Disclaimer: I was given a free copy as part of this review but that didn’t influence my opinion in any way.
As many of you know, Dear Readers, I love technology.
And, when I find technology that I can use together with grandchildren, I’m in heaven.
Well, lemme tell you, I’m in heaven at this moment!
I’ve been playing around with the program VideoGif and I’ve been having a ball.
Two words come to mind when I think of VideoGif: easy, easy, easy and fun. Wait. That is 4 words. Oh well. They perfectly describe this program. Yes, perfectly.
With VideoGif, you can create animated GIFs. (An animated GIF is just a snippet of a video that loops and plays over and over.)
First, you need a video to work with — something taken with a smart phone, a web cam, a built-in camera on your laptop, a digital camera, or anything that takes videos.
Do you have a video of your granddaughter’s soccer game? Great! Use that. Or a video of your grandson’s birthday party, or of your grandkids swimming, or playing at your house, or going to the zoo? Any of those would work just fine.
Simply import the video clip into the program and you’re off and running.
Here’s a little animated GIF that I made of our grandson. He’s waving hello to all of my wonderful readers.
Before I go any further, I want to give a little back story of what you see in the video.
My grandson is playing with a little rubber motorcycle that was my husband’s when he was a little boy. That motorcycle is at least 60 years old.
The gray rocking chair he is sitting in was my mother-in-law’s rocking chair. (That’s my grandson’s paternal great-grandmother.) We’re not sure exactly when she got it. We figure it is roughly 85 to 90 years old. The paint is worn off on the arms a little bit but other than that it is in great shape. Talk about quality workmanship!
There is a little blue wooden car on the table. Grandpa made that for our oldest son when he was little. So it is about 32 years old.
Boy! All of this antiquity is making me tired. I need to lay down and take a nap . . .
. . . .
There. I’m back. I feel much better.
My grandson is sitting at a little train table that my husband made for the grandchildren. It is a fabulous little table that has a small edge to keep the train track from falling off and a drawer for extra track pieces. It has quality workmanship, too. Wouldn’t it be neat if in 85 or 90 years our great-grandchildren will be playing with it?
Now. Where was I? Oh, yes. Back to VideoGif.
Want to add pizzazz to your video? Change the colors? Reverse it? Add text to it? No problem! You can make it as wild and crazy as your little heart – and imagination – wants!
Here’s the same little video using the Pop effect. (That is my favorite effect.)
The program has 22 effects like black and white, vintage, antique, tropical, and rinse. Sweet. You can change the saturation, hue, exposure, and contrast. Even more sweetness!
One thing that I really, really like about this program is that you can crop the video. Look at my second GIF. Notice how I’ve cropped out a lot of the background at the top of the original GIF?
Is that hard to do? you ask.
Not at all. Can you click your mouse? Can you click and drag with it? Great! You’ve got all the necessary skill. (See? I told you this was an easy program to use! The hardest part is making a decision on what to do!)
You can trim the time line, adjust colors, and add text. You can reverse the action in the video (which can make for a hilarious GIF). You can preview your work in real time while you’re working on your video. (That is so nice!!) Also, it’s easy to undo changes if you don’t like them.
When you’re satisfied with your creation, simply click a button to create the animation.
This program is for Mac OS X 10.7 or later. You can get it here for $19.90.
I absolutely love this program. I am impressed with how easy it is to use. I’m impressed at how easy it is to apply changes. I’m impressed with how easy it is to create the final animated GIF. In short, I’m amazed – and very pleased – with this program. It’s going to be one that I use often!
I highly recommend it to you. You can have hours of fun using it with — and for — your grandchildren.
