shift” + Apple key + 4 (not the F4, just the number 4). This screen shot will show up on your desktop as Picture 1 (if it’s the first screen shot you have taken). Now you can upload the PP text slide by dragging and dropping it, or you can go to “Add More” and add your new slide.

Don’t forget to check your rubric (you were given a copy, but it is also linked on my website, English 11, November, right under the two sample videos) for the “effects” you need to add. Very simple: just select the images you want to “spotlight,” click on that image, and then click “spotlight.” The images that have a yellow frame around them will be highlighted and play more than the not highlighted images. If you look closely, you will notice that images 3 and 4 need rotating to straighten them. Click the “rotate” button on the bottom till your picture looks normal. When you are finished with your images and text, click “DONE.” You will be taken to this screen:
Now you are ready for the second step: adding music. You can select from Animoto’s collection (they actually have some decent music) or you can add your own. Your music must be in an mp3 file format.

A good free music site is freeplaymusic or you can Google “free music” and get dozens of sites, or you can pull music from your iTunes account. Or you can create your own music in GarageBand. If you find the music you want and it is not in an mp3 format but is in an ac3, for example, you will need to convert the music file at www.zamzar.com. The process is very simple, but you need to give Zamzar a real email that you can access (your school gmail? or gaggle?) because they will send you the download link for your converted file via email. It may take a while, so be patient.

If you select your music from Animoto’s collection, you will get a screen that looks like this: One benefit of using Animoto’s music is that you have one less link to add to your list of urls. At this point you need to click “save and continue,” and you will be brought to the next screen.

You need to do several things in this third section where you finalize your video. Choose which speed you want to your video to play (1/2, normal is in the center, and 2x–don’t recommend the last one), select your video cover screen, and then click “continue.” You are now at the end, and you need to add some information. Your finished screen should something like this slide.

Now you need to click the “create video” button, and you will be taken to the “Processing, Analyzing, and Rendering” screen. At this point your video is in the Animoto cue and is slowly working its way to being a finished movie.

You will not see your video until is it mixed and done, but if you do not like the mix you got, you can do a “1-click remix.”

The LAST STEP of this assignment is to get your movie trailer to your blog with the urls + image name.

Let’s start with getting your video to your blog. To get your code, you need to “play” your video, so go to “My Videos” and “play” your video. At the bottom right of your video (which is playing), you will see a blue “Video Toolbox.” Click on the video toolbox. Then, click on “Embed,” select the smallest size (432 x 240), and copy the code.

Then, go to your blog’s dashboard, “post,” “add new,” and click the html tab. You MUST be in html or your video won’t work. After you add your code for your video, while YOU ARE STILL IN HTML, copy/paste your urls + image name. If you want to see a great sample of a finished product, please go to Alison Nadraw’s blog (Alison, please remove the : after by).

If you have questions, you can Skype me or gmail me over the weekend.

I was given an invitation to preview and promote SnagIt Screen Capture, and let me tell you, I like it. Last year, two of my students, Megan Heverly and Mark Attilio used SnagIt to create a composite of the 21st century learning they did for two years in our English classroom. Then, Heverly and Attilio were asked to present at Carbon-Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21 at a CFF Technology Showcase on April 9, 2009. SHS Students Are Tech Savvy was the title of Heverly’s blog post, and you can view the video they made with SnagIt and then imported to Vimeo for embeddable code.

IU Video(low quality) from megan heverly on Vimeo.

While SnagIt works on PCs and our school uses Macs, most of us go home, like me, to a PC that I love and use. So, for those of you who use PCs, SnagIt just might be your ticket for a wonderful way to snag your desktop and make your next great video tutorial for your students or just capture daily life in snapshots that you want to showcase differently. For a great quick overview of SnagIt, click this link.
SnagIt
Screen Capture
SnagIt Screen Capture
PC
Screen Capture Software
Online tag generator

Watch this super short video and see if adding Zemanta to you blog works for you.  I’ve been using it for at least a year, perhaps more, and really like the features.  One word of advice: preview the articles before you add them as related.  Ditto for links.  MANTRA = PREVIEW, PREVIEW, PREVIEW!!!

Zemanta in 60 Seconds from zemanta on Vimeo.

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