Animation vs Documentary

When I first thought of this assignment, I imagined I would simply be taking a video of my boys doing something silly and post it.  Once I started looking at the tools, I realized that there were options for learning to how to create videos with animation as well.  Since this would be an immediate benefit to my day job, I decided to focus on looking at the tools for animating videos rather than looking at the slide show or documentary type video tools.

The first tool I investigated was PowToon.  What I liked about this tool is that you work with each slide individually and they have some preset templates you can start with if you need inspiration.  I saw templates that could be leveraged easily by a student:  book reports, resumes and "5 facts".  This would be an easy way to introduce students to creating animated videos.  I could see giving the students an option to create a report in an animated form, which would allow them some creativity over a simple paper.  However, there are a limited number of templates, so in most times, they would have to start from the beginning.  I ended up using this tool for my assignment, but I found a serious limitation in the free version:  you cannot download the end file as a video file without a paid account.  For many people this would not be an issue, as you can share the link via You Tube and other social media sites.

Pixiclip also allows you to create an animated video, but requires you to either draw or use uploaded images.    I looked at some of the sample videos, and it seemed that they all focus on a single image with audio in the background.  I had trouble with this tool determining how you could build a story with it, so I'm not so sure how I would include it in a classroom setting, unless it was simply for having students video themselves talking and having the embedded video as part of them sharing an image on the slide.

Finally, I looked at Wideo.  This company also provides templates for use, but many are true business use, and may not have a direct school application.  However, there are definitely some fun templates that students could use to learn how to navigate the tool (Holiday wishes, car selling, web instruction).  Once they get the hang of it - I feel they could use the features that allow them to start from scratch and could then use it for many different applications.  Unfortunately, some of the templates I feel would be most useful (like the instructional video) are only available on the pro version and are not free.