Online video or story makers

This is my favorite topic by far, due to my pre-existing love for creating videos.
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In the classroom movies/video/ online stories can be created, used and incorporated in a wide variety of different ways. It falls under the banner of ICT for creating. Students can use these online tools to create a persuasive text, to inform and explain, to respond etc. Importantly students will be engaged as the quality of outputs and ease of use is astounding. Some students who are well suited to these activities may experience success where following traditional means of paper and pen they have not.

There is a wide variety of free web based software available. I will now give a brief overview of a few and comment on their strengths and weaknesses.

First cab of the rank is www.dfilm .com or otherwise known as 'Dvolver'.



This is easy to use, smooth looking web based software. You work on one scene at a time and select the background, characters, music, scene type and dialogue.
It then gives generates a cartoon type video very quickly. See above video which I made in only 5-10 minutes.

Strengths: Free, ease of use (see image left), graphics, can embed and email straight away.


Weaknesses: Lack of flexibility and wait for it... Adult content!

Unfortunately the adult content is a real deal breaker to an otherwise impressive movie maker. Therefore all it can be used for is to prepare a movie yourself. Hopefully they come out with a children friendly version.




Next is the Zimmer Twins where, among other things, you can make your own movies. The URL is www.zimmertwins.com

This online software allows you to quickly and easily make an animated movie. It focused on three characters, the twins Edgar and Eva and their cat, "13". A story board is displayed along the bottom allowing quick review your piece. It works by allowing the user to select from a group of talking, action or other scenes. When you select a scene on your story board a list of variables are shown. These include the character, background and some objects.


Dialogue is made through speech bubbles in any of the talking scenes. Once selected, the text is simply typed in. Animation automatically occurs and you need to change the scene to have a different animation type. It is high quality and appears like a modern cartoon.






My criticisms of the website are that I couldn't save a draft. Once I saved the file I could no longer access it. This means it needs to be completed in one go, and any mistakes need to be corrected before you save. It would be nice if the video could be embedded elsewhere as is common these days however this feature was not available. Although understandable the limit to three characters is constricting.



Strengths: Free, graphics, ease of use, age appropriate content, excellent link to different emotions
Weaknesses: Cannot save draft, cannot embed, limited character flexibility.




Myths and legends

http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/

This online story telling software is focused on a theme of old time knights, castles, princesses etc. It is fairly easy to use with a lot of images and items to bring to your story.
A useful feature is the copy function where the previous page is copied and you can simply make the small changes as necessary, not remake the whole scene. Unfortunately to the creators of this site the graphics pale in comparison to some of the others now available, this is 90's quality to the others 2000's. Animation is only minor, it is more a story book.

Strengths: Free, ability to save, ease of use, age appropriate content
Weaknesses: Comparatively poor graphics and animation

Microsoft Photo Story 3
This software from Microsoft is free but is not web based and requires installation locally on each computer.
As its name suggests it designed to incorporate photos and allow the user to tell a story through the input of text or sound files. Photos can be edited and tweaked, music can be added to the background, transitions can be changed.
It is easy to use and primary aged students equipped with photos they have taken could prepare a high quality video.
The video can be saved and shown locally or if appropriate, uploaded to a hosting website such as Vimeo or YouTube.
One interesting feature, especially if the intention is to upload it to the Internet is the create music feature. This avoids copyright issues and allows students to make music appropriate to the video they have produced.
I normally make videos using Sony Vegas Movie Studio. It is a more professional piece of software allowing amazing control of almost every detail. Below is a video I made using this software for the WebQuest.

Survive_and_Sustain from Sam King on Vimeo.

In comparison Photo Story is very constricting, but the trade off would be price and ease of use.

Photo Story in a flash.
Strengths: Free, users can save, isn't dependant on Internet connection, easy to use, students can use their own photos.
Weaknesses: Output file limited to .wmv, limited control



Xtra Normal
The next video making software is found at www.xtranormal.com . The video below left shows you the quality of animation you could be making. The image to the left shows the user friendly way in which you create.

This exceptional piece of software enable you to create a lifelike video animation. It is prepared very much like a script. Switching between a few characters you can add dialogue. Then you can go through and like a movie producer add animations, expressions, looks, sounds and most impressively change the camera angle. It works through dragging and dropping the above changes into the script. They can be later double clicked to change.


I find this truly an amazing piece of web based software. Out of all the reviews in this blog it is the only software to do lipsyncing, lifelike characters as an option and generate voice from text.

Strengths: Amazing quality graphics, generates animation automatically, generates spoken dialogue from text, great degree of flexibility, ability to save, ability to publish and embed, ease of use and generally free to use.
Weaknesses: Not all characters are free and require unlocking via a points system, voice from text can mispronounce some words (for example 'talk' in the video)


In essence all these websites make very complex tasks appear very simple. It takes away a lot of the control professionals and more serious video makers want but the flip side is it makes it easy. Now videos can be made in the classroom by primary aged students. They could create their own story, they could respond to a text etc. They can create videos that would impress everyone.