Poetry Slideshow using Pixlr Express and Videolicious Free Apps

I'm working on one of my P^3BL sessions this weekend. One possible project from attendees will be a poetry slideshow. I made a very short example with two of my favorite free apps for the classroom: Pixlr Express and Videolicious.

First, here's the example I created. I wrote a simple haiku as a sample. It sums up how I felt as I watched some nice weather go by on spring break while working on this session!

The pictures were edited in Pixlr Express then I used Videolicious to make the slideshow and add narration and music. My wife read the poem.

You can see I added text with Pixlr Express to the first picture. Other than that, I didn't do a lot of editing. The overall look was achieved with the Silk Stylize option. It's in the Adjustments menu (not Effects as you might expect).

Videolicious is a great app that strikes the perfect balance between simplicity and control. It will only make videos that are a minute or less, but for a quick story or a video slideshow like this, it's wonderful. Here's a tutorial I created last year for a different project. It uses a previous version of the app, but the steps are the same.

I refer to an Edit option after selecting the pictures. That allows the user to indicate where the app will zoom on the picture. (Otherwise it just does it randomly from what I can tell.) I don't show how to use the feature in the tutorial, but I did use it on a few pictures when I made the short video.