Yet Another Animoto N00b

Nikolai · October 27, 2009

OK, I bit the bullet and purchased the $30 annual subscription.
Here's an attempt:
http://animoto.com/play/70bQsyKzN6x1oMvK3VEs9w

My impressions:

1) integration with SM is *basic* to say the least. When asked to select an album I'm offered a linear LIST of albums. You know, for a person with almost 2K *albums* a linear structure is not the best way to navigate (let alone it takes several minutes to show over 20/20 mbps FIOS connection).
Since I had to use multiple albums for one video, I had to go the other way - start from SM, select a needed album and the "add" to Animoto, hoping it's keeping my previous selection intact.
If you guys are considering a more "navigatable" tree-looking UI and need a help with that - I'll be happy to oblige... :wink

2) Most (99%) of the provided music choice is an *extremely* high tempo. It's probably OK for motosports and fashion shows, but it's way too fast for landscapes, portraiture and other more "spiritual' stuff. Of all the choices I found 2 (!) songs that more or less matched my concept...

What is this life
If, full of care,
We have no time
to stand and stare...

Luckily, commercial version allowed for 1/2 of the speed, but I would really appreciate even slower version - and definitely larger choice of "slower" audio...:rolleyes

3) Do I understand that even a paid version gets me a - crappy, pardon my french - low-res quality, and I have to pay extra for anything better?
I was appalled by the fact that my 21mp(!) stills were converted to what here in SM world is called "small"...
OK, I already paid - can I get at least "Large" quality with that? :huh

Mildly disappointed.... :rolleyes

PhotoDavid78 · October 27, 2009

Nikolai wrote:

OK, I bit the bullet and purchased the $30 annual subscription.
Here's an attempt:
http://animoto.com/play/70bQsyKzN6x1oMvK3VEs9w

My impressions:

1) integration with SM is *basic* to say the least. When asked to select an album I'm offered a linear LIST of albums. You know, for a person with almost 2K *albums* a linear structure is not the best way to navigate (let alone it takes several minutes to show over 20/20 mbps FIOS connection).
Since I had to use multiple albums for one video, I had to go the other way - start from SM, select a needed album and the "add" to Animoto, hoping it's keeping my previous selection intact.
If you guys are considering a more "navigatable" tree-looking UI and need a help with that - I'll be happy to oblige...

2) Most (99%) of the provided music choice is an *extremely* high tempo. It's probably OK for motosports and fashion shows, but it's way too fast for landscapes, portraiture and other more "spiritual' stuff. Of all the choices I found 2 (!) songs that more or less matched my concept...

What is this life
If, full of care,
We have no time
to stand and stare...

Luckily, commercial version allowed for 1/2 of the speed, but I would really appreciate even slower version - and definitely larger choice of "slower" audio...

3) Do I understand that even a paid version gets me a - crappy, pardon my french - low-res quality, and I have to pay extra for anything better?
I was appalled by the fact that my 21mp(!) stills were converted to what here in SM world is called "small"...
OK, I already paid - can I get at least "Large" quality with that?

Mildly disappointed....

I totally agree with you. The paid version is extremely low res. I'm very disappointed and out 30 bucks.

Nikolai · October 27, 2009

And of course there is no way to see if that promised "DVD quality" actually worth the money :-( How about some trials, guys? I'd really love to see the goods before I buy...

AnimotoBecky · October 28, 2009

Hi,

Sorry to hear you're disappointed! We're working on getting the streaming vids to be higher-quality, but download samples of the DVD-Quality here:

http://biz.animoto.com/dvd/comp.html

I like the idea of doing a trial pro-account for DGrin members. We recently spoke at a SmugMug meet-up in Chicago and did a 10 day trial of our pro-account to attendees. I'll see about setting something similar up here on the forum.

And yes, phase 1 of the integration is just the tip of the iceberg. We hope to be doing a lot more in the future!

Nikolai wrote:

And of course there is no way to see if that promised "DVD quality" actually worth the money :-( How about some trials, guys? I'd really love to see the goods before I buy...

PhotoDavid78 · October 28, 2009

Becky, is there anyway to get a refund? Spending 30 dollars to get a low res. product is unacceptable to me. I would consider using animoto in the future if these issues are worked out. Thank you.

waygard33 · October 28, 2009

More thoughts on Animoto...
Add me to the list of the dissapointed. The pricing model is bad. I spent my $30 bucks and when I got my first slideshow, I felt like I was taken advantage of. It's almost unwatchable. You are forced to pay the $5 for the hi-res version or try to 'get back out of the pool' by asking for a refund.

Luckily for Animoto, the end result is pretty nice; way better than I can do in my movie software, so I ponied up the $5 and have done so many times since. The semi-false charm of the $30 fee lured me in but I've spent well beyond that. On the other end, the pro price is just way to high for me as I'm not pro and just like to do family stuff. If there was something in between the $30 bait and switch and the pro, I would be interested and appreciative of the knowledge of the up front cost.

OK with that said, I will most likely continue using it because, as I mentioned, I like the end result and (benefit of the doubt here) I think the Animoto folks didn't realize the ugliness of the pricing model. (I take that back if their marketing guy came from a used car lot

).

OK, moving on. I've made several videos and here are my thoughts on the Good and the Bad:

GOOD - End result

BAD -
*The interface is clumsy and slow. More control would be nice. The current interface is fine for Grandma/beginners but regular users quickly out grow it.
*Up to a 10 minute show is offerred but good luck uploading any music that will last for 10 minutes and is under the 10mb limit on the song size. Most of the songs I have hit 10mb at about the 5 or 6 minute mark. I could find nothing in the docs regarding the limits on the song size. You only find out after waiting for it to upload your song and at the end, you're notified. Big waste of time. There's also a 'Gotcha' here as I found many songs which my PC says are under 10mb (i.e.,Guns & Roses version of 'Knockin on Heavens door' is 9.88 mb - little over 5 minutes) but Animoto says No way...Too big. Must be some 3rd grade rounding going on.
*Limited to number of pics in gallery. I take lots of pics and then want to make a quick Animoto show. I choose the gallery and am told there are too many pics. I end up creating a second gallery of a limited set of the photos. Another waste of time. Why not just let me select the 100 or so images I'm interested in?

Final point - I've read several posts about the speed being too fast and limitations on the music. Here's what I have been doing:

*I replace the music.
*During creation, I simply pic a song that is long enough (and small enough) to ensure the pics run out before the music does.
*I also try to match the pace/beat that I am after.
*Pay the $5 for the Hi-Res
*Download the completed file and import it into my movie software.
*Turn off the Animoto soundrack and add my copy of the music I want.
*Remove the Animoto branding.
*Although I haven't done it yet, I'm sure you could also slow the whole thing down if you wanted to adjust the pace.
*Render my version.

I haven't done much with HD so I'm not sure what I'm losing in quality in the process. Also, I'm only producing fun stuff for my family so I am not as concerned about the licensing. These are issues you will need to explore further

As for the new music matching the video transitions, I can't tell the difference. It's my experience that there are so many transitions and opportunities in the song that it comes out just fine. For an example, here's a quicky I made with Animoto and then changed the song in Pinnacle:
FYI - went from Chett Lots version of 'Knockin on Heaven's door' (9.8mb for 5:20 song) to something by Frank Sinatra.

Anyway, I'm going on far too long here. I only posted because I'm interested and hope the process gets better. I have other suggestions for Animoto but I'll save them for a later time.

Wayne G

Shima · October 30, 2009

The commerical ($249 a year) subscription version has unlimited high-res version upgrades for what it's worth. I've been making all my videos, proofing them on the low res, and then once happy converting to high-res, downloading, and uploading them to smugmug manually (since currently export to smugmug only works w/ the low-res versions, not the high res, eagerly awaiting that change to be implemented in a future update).

Smugmug has been listening to my pleas though! 2 of my complaints were fixed this week. I can now export w/out watermarks but leave the watermarks on the photos in the gallery (before it pull the watermarked copy) however animoto needs to fix their side of things since this only works when I export from smugmug. If I import a smugmug gallery from the animoto page, the watermarked versions are still grabbed...and as of this week I can also export / import my videos on smugmug over to animoto.

I agree heavily w/ Nik though that we need to get the import page when in Animoto fixed in a big way. I too have a LOT of galleries and it's a pain in the butt to try and find the right folder that way. Hoping improving that is on the horizon.

waygard33 · November 2, 2009

An improvement
On post #6 above, I complained of the 10 mb song limit. Well I just started another project and without double checking, blindly uploaded a song which was 10.1 mb. I thought it would fail for sure but it didn't.

Looks like the limit has been raised. Thanks Animoto!

On a side note, it would be nice if Animoto would use .wav files also. They are much smaller than .mp3s. That's why my song was too big. Animoto wouldn't take my wave file of 5.9 mb so I had to download the .mp3 version and it was almost twice the size.

Anyway, it is nice to see improvements.

Wayne G

Nikolai · November 2, 2009

waygard33 wrote:

On post #6 above, I complained of the 10 mb song limit. Well I just started another project and without double checking, blindly uploaded a song which was 10.1 mb. I thought it would fail for sure but it didn't.

Looks like the limit has been raised. Thanks Animoto!

On a side note, it would be nice if Animoto would use .wav files also. They are much smaller than .mp3s. That's why my song was too big. Animoto wouldn't take my wave file of 5.9 mb so I had to download the .mp3 version and it was almost twice the size.

Anyway, it is nice to see improvements.

Wayne G

Wayne,
I'm afraid you're mistaken. WAV files are the worst possible way to store the audio data size wise. They are like BMP - analog data, non-compressed. MP3 are like JPG compared to them.
Good info in raising 10Mb limit thou!

AnimotoBecky · November 2, 2009

Hi,

Thanks for the candor. I'm sending over your thoughts to management, as we never want to appear misleading. We are working on improving the online quality of vids, and furthermore, are hoping to have hi-res exports in the future. What Cat's been doing has been a good workaround for me (uploading the hi-res versions).

I like the idea of having a "middle" package that isn't pro-per se, but has some of the features that allow users who are passionate about their photography to have their images showcased within Animoto as clearly as possible.

We are also re-visiting the video creation flow. The specifics you gave are wonderful! It's always great to hear how people are using us, think we can improve, what we're doing right, etc....

Please keep it coming! DM me on here, write to photography@animoto.com, or me personally: rebecca@animoto.com

We really hope this integration is just the beginning, and expect changes/upgrades/etc to both Animoto's product and the Animoto/SmugMug integration!

waygard33 wrote:

Add me to the list of the dissapointed. The pricing model is bad. I spent my $30 bucks and when I got my first slideshow, I felt like I was taken advantage of. It's almost unwatchable. You are forced to pay the $5 for the hi-res version or try to 'get back out of the pool' by asking for a refund.

Luckily for Animoto, the end result is pretty nice; way better than I can do in my movie software, so I ponied up the $5 and have done so many times since. The semi-false charm of the $30 fee lured me in but I've spent well beyond that. On the other end, the pro price is just way to high for me as I'm not pro and just like to do family stuff. If there was something in between the $30 bait and switch and the pro, I would be interested and appreciative of the knowledge of the up front cost.

OK with that said, I will most likely continue using it because, as I mentioned, I like the end result and (benefit of the doubt here) I think the Animoto folks didn't realize the ugliness of the pricing model. (I take that back if their marketing guy came from a used car lot <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/mwink.gif" border="0" alt="" > ).

OK, moving on. I've made several videos and here are my thoughts on the Good and the Bad:

GOOD - End result

BAD -
*The interface is clumsy and slow. More control would be nice. The current interface is fine for Grandma/beginners but regular users quickly out grow it.
*Up to a 10 minute show is offerred but good luck uploading any music that will last for 10 minutes and is under the 10mb limit on the song size. Most of the songs I have hit 10mb at about the 5 or 6 minute mark. I could find nothing in the docs regarding the limits on the song size. You only find out after waiting for it to upload your song and at the end, you're notified. Big waste of time. There's also a 'Gotcha' here as I found many songs which my PC says are under 10mb (i.e.,Guns & Roses version of 'Knockin on Heavens door' is 9.88 mb - little over 5 minutes) but Animoto says No way...Too big. Must be some 3rd grade rounding going on.
*Limited to number of pics in gallery. I take lots of pics and then want to make a quick Animoto show. I choose the gallery and am told there are too many pics. I end up creating a second gallery of a limited set of the photos. Another waste of time. Why not just let me select the 100 or so images I'm interested in?

Final point - I've read several posts about the speed being too fast and limitations on the music. Here's what I have been doing:

*I replace the music.
*During creation, I simply pic a song that is long enough (and small enough) to ensure the pics run out before the music does.
*I also try to match the pace/beat that I am after.
*Pay the $5 for the Hi-Res
*Download the completed file and import it into my movie software.
*Turn off the Animoto soundrack and add my copy of the music I want.
*Remove the Animoto branding.
*Although I haven't done it yet, I'm sure you could also slow the whole thing down if you wanted to adjust the pace.
*Render my version.

I haven't done much with HD so I'm not sure what I'm losing in quality in the process. Also, I'm only producing fun stuff for my family so I am not as concerned about the licensing. These are issues you will need to explore further

As for the new music matching the video transitions, I can't tell the difference. It's my experience that there are so many transitions and opportunities in the song that it comes out just fine. For an example, here's a quicky I made with Animoto and then changed the song in Pinnacle:
FYI - went from Chett Lots version of 'Knockin on Heaven's door' (9.8mb for 5:20 song) to something by Frank Sinatra.
<object width="425" height="284">

<embed src="http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2009090604.swf" flashvars="s=ZT0xJmk9Njk1NzAyNDgyJms9cWtWRUQmYT0xMDA4NDU2Nl9tMlh2YyZ1PXdheWdhcmQzMw==" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="284"></object>
Anyway, I'm going on far too long here. I only posted because I'm interested and hope the process gets better. I have other suggestions for Animoto but I'll save them for a later time.

Wayne G

waygard33 · November 2, 2009

Nikolai wrote:

Wayne,
I'm afraid you're mistaken. WAV files are the worst possible way to store the audio data size wise. They are like BMP - analog data, non-compressed. MP3 are like JPG compared to them.
Good info in raising 10Mb limit thou!

Thanks Nik. I figured it was something like that since they're half the size. I will avoid them in the future.

Wayne G

waygard33 · November 2, 2009

AnimotoBecky wrote:

Hi,

Thanks for the candor. I'm sending over your thoughts to management, as we never want to appear misleading. We are working on improving the online quality of vids, and furthermore, are hoping to have hi-res exports in the future. What Cat's been doing has been a good workaround for me (uploading the hi-res versions).

I like the idea of having a "middle" package that isn't pro-per se, but has some of the features that allow users who are passionate about their photography to have their images showcased within Animoto as clearly as possible.

We are also re-visiting the video creation flow. The specifics you gave are wonderful! It's always great to hear how people are using us, think we can improve, what we're doing right, etc....

Please keep it coming! DM me on here, write to photography@animoto.com, or me personally: rebecca@animoto.com

We really hope this integration is just the beginning, and expect changes/upgrades/etc to both Animoto's product and the Animoto/SmugMug integration!

Hi Becky. Thanks for your response. As I noted above, I really like the end result of Animoto and I'm simply posting my comments because I know you folks are paying attention as you try to improve the product. That's good customer service and I appreciate that very much.

BTW, can you tell me what the song size limit is at this time?

Wayne G

AnimotoBecky · November 2, 2009

You're welcome, Wayne! We appreciate you caring enough to let us know how we can improve.

And we do indeed have a 10 MB limit, but sometimes the uploader is a bit finickiy and other times.... not.

When I have to make an mp3 smaller, I play it in Audacity, re-download it as a Wav, and then convert that Wav to an MP3 in iTunes. It's a total workaround and kind of a pain in the you know what, but for some reason, the resulting mp3 from that Wav --> mp3 conversion makes the size of the mp3 way smaller.

waygard33 wrote:

Hi Becky. Thanks for your response. As I noted above, I really like the end result of Animoto and I'm simply posting my comments because I know you folks are paying attention as you try to improve the product. That's good customer service and I appreciate that very much.

BTW, can you tell me what the song size limit is at this time?

Wayne G

BeemerChef · November 15, 2009

Well, I see Animoto as "entertainment" I think, a nice addition on my Blog. Even with as many readers and visits I have, being on the road for 3 years now, I am broke, started broke... but yet, I will pay for the Pro Animoto, maybe get the $99 3 months at the time will be easier on the wallet. I like their referral program where one can make a few $'s if others buy it through their embedded Logo on the site, but... again and again... because of the low resolution at the $30 level, no one likes it!!! Not only one needs to get the Pro level, but one needs Smugmug Pro (or Vimeo). So this ends up being an expensive deal for the average Family man/woman photographer...
I read on Animoto's Forum about the priorities of the members wishes... silly asking I want the text here or there... the 1000% priority should be the HR at an affordable rate. Yes, it is almost as a bait and switch! It would then open up the way to gazillion new members for sure...
As far as long videos, music choice (I use my own) I am happy as 2 to 4 minutes is about the lenght I post...
Anyhow, just my two cents... maybe three!!!:D

Be well... Ara & Spirit

AnimotoBecky · November 16, 2009

Thanks for your candor. We do have to charge accordingly for the hi-res vids b/c they are quite expensive for us to render. We are always looking into ways to render these videos in a faster (and thus cheaper) manner, in which case I'll let you know if our pricing structure changes.

BeemerChef wrote:

Well, I see Animoto as "entertainment" I think, a nice addition on my Blog. Even with as many readers and visits I have, being on the road for 3 years now, I am broke, started broke... but yet, I will pay for the Pro Animoto, maybe get the $99 3 months at the time will be easier on the wallet. I like their referral program where one can make a few $'s if others buy it through their embedded Logo on the site, but... again and again... because of the low resolution at the $30 level, no one likes it!!! Not only one needs to get the Pro level, but one needs Smugmug Pro (or Vimeo). So this ends up being an expensive deal for the average Family man/woman photographer...
I read on Animoto's Forum about the priorities of the members wishes... silly asking I want the text here or there... the 1000% priority should be the HR at an affordable rate. Yes, it is almost as a bait and switch! It would then open up the way to gazillion new members for sure...
As far as long videos, music choice (I use my own) I am happy as 2 to 4 minutes is about the lenght I post...
Anyhow, just my two cents... maybe three!!!:D

Be well... Ara & Spirit

Danspage · November 24, 2009

U Tube
Thanks
The quality on the big screen as a dvd is great.

Man this is all new to me. I posted on U Tube and it stated that I did not have rights to post the song ?? what up with that? Do I need to remove it?
I used the song that ani gave me.

Yet Another Animoto N00b

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