Pixorial, Inc. » Tutorials

Creating the perfect gift for Mother’s Day

admin — Wed, 07 May 2014 20:46:21 +0000

Mother’s Day is less than a week away and it’s time to run to the store, pick the perfect card, and put together your Mother’s Day memory video with Pixorial. Make this Mother’s Day extra special with a gift she’s definitely not expecting but surely will appreciate.

If you’ve been following along with our #12DaysofMom hopefully you’ve got an album chock full of awesome videos and photos for Mom. If not, don’t fret, there’s still time and it’s super simple to create and share an album for collecting photos and videos.

Even procrastinators can still jump in and create a video masterpiece for Mother’s Day. We started with this post on how to create and share an album with friends and family. If you’re just now getting started, all you need is an album with a few photos or videos that matter to Mom.

Start with an image or video that will set the scene your video’s storyline. How you organize your video will depend on what memories you’ve collected but check out some favorite ideas:

Most recent to oldest
Oldest to most recent
Focus on vacations you’ve taken through the years
Group photos of the same holiday together, making your way through the calendar
Separate the video by each of Mom’s children or grandchildren

Movie Creator is Pixorial’s free video editing tool that’s easy enough for kids to use. It uses a storyboard format to make organizing a video for Mom simple. Check out this post for an in depth look into using Movie Creator, including how to add your photos and video, put in transitions and overlay one of hundreds of music tracks.

Flashback Friday for Mom

admin — Fri, 02 May 2014 19:48:55 +0000

We’ve all got pictures from our childhood that take us back what feels like a million years to a different time. Why not create a flashback video of those images with your favorite photos and videos from the last few decades? It’s the perfect Mother’s Day gift.

To get started, create an album in Pixorial, share it with your family and friends so they can add their throwback photos of Mom, then use Pixorial to create a lookback video of memories! If you have a digital version you can just drag and drop the file into your Pixorial account uploader. Just follow these easy uploading instructions!

It’s fun to take a stroll down memory lane and collecting those photos and videos can be as easy as an email to a few friends.

We put together some ideas of photos and videos you should be looking for,

Any pictures of Mom as a kid (the older the better)
Her high school graduation
Snapshots of her in the “fun” years (before you!)
Baby pictures of you with her (weren’t you the cutest?!)
That picture from your 5th grade dance recital
Video of her dancing at your wedding (Mom can move!)
The picture of Mom when your kids were born

Check out the types of files you can upload here and check in next week for tips on how to create your album into a memorable video for Mom.

For an extra special touch, download our mobile app for Android and iOS and record a personal message for Mom to start your video. Any video taken in the app is automatically added to your library!

Make Mom’s Day Great

admin — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 20:11:29 +0000

Mother’s Day is coming up quick but Pixorial has your gift covered this year. Mom’s favorite thing is, you guessed it, her KIDS! So why not gather the photos and videos from her favorite memories in a Pixorial album. Follow along with Pixorial and we’ll walk you through creating the perfect keepsake video for Mom with your album that shows her just how much she means to you.

Whether it’s for your wife, dropping hints to your own kids, or a gift for own mom, a video is a thoughtful and simple way to show how much the mom in your life means to you. It takes no time at all and Pixorial will be here to walk you through it. The first step is album creation, to help you out with this we’ve put together our Top 5 Tips to get the photos and videos you want;

Upload easily from your computer, Instagram or Facebook right into your account
Email your sister because while you are taking all the credit, she took some great photos
Get the kids involved! Capture video messages from her favorite grandkids
Send the album invite to other loved ones, they’ll be able to find some great retro photos from when we were all a little younger…
Install the Pixorial mobile app to upload all the photos from your phone to your album

Follow along with us on Twitter up until Mother’s Day, May 11th at @Pixorial and #12DaysofMom for daily updates and rapid fire troubleshooting.

This year, let Pixorial help you out with the gift giving! Check out these links for some more inspiration and tips; we’ll be adding new articles through Mother’s Day.

Look for our blog next week where we’ll explain how to combine all those photos and videos together using our simple video editor to create a production Mom will treasure forever.

Spring is here, it’s time to step up your photo and video game

admin — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 17:12:07 +0000

After the coldest winter there ever was (possible exaggeration) it’s safe to say we are all ready for spring. Spring can also mean a full roster of sports for the kids and all kinds of other outdoor activities. Shooting in direct sunlight outside can be tricky, so check out some of our favorite tips for catching your best springtime photos and videos yet.

Pick the right device If you have to shoot from a distance don’t you dare leave the digital camera at home; your smartphone zoom just can’t compare. If you are in close proximity and your subject isn’t moving, most advanced smartphone cameras will be comparable so feel free to shoot and share right from your phone.

Know where the sun is This one probably seems pretty obvious but if you are planning on recording or photographing an extra special game, think about where the sun will be when the game is being played. Generally, you want the sun behind you to avoid shadows. If you end up with the sun behind your subject, focus on the light source instead and capture silhouette shots, this works best with a digital camera!

Keep it steady A steady hand is pretty tricky to keep while you are cheering at a game or moving at all. Consider using a tripod or a monopod. No need for a huge setup, portable tripods are pretty affordable and can make all the difference (you can even get tripods for your smartphone!)

Use the shade Even cell phone cameras can be manipulated to take better photos simply. By using your hand or a card to shade the lens you will see a huge improvement in the lighting on your subject. This can be especially helpful when you can’t help but shoot into direct sunlight.

It’s a numbers game With today’s digital storage, there is no reason to take just one photo or video. Great group shots can be especially tricky to capture so just keep clicking! There will always be the notoriously bad smile-r in the family so keep clicking and tell your best jokes. You can easily review all the shots later with Pixorial and choose the perfect shot.

With the temperatures finally creeping up over 60 and the sun shining, the time has never been better to capture photos and videos. Once you’ve captured don’t forget to upload to Pixorial for the easiest of sharing.

Sign in here or sign up for your free account here

Also check out Pixorial for Android or iOS for on the go uploads and viewing that is just about as easy as it gets!

Death to Boring Book Reports

admin — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 23:44:30 +0000

Independent reading assignments can be tricky to teach in a fresh new way. A great way to step up boring poster board presentations is to use a video editor like Pixorial to create a book trailer. They are one of our favorite ways we’ve seen teachers in the Pixorial community use Movie Creator. Like movie trailers, book trailers can provide a visual for important settings and prominent themes from novels. Book trailers can also be used later as a great tool for review.

It all starts with a free account; educators are eligible for a free Pro account with 30GB of storage space (which you can find here) while students can use our standard 7GB of storage.

Once an account is set up, create an outline for the trailer. Does it start with a question? Or a powerful visual? Brainstorm how to get the message across clearly. From there, creating a trailer is as easy as adding visuals, text overlay and music.

Students can create their own visuals by capturing photos or videos from smartphones, webcams or digital cameras and uploading that content into their Pixorial Library. Creative commons is an amazing source for ready made visuals be it photo or video. Download what works and upload it into your Pixorial library for editing.

Once we have visuals, insert text and transition effects to set the scene. A simple text overlay can name the main characters, locations and themes, while transitions can indicate a lolling tale or a fast paced mystery.

Last, add one of our 500 free music tracks to set the mood. Is it old school Dickens or a little more modern? We have tracks that range from electronic to mystical. Find out more about Movie Creator features in, How to use Movie Creator: Creating your own video masterpieces!.

Book trailers can be a great way to get students to really dive into literature while getting creative. We also love the idea of our teachers using book trailers to introduce new books to the classroom, with a Pro Educator account you can even add voice overs!

Check out our example: The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath

Import photos and videos from Facebook straight to your Library

admin — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 23:32:08 +0000

In “End the media clutter” we gave you a preview of our expanded universal import capability. So now we thought it would be helpful to walk you through just how easy it is to import all of your media from around the web. With our new web uploader, you can record from your webcam, import photos and videos from your computer and also from a whole slew of other devices, sites, and social networks. Import media from Facebook, Google Drive, Instagram, Gmail, Picasa, Dropbox, and Flickr.

One of our favorite places to upload from is Facebook. When you connect the uploader to your Facebook not only does it pull in photos from your albums, but any photo you are tagged in is also accessible.

After logging into your Library, click Upload Media to launch the web uploader. From this, menu you can choose where to import photos and videos from.

Select Facebook and connect by clicking Connect to Facebook

This will launch Facebook in another tab of your browser, you will be prompted to allow Filepicker.io to recieve access to your Facebook content. Filepicker or Pixorial will never post on your behalf without your permission.

Next, you’ll be asked if Filepicker can post privately to Facebook for you. Select Allow or Skip to continue.

Once you have completed that you will be redirected back to the uploader in the Library which will now be full of you photos!

Select the photos you would like to add to your library, after a bit of processing they will be ready for editing, sorting or resharing. The easiest thing to do once you’ve brought in pictures from multiple places, is to sort them into Albums. All Albums are easily shareable and once you send them to friends they can add their own content!

End the media clutter

admin — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 23:37:38 +0000

As technology slowly (is it really that slow?) takes over our lives, more and more of our memories live online. Is it just us or are they all online but really hard to find?

Photos from that vacation in ‘09 on Flickr, Becca’s birthday party in an album on Facebook, and yesterday’s latte art in Instagram – now there’s a way to see them all together. Let’s stop messing around and do a final round up of your old photos and videos and start using the only hub you’ll need for your media from here on out.

With Pixorial you can pull in photos and videos from sites like Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Google Drive, or Dropbox and create shareable Albums to post on Facebook, Twitter or anywhere a URL fits.

That’s not the end of it either. Tag your photos and videos with titles, dates, and places to make all your media searchable. Create a collection of your favorite moments of your ski trips to Colorado or a whole Album of everything that happened last summer. Stop searching through mysteriously labeled hard drive files and securely store everything in Pixorial.

Add some fun to your pictures with the Pixorial iPhone app!

Jim St. Marie — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 02:21:47 +0000

We understand that everyone likes to have a little fun with their photos. So when we designed our photo capabilities we wanted to make sure there was an easy and fun way for you to do advanced photo editing. That’s where our partnership with Aviary comes in.

Pixorial and Aviary have partnered together to give you the best photo editing experience in the industry and to make photo sharing even better. In the Pixorial Photo & Video Sharing iOS app you can edit photos by uploading from your camera roll, selecting a photo from your library, or taking a photo straight from the app. We’ll walk you through that last one below!

1. Start by capturing a new image; open the camera by tapping the icon in the bottom bar. Make sure your camera is in photo and not video mode and click away!

2. Before saving your image tap “Edit” in the top right corner, choose the image size you would like to edit, and then you’ll be in the Photo Editor.

3. In the Photo Editor, add frames, filters and stickers, and edit size, contrast, orientation and more. To undo all edits and start over, hold your finger on the photo, then select “restore original” on the top bar, but who would want to undo this…

4. Once you’ve made all your edits, tap “Done” – now choose where to save and share your photo. Upload to an Album for the easiest of photo sharing.

5. To share your new photo tap the share icon below your photo to open the share menu.

6. Choose where to share. You can connect Facebook and Twitter for the easiest of sharing!

7. Repeat as comedically necessary. Did we mention you can make memes?

Pro Tip:
When viewing your library on mobile, use our pinch function to view more or less thumbnails:

Pinching in on the screen will zoom out and let you view as many as 20 smaller-sized thumbnails at a time.
Pinching out will zoom in and let you view 6 larger-sized thumbnails.

What does spicy bean dip have to do with video sharing?

admin — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 22:06:47 +0000

At the risk of making you hungry, visualize the following scenario:

You arrive at a friend’s BBQ, and are immediately greeted by a massive spread of food. It’s all there: the grilled meat, chips, four varieties of nicely chilled beer, desserts – the works. You have your own addition as well: some spicy bean dip for guests to munch on. You’re a picky eater, but there’s plenty here to choose from. Time to chow down.

Such is the beauty of the typical potluck. When everyone brings something to the table, there’s more variety and everyone comes away happy.

Now…take this familiar concept, apply it to video, and you’ve got a album .

An album is a collection of videos that you can share anywhere. That can help you save time and hassle when you want to share multiple videos at once – for example, a collection of clips from that weekend BBQ.

But here’s where it gets really cool. An album can also have multiple collaborators. Just like a potluck, everyone can contribute. You can pick and choose the best of the bunch, create a video showing the best parts, and share it with anyone. Your friends and family can do the same.

This video smorgasbord gives you the power of instant collaboration. The possibilities are endless. Cobble together a best-of from a family outing, concert, or even that BBQ.

So how do you create a album?

Well, there are two ways, depending on whether you’re on your laptop/desktop, or your smartphone.

Using MyHub, our online video platform:

First, login. Find the albums tab on the left of your screen. Under that tab select “Add album.” Name it, describe it and fill ‘er up!

On our Pixorial mobile app.

First install the app on iOS or Android. Then open the Pixorial app, and click the plus sign (+) in the top-right corner on iPhone or choose ‘Add album’ in the Android menu. You’ll be prompted to “Create a New Album” and select whether your album will be public or private. Enter a name and description for your album – and that’s it!

Once you have a album filled with videos, you can take those clips and put them together using Movie Creator – our free online video editing tool. Or just share that collection of videos to family and friends, via social networks or with a shareable URL. Super-easy. (Chips not included.)

Drive + Pixorial: Save time, hassle, and space

admin — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 18:24:37 +0000

Are you a Google Drive user? Do you have video in your Drive account? If you’re nodding your head, we’ve got the perfect way to share or even transform those videos in just a few clicks. It’ll save you time and hassle, and free up valuable space in your Drive account.

Simply follow these steps to share and edit your videos straight from Drive:

Login to MyHub. Select “Google Drive” in the Manage Cloud Services menu, and click “Connect Google.”
Links to your Drive videos will start appearing in MyHub with a Google Drive logo over the thumbnail.
Select any video and hit the green button that says “Add Video to Pixorial.” After a short bit of processing your video will be raring to go!
Now you’ll want to share video. Either create a new Album or add it to your favorite Album, and invite others to join.
To edit a video, select it and hit “Create Movie”.

Bonus Tip: Want to free up space in Drive? After you’ve completed the first three steps and added your videos to Pixorial’s secure cloud, you can safely delete them from your Drive account (don’t worry, you can move it back to Google Drive at any time).