Earlier this year, we covered the launch of Flixtime – an Animoto-like slideshow generation platform developed by Franco-American online stock photo giant Fotolia. When Flixtime first came out, the service naturally seemed basic in comparison to Animoto – which has been in the slideshow space since 2006. However, only a few months into its existence with over 50,000 free videos created on its site, it seems Flixtime is already throwing punches at Animoto with some new features that will go live on the site today.
So, for anyone that’s still in the dark on what exactly the service entails, Flixtime allows users to generate short videos and slideshows from photos. Users can either use photos from Fotolia’s database or upload images of their own. Slideshows can be automatically synchronized with music – either a song of the user’s choice or selected from AudioMicro‘s catalogue. And now with the new additional features, even more personalization options will be available.
Some of the latest additions to Flixtime – 7 of them to be exact – include some rather standard functionalities, like image highlighting, sharing capabilities, video presentation speed control and text integration onto video stills. Oh, and then there’s ulimited copies. However, there is one new feature in particular that definitely makes it seem as though Flixtime is trying to get a leg up on Animoto: voiceover capabilities.
As Animoto’s service is contingent on music, it does not currently support voiceover and thus has been directing users towards Apple’s GarageBand and Audacity. Plus, it seems that a few users have also been after Animoto’s team to integrate this feature as well. Stupeflix, another French start-up in the video and slideshow production space, is also planning to revamp their voiceover offer; plans are to release some new tools to allow users to record their voices directly onto the video presentations shortly.
Still, for some, voiceover may not be crucial and Animoto knows it. Plus, following in the footsteps of Stupeflix, the company opened-up it’s API at SWSX in March – just after launching its iPhone app. Obviously, we can’t ignore that Flixtime has got the power of Fotolia behind it – and these new features will certainly help bring Flixtime’s userbase up to speed with Animoto’s 1.4 million.