I started by searching Creative Commons for an image to use. This was a good way for me to find something generic to animate. In the future, I would probably use photos of students whose parents have given photo permission to the school. I think it would be a lot of fun to let my students animate themselves some day!
Once you have a photo or drawing you wish to animate, it is easy to upload the image to the Blabberize website. You are given an opportunity to crop the uploaded image if you choose, and then the website walks you step-by-step through the animation process. It's really user-friendly.
First you get to choose the location and shape of the "mouth" that will eventually be animated on the photo. Actually, it does not have to be a mouth. I saw one example that animated Garfield's belly and recorded a hungry rumbling sound!
Next you are given a choice of ways to include sound. I found it easiest just to record from the microphone on my computer. You can record as many takes as you need to get it the way you want it. Then you can preview and save your creation. Once your creation is saved, you're given a URL you can share and an embed code you can use to put your creation on your website.
For some reason, I can embed my creation on my Weebly website, but I can't get it to show up on my blog because of some kind of fight between HTTP and HTTPS that I don't understand. If you'd like to see my example, please click on this link: http://blabberize.com/view/id/1500811
My talking eagle was just a bit of fun that allowed me to try out the tool. In the future, I think I would have my students take pictures of themselves and use Blabberize to animate themselves sharing a lesson or strategy they have learned during their social work time.
Glad you enjoyed the tool. I look forward to hearing when you use this with kids!
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