What's New with Animoto

Looking for the latest and greatest features in Animoto? You've come to the right place. Jump to a new feature below, or keep reading for a rundown of what's new.

Jump ahead:

• September '24: Media Frames Now with timing!
• September '24: Pro+ workspace improvements
• September '24: Remove placeholders
• September '24: New CTA elements
• August '24: Hotkeys
• April '24: Text and Element Timing
• April '24: AI Script Generator
• March '24: New Text Styles & Themes
• February '24: New releases
• October '23: New improvements to make Animoto easier than ever
• August '23: Professional Plus plan
• August '23: Elements
• May '23: Multi-song
• February '23: Screen and webcam recording
• 2022 Updates
• New templates

Media Frames

Animoto just got a lot more flexible. With media frames, you can place your media wherever you want and create videos that bring your unique vision to life. With this game-changing capability, you can break free from layout constraints and unlock endless creative capabilities.

Here's how it works:

• Click the Media Frames icon just above the elements button
• Browse through our new frame categories or filter by video style to find the ones that best suits your video
• Drag and drop your photos and videos into your frame
• Scale, rotate, and arrange your frames to create one-of-a-kind video layouts

As of September, 2024, you can fine-tune the timing of your media frames and elements alike! Sync them with your text, add extra context and b-roll, and create entirely new layouts. Check out this guide for all the tips and tricks from our Creative Director.

Pro+ workspace improvements

We heard you, and we made it happen! Thanks to your feedback, we made it even easier for Professional Plus users to create and navigate between your Private and Team Workspaces.

Here's what's new:

• Pro+ features in your private workspace: Want to make a draft before sharing it with your team? You can now use all of your favorite Pro+ features in both your Private and Team Workspaces.
• Create in the right place: We made it easier to distinguish between your workspaces so you can keep your drafts and personal videos private.
• Get right back to it: Return to your most recently-used workspace upon logging in and pick up right where you left off.
• Better billing: Easily find your billing and plan information in your settings tab under “Team workspaces”.

Remove placeholders

Want to free up some space in your video? Now, you can delete the media from any media placeholder in your video and create empty space. Just select the placeholder, click the trashcan to remove the media, and the trashcan again to delete the entire placeholder.

New CTA elements

A new batch of nonprofit CTA elements just arrived in your workspace! Now it’s even easier to add that extra oomph to your videos and raise more funds, promote new listing, and sales. Check them out in the new and freshly-revamped real estate and non-profit templates.

Hotkeys

Copy, paste, and delete your way through edits fast with new video hotkeys! You can now use your go-to keyboard shortcuts to add or remove text boxes and elements in your Animoto workspace.

new hotkeys at your fingertips:

• Backspace or delete key to delete items
• Ctrl/⌘+Z to undo mistakes
• Ctrl/⌘+Y to redo steps
• Ctrl/⌘+C to copy
• Ctrl/⌘+V to paste

Text and Element Timing

Launched April, 2024

Animoto’s new timeline controls blend the precision of timeline editing with the simplicity of our drag-and-drop interface, it’s the best of both worlds. Elevate your videos by syncing text and elements perfectly with the narrative flow of your visuals. Here's how to access the timeline:

Use timing to:

• Build anticipation and excitement by teasing your text out.
• Caption your videos word by word.
• Introduce people and products in your video with a professional touch.
• Use the playhead to make your text and elements appear or disappear at the perfect moment.
• and a whole lot more!

Get our full list of timing tips and tricks in this guide and learn how to create videos your audience can’t stop watching.

AI Script Generator

Launched: April '24

Animoto just got better with AI!

You know your business. We know video. Input your rough ideas and let our AI Script Generator polish them into an engaging script. Your script will be automatically applied to your video, giving you a starting point that's completely unique to you. Then, just use our drag and drop tools and licensed media to make the video your own.

New Text Styles & Themes

Launched: March '24

You've got five new text styles to play with. Elevate your storytelling with five new text animations featuring a combination of stylish animations and text treatements.

• Slide Left: Your text glides in from the left with a word by word text reveal.
• Vertical Slide: Text cascades into position with a line by line reveal.
• Back & Forth: Each line zips into place with energy and purpose.
• Rustic: Textured text styling with a touch of tradition and warmth.
• Rolling Text: A letter-by-letter reveal for a dynamic storytelling experience.

And that's not all, we've also launched 10 new themes which combine these text styles with professionally-curated colors, fonts, and transitions. You can find all the new text styles and themes in your design settings.

New releases

Launched: February '24

More text boxes per block

Tell your story without skipping the details! Now, you can add up to 10 text boxes to any block. Get creative with fun text layouts to use all ten to tell your story.

Instant video preview with audio

Block previews now include your video's audio! Instead of previewing the entire video to hear the audio in one video clip, you can listen on a block-by-block level and make adjustments as needed. Just click the play button at the bottom of each block to see and hear the preview.

HDR tone mapping

There are no sacrifices when it comes to your video's resolution! With new HDR mapping technology, your video footage will appear in all its full-color glory.

Remove placeholders

Make room, layouts! Now, you don't need to fill each and every media slot in your video layout. Just fill the ones you like and the rest won't appear in your final video.

New improvements to make Animoto easier than ever

As of October '23

Our goal has been and always will be to provide you with the easiest video creation process possible. We've been talking to Animoto users to learn what we can do to make Animoto even faster, easier, and more fun for users. Thanks to your feedback, we just rolled out some small but mighty features to help you overcome your most common issues and get to finished videos faster. Check them out below or start exploring in your workspace!

Add up to eight voice-overs

With up to eight tracks per video, adding your voice to your videos just got a lot easier. Now, you can record in pieces without worrying about a few stutters or tongue-twisters ruining your perfect take.

Modify multiple block lengths at once

Gone are the days of manually increasing or decreasing your length of your blocks one by one. Now, you can save time by selecting multiple blocks and increasing or decreasing their duration at the same time.

To do this, hold the shift button and click on two blocks. From here, you can either tick the "Select all" box, or continue selecting additional blocks. Then, use the up and down arrows to increase or decrease the duration of each block in increments of one second. To make all your blocks one uniform length, just type your desired length into the duration field and watch as each one automatically adjusts.

More font size options

If you're looking for a quick and easy way to upscale or downscale your text, we've got you covered! From 8pt all the way to 432, all you need to do is click your desired size to transform your text.

Reminder: You can always change the size of your text by typing in a custom number.

Better asset upload experience

Bulk-uploading media can be a pain, especially when you don't know how long it will take. We get it! To make things more transparent, we've added loading spinners on each file in your media library so you can see their progress.

Professional Plus plan

Launched: August '23

Want to expand your team? You can add your team members, set user roles, and purchase additional seats right from your account.

Invite others to watch, edit, and leave time-stamped feedback all within your Professional Plus Workplace. Set yourself and your team up for success with Saved Brands and Templates. Upload your font and add your colors, logos, music, message, and more to enable anyone to create on-brand videos in minutes.

Creating and collaborating with your team has never been easier! The Professional Plus plan has everything you need to create professional videos independently or with colleagues, clients, friends, and more. Learn more about all the features included in the Professional Plus plan and give your team the tools they need to turn ideas into videos, fast.

Elements

Launched: August '23

Bring your videos to life with the magic of Elements! Our Elements library contains thousands of illustrated shapes, frames, arrows, symbols, and calls-to-action that you can “stick” to your video Blocks.

Click on the Element you want to add to your video. Then, just drag and drop your Element to emphasize your text, highlight images or photos, or add motion. Change the color to match your brand or aesthetic, and watch your videos come to life! Learn more here or get started on your next video.

Multi-song

Launched: May '23

You're no longer limited to a single song in your videos. Now, you can use up to eight tracks to capture the mood of your video from start to finish! Adding additional songs is easy:

1. Browse the music library and find the songs you want to include.
2. Click the plus sign on your first song to add it to your music timeline.
3. Trim your music track to leave room for additional songs.
4. Click the plus sign on your next song(s) to add them to your timeline.
5. Rearrange and trim each track to sync with the various parts of your video.

Screen and webcam recording

Launched: February '23

With new simultaneous screen and webcam recording, you can take what you know and explain it just like you would in person. Simply record what you want to show, explain what they need to know, and start connecting with any audience. Here's how it works!

1. Click the record button at the top of your workspace and select “Screen and Camera”
2. Choose the screen, window, or tab that you want to record
3. Start your webcam recording to explain as you go
4. Drag and drop both recordings into your video using the "Picture in Picture" layouts
5. Share your video and make communication a breeze, even from a distance

2022 Updates

Webcam recording

Launched: November '22

Looking to connect with your audience, build trust, and communicate more effectively? Good news – you can now record your camera with Animoto and seamlessly add it to your videos!

Here’s how to get started:

1. Start your camera recording right from your Animoto workspace, no apps or downloads required
2. Trim, merge, and customize camera recordings with text, animations, and more
3. Share your video anywhere via email, social, or shareable link

Create your own templates

Launched: October '22

Creating similar videos again and again? Turn your favorite videos into ready-to-use templates with your brand, story, media, and music already in place.

How to use saved templates:

1. Create a new video or revisit a favorite then save it as a template right from your video workspace or share page
2. To use your template, click the “Saved Templates” tab next to “My Videos”

Saved templates are now available on our Professional and Professional Plus plans. Learn more about how to used Saved Templates below.

Import media from Drive, Dropbox, and more

Launched: October '22

Skip the downloads. You can now import your media from Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Box straight into your Animoto workspace. Check out our blog post below for our quick guide to connecting your cloud storage and importing your media in just a couple of clicks.

Add two video clips to one block

Launched: October '22

Captivate your audience with motion-packed videos. You can now add up to two video clips to a single block to play simultaneously. Check it out in action, then try it for yourself.

Fine-tune your audio

Launched: October '22

Your voice-overs, video clips, and background music should be working together, not competing for attention.

You now have the power to adjust the volume of individual clips and voice-over tracks. To adjust the volume of a clip:

1. Click on the video in your workspace
2. Select the volume icon
3. Adjust the volume of your clip

To adjust an audio clip, follow the same process in your video's audio tab.

On top of that, Animoto will now automatically adjust the volume of your background music while your video clips or VO tracks are playing so your audio can shine through.

Minimalist video style & themes

Launched: August '22

Our newest video style, Minimalist, is a clean style featuring an accent color, smooth, dynamic transitions, and layouts with negative space. It's designed for a wide range of industries and videos, including internal communications, marketing, trainings, and more.

Watch it in action with this spin on our Video Resume template.

Along with the video style, you've also got three new themes to play with. Themes are sets of color, font, and style combos, curated and ready to apply to your videos in a click.

Summer Times:

Cool Collective:

High Intensity:

The Minimalist style and all three new themes are available now to all Animoto customers. Give them a try now.

Screen recording

Launched: July '22

Power up your communications in a hybrid workspace. Use screen recordings to create engaging and informative presentations, demos, trainings, walkthroughs, and more.

Screen recording is available to everyone for free for a limited time. To get started with screen recording, just open up a project and select the Record button at the top of your workspace.

Learn more about how to use our new screen recording tool below, and stay tuned because we're just getting started.

Time-stamped Commenting

Launched: July '22

No more juggling messy email threads and contradictory comments. Invite anyone to add time-stamped comments to your video. Reply and implement feedback right from your video editing workspace.

Simply put, it's the easiest way to get feedback on your videos. Commenting is now available on our Professional Plus plan. Check out our complete guide below to learn everything you need to know about how commenting helps you get your team on the same page.

Voice-over

Launched: March '22

Tell your story with voice-over. Animoto now supports uploading or recording voice-overs to your videos.

Animoto makes it easy to add high-quality voice-overs that take your videos from ‘good’ to ‘great’ in minutes. Here are just a few ways you can use voice-over.

• Add context to presentations
• Narrate marketing videos
• Create heartfelt family videos
• A whole lot more

Voice-over is now available on our Professional plan. Learn more about the feature below.

Templates

Here are a few of our newest templates. Try them out or browse through our "New" template category!

As of October 17, 2024

Annual Recap

Goals and Vision

Business Highlights

Year-end Family Highlights

Business How-to Series

Family Holiday Card

Holiday Photo Session

Holiday Sale

Bundle Deals

Shipping and Return Policies

Product Promotion

Real Estate About Us

Birthday Wishes

Digital Photo Album

Awareness Month

Happy Halloween from Us

Halloween Safety Tips

Halloween Costume Contest

Veteran's Day

Family Recipe

Thanksgiving Invitation

Family Gratitude

Restaurant Event Invitation

Thanksgiving Business Message

Menu Planning Tips

Black Friday Doorbusters

Giving Tuesday

Business Holiday Card

Holiday Message for Employees

Company Season's Greetings

Get in touch

If you have ideas for tools or templates you'd like to see added in Animoto, let us know! Get in touch with our team via this link. In the meantime - happy video making!