learningIT

I found out about Shape Collage via Twitter (thanks klbeasley). It’s free with a downloadable and online version. I did try to embed my interactive collage here on this blog but it failed. : (

You will have to settle for the screencapture, but if you click it, it will take you to the almighty interactive URL. (The neat thing about it, is that each photo is clickable and the file is able to be imported into Photoshop where each photo will appear as a layer). A tutorial video is included below but it is really simple to use.

I know you can search Flickr, but for some reason, I prefer CompFight.

You may also be interested in Tilt-Viewer, CoolIris & Destry Flickr, which I blogged about before here.

Following on from my post yesterday, here’s the breakdown I used to help evaluate the features and final product of the three sites:

So, which one to recommend? Personally, I prefer Animoto, especially if you have access to the Educator’s Pass. Otherwise, you could pay for the video upgrade or settle with the 30 second video. Animoto looks flash, professional, modern and the transitions are synced to the music. You are able to highlight certain photos too. You can do this with the other two, but you would have to play with the transition times to do this. Animoto has a simple click option. The DVD quality upgrade costs five (US) dollars per flick.

UPDATE: As of today (what a coincidence), Animoto has announced that you can add video clips to your Animoto videos! Watch a few sample videos and find out more here. You can upload clips from your camera or phone, or use some from their collection (from iStockphoto and Getty Images). You can choose highlights of up to 10 seconds each, though they recommend using only 3-5 seconds as that works best within the flow of an Animoto video. (I’ll update it on the chart later as the file is on another computer)

Stupeflix, though in beta mode, does not store your video. It only hosts it for a month, allowing you and viewers to download it. This may be a good option for those teachers willing to share videos with parents, but unwilling to post them to YouTube etc. (It would also save time of burning it to disc.) Therefore, it also does not allow embedding. You would have to download the video and then upload it to a sharing site. Stupeflix states you may also upload video, but when I tried, I was not permitted. I even converted the file (more investigation needed on this). I didn’t really like the black background at times and some of the cropping of the shots.

Photopeach does not allow downloading. It only hosts. It was rather fast and simple to use though. If you could download it, it may have stretched to number one. One option I did find interesting was the “Spiral View.” When you create a slideshow, you may switch between the two modes for viewing. It also has a quiz option that teachers may find useful. I did prefer the larger display area for photos.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

UPDATE 2: I have updated the change in the chart to the Animoto category regarding uploading video.

Teachers often ask which is the best photo slideshow creator to use in class. The ‘usual’ three I hear about are Animoto (teachers click here), PhotoPeach and Stupeflix. So I decided to do a test. Using the same photos for all sites, I created slideshows and compared their features and final product.

However, everyone has different tastes. You may view the three examples below. Which do you prefer? I’ll give my breakdown and verdict tomorrow. Do you know of any other alternatives? If so, please let me know.

Example 1: Animoto

Example 2: PhotoPeach
Eastern Canada Trip 2009 on PhotoPeach

Example 3: Stupeflix (Note: Stupeflix only holds the video for 1 month. I  downloaded it and then uploaded it to Vimeo.)

Eastern Canada 2009 from FNC videos on Vimeo.

Thanks to The Teaching Palette for reminding me of this site. Vi.sualize.us allows you to freely bookmark the pictures you love. I used to always drag photos I liked onto my desktop. Needless to say, they have all accumulated space. With vi.sualize.us they can now all be stored online with the tags I create. Excellent (especially for us art teachers) and just what I needed!

You may also be interested in TiltViewer which I wrote about before here.

TiltViewer is a free, customizable 3D Flash image viewing application. Very cool.

Will Lion uses it to gather and present digital bytes (pictured below).

Select a photo and click the arrow. This flips the picture and shows relevant info. Click on “View image info” and it will bring you to the Flickr page.

Could be a very nice way to display student work or an alternative way to give presentations. Since I am on the topic, you may also be interested in CoolIris or DestroyFlickr.