Animoto – A Hip Approach For Real Estate Slideshows
September 28th, 2008
Animoto is a site that will automatically create an animated video with music, created from a series of still photos. Last year at this time when the company started I created a couple of videos. One from as series of my real estate front shots and one of my grandson Avery. The one of Avery was a smash hit with the family but I’ve never used Amimoto for real estate. I can attest to the fact that these little videos are quick and easy to create. All you do is upload a few stills and choose the music and everything else is automatic.
I’d forgot that I made these clips until I got a e-mail the other day from Erik Bjornard from Amimoto. Erik pointed out that real estate agents are now using Amimoto videos to promote their listings. One example is Herman Chan in San Francisco. If you look at Herman’s use of Animoto video, on his website, it’s clear that this is an unique and different way to present a series of stills. It shows the property and yet is light and upbeat! And the real estate industry can use light and upbeat these days!
There are a number of ways to use Animoto:
- Making listing tours more interesting
- Adding tours to websites
- Uploading Animoto videos to YouTube for traffic generating commercials
- Spicing up blogs
- Making e-newsletters more viral
- Quickly creating and sharing videos via email
- Create videos showcasing neighborhood highlights
- Carrying virtual tours on their iPhone to promote their properties
- Creating hi-res, virtual tour DVDs for VIP clients
Erik made PFRE readers the following offer: If you register for a 12-month commercial pass before October 3rd you can use the promotional code (RE09photography) to automatically add an additional month to your pass for free.
6 Responses to “Animoto – A Hip Approach For Real Estate Slideshows”
Dylan Darling September 29th, 2008 at 8:53 am #
Looks like a good tool, but the framing of the photos and the weird effects are a too much for a listing slide show.
Sylvia Guardia M. September 29th, 2008 at 2:03 pm #
i’ve been using animoto for a while, like a year, it’s pretty fun! i’ve used it for slideshows of casual photos, and i’ve also sent it as a little extra to some couples with the pics of their wedding day. this is an example:
http://animoto.com/play/3363ebee8000adad05e6d58aa32d124f
the free versions is pretty short, like 3:30 mins so you have to be sure you don’t put a lot of pictures, since they won’t show up. it would be nice to try it out with RE photography, yet i agree with dylan, it may be a little too busy. maybe there’s a way to control (choose) the transitions just a little bit.
it’s definetely VERY quick and easy to use, i find it’s a very friendly program.
Chester Bullock September 30th, 2008 at 9:27 am #
I am guessing that the music used is royalty-free so that there isn’t any risk of a copyright suit?
Susanne Hayek October 3rd, 2008 at 8:14 pm #
I bought this and wish I had not. It is expensive, slow and not customizable. There doesn’t seem to be an way to change the transitions, or pretty much anything else. While the end product looks “sexy” it is not useful to our industry as of yet.
Theo October 6th, 2008 at 12:05 pm #
honestly, I didn’t like the samples on Herman Chan’s web site! they are not clear, the music and the effects made it so hard to pay attention to the property he is selling.
The buyer is interested in the details of the property and not the effects of the slide show!
I like higher resolution slide shows.
Theo
alexander June 9th, 2010 at 8:11 am #
my friends have recommended me Stupeflix.com – has anyone ever tried?