Barry made us a sweet video of the best moments of our life in 2008.
Wow, it sure brings up some amazing memories… and I end up with tears every time I watch it! Not just for the memories (good and bittersweet, like seeing our wedding, which is one of the happiest days of my life so far, and Mercury, my special cat who is no longer with us)… but also for the fact that I have a man who would make such a beautiful keepsake for us:
As for the tool he used — that you can also use yourself to create something that cool (yes, really, and just using pictures from your hard drive) — it’s called Animoto.
Now, we’ve mentioned a similar tool in the past called OneTrueMedia. Both have free and paid options, and we opted for paid with both because of the premium features.
But while OneTrueMedia lets you add video clips and do more editing (like fading the music in and out around the audio on your own video), only Animoto does these highly professional-looking fades, pans, wipes, zooms, and cool edits so that you can look like an MTV producer even if you know nothing about editing… and all with just your digital photographs.
In fact, Animoto was started by former producers from MTV and ABC.
For more on the technical aspects of using this tool, check out Barry’s comprehensive review on the LWL Worldwide blog (it’s our LWL Tool #8).
As for why you’d want to make this kind of video for yourself (the metaphysical, rather than the physical, side of the story)…
When I was a little girl, I would write in my diary every New Year’s Eve. I would pour out my thoughts and feelings over everything that had happened that year — the good, the bad and the ugly, but I mainly focused on the good.
I talked about the things I’d done, the relationships I’d had, the places I’d been… and I looked forward to how much better things were going to be the next year. I wrote down the places I planned to go, the people I wanted to connect with, the goals I wanted to achieve.
I didn’t know at the time that I was showing gratitude for my life and manifesting what I wanted to experience.
But I did know that I cried a bittersweet mixture of tears for what had been, and that I looked forward to the future with giddy excitement and anticipation.
Barry and I feel it’s important to do the same sort of thing now. At the end of each year we look back over what has happened during that year, and feel grateful for all the amazing moments.
Making a video like this is a perfect way to juice up your manifesting emotions around what you’re grateful for, which in turn helps you attract more to be grateful for.
It’s very gratifying to watch it with your own family, and celebrate the good times together. Appreciate what you had, what you have now, and what you’re going to have.
And then head into the New Year with your head and heart full of possibilities.
You’ve still got a few days left before 2009 arrives, so go ahead and make your own video at Animoto now.
Keep Unwrapping The Mysteries of Life!
