Animoto

I chose to explore Animoto.  This website allows users to create video slideshows. It is easy to turn photos, video clips, and music into a video presentation to share with everyone.  I had never heard of this website before.  I love anything to do with pictures and saving memories.  The website was extremely easy to navigate.  You begin with just a click of a button "get started" and the website provides step by step instructions during the entire creation of the slideshow. The first step is picking which package you want (3 options).  I chose the free option, which provides the least options and only a 30 second slide show, but it was still really fun to create.  Next, the user must simply pick out a "background" for the slideshow which also provides music.  Then it is time to upload photos and/ or video clips (I only uploaded photos for mine).  Once all photos are uploaded you can choose if you want to add text to the slideshow and there are a couple technical options also (ex: adding a spotlight to a photo). The user is asked to add a title and description to the slideshow. Finally, the slideshow is completed and there are many options for sharing/saving.  I really enjoyed using Animoto to make a slideshow.  I thought it was user friendly and a quick way to turn pictures into a little something more.

My Slideshow

http://animoto.com/play/GBuig2Psv3a1Jf1QUE0FOA

Picnik

I decided to explore with Picnik. Picnik is a tool that allows users to upload photos and do all sorts of different photo editing. It makes your photos fabulous with easy to use yet powerful editing tools. There are a wide variety of fun editing tools such as tons of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames, which allows any user to be as creative as they desire.  This is a “free” website. If you don’t pay a monthly fee, you have a more limited selection, but there are enough to choose from, so you can still have fun.  It's fast, easy, and it is a web based tool so you don’t have software to download. 

I had heard about Picnik before, but never tried it out.  I decided to try it and it was really easy to navigate the website.  I decided that I wanted to make a small collage of pictures from spring break.  I simply clicked the collage button at the top of the page and the website walked me through the rest.  I uploaded four photos into my collage.  After my pictures were uploaded I was able to add all sorts of fun features to my collage.  There are so many different tools to use to add words, stickers, frames, etc. to the photos.  I love this website!

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First Time Blogging!

This is my first time creating a blog.  I already knew a lot about blogging, but never got on board with it.  I enjoy reading friends blogs, which mainly consists of them telling about the happenings of their lives.  Having a blog is a much more personal way of sharing, rather than having friends look at photos or reading updated statuses  on facebook. It's fun as a reader to have an entire post to read and photos to accompany the story.  I really enjoyed making this blog and I got ideas from friends blogs.  I think it is helpful to look at others blogs when you are not a blogger because otherwise it is hard to get started.