Animoto Education Center
Quick Start Guide to Making a Video
Learn how to make a video by following these four quick and simple steps. No video experience necessary.
Quick Start Guide
How to make a video in four easy steps
Learn how to make a video in just a few simple steps. Whether you’re creating a video for your business, to share with friends and family, or for any reason at all, Animoto makes it easy.
Choose a video template
Our video templates are designed to give you a head start on your project. Begin by choosing a template that matches up with the type of project you’re creating, like a promo video, tutorial, training, or a personal message. If you’re looking to start from a clean slate, you can also create a video from scratch.
Pro Tip
You can always change your asset ratio, colors, font, and media later.
Add photos & video clips
Start by uploading your video clips and photos. If you don’t have images, that’s no problem. Stick with the media that’s already in the template or check out our Getty Images stock library with over 1 million free clips and images. Then drag and drop your media right into your project.
Pro Tip
If you’re creating a video for a business, upload your logo as a corner watermark and keep your brand on display throughout your video.
Customize the look and feel
Add dynamic media layouts that mix photos, video clips, and text to engage your audience. Get creative with text animations, video styles, filters, fonts, and your brand colors. Or set the mood with a single click by choosing one of our curated themes. Last but not least, select your music from our catalog of thousands of licensed songs.
Pro Tip
Experiment with different layouts to display your photos and videos however you’d like.
Add your text & share
Replace the template text with your own message and change the font, colors, and legibility to make it pop. Then, drag and drop your text wherever you want. When you’re happy with your video, click the blue “play” button on the bottom-left-hand corner of your screen to preview it. Then, just click export to share your video directly to social media or download it as an HD file to embed on your website or share via email.
Pro Tip
We can host your videos too! Click the link button to share a private link to your Animoto video.
QUICK VIDEO TIPS
Tips for creating professional videos fast
Import your media
Import your media directly from the cloud! Just click the “Import from” button and sign in to your Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box account.
Optimize for your platform
Resizing your video for different platforms is easy! Just duplicate your video and click the Ratio button to optimize it for your Story, feed, website, and more.
Record your screen & webcam
Create custom screen and webcam recordings right from Animoto to explain anything like you would in person.
More Tutorials
Great videos start here
Unlock full creative freedom and professional editing with simple drag-and-drop tools