I was cruisin’ round looking for something new and different and I came across a reference to Animoto in a Lifehacker post. The description intrigued me so I took a look.

This is how they describe themselves.

Animoto is a web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos using patent-pending Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology and high-end motion design. Each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music. Produced in widescreen format, Animoto videos have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer.

The website has a very cool design and the interface is simple and intuitive. I felt at ease though I had no experience creating this type of product before.

I chose the 30 second short. The images I chose were from an online Picasa album of my sister-in-law’s visit. I chose some music already on the site (all Creative Commons), and then rendered the image. A few minutes later a very satisfying 30 second video was ready. I could play it on the site, I could email it to friends, or upload it to one of many social networking sites.

I tried to grab the embed code and then attempted to upload it to my Facebook account, but this feature wasn’t working when I was on the site (hey, it’s Beta).

Below is a link to the video I created. It turned out pretty good.

http://animoto.com/play/2ae8f42751ec4f20c532c0aef66cef90

There is a cost for the full-length videos. You can buy a single video pass for $3 or you can buy an all-access pass which gives you unlimited full-length videos for an entire year for $30.

Try Animoto out and let me know what you think.