Mark Vopat, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Youngstown State University, is a technology guru. He is the de factor technology and multimedia person in his department. He runs AcademicMac.com, a blog where he writes about the different ways of using OSX and iOS software in academia. He creates the end-of-the-year video slideshow at his children’s school. And he is an avid FotoMagico user.
“I first heard about FotoMagico on a podcast called MacBreak Weekly,” Mark says. “One of the guests, Scott Bourne, mentioned how great the software was for making professional slideshows. A few years ago, Boinx ran a promotion for a random drawing for a free copy of FotoMagico3. I entered the drawing and a student of mine also entered, via Twitter. It turns out the winner of the drawing received a copy, and so did the person that retweeted an entry. In this case, my student won the drawing and I also received a copy of the software.”
That was when Mark began using FotoMagico regularly, particularly to create the videos for his children’s school. It usually involves incorporating three hundred or more images plus three to four minutes of video and tons of transitions and titles. He then exports the entire project in two to three formats, usually including a DVD, a .MOV or .MP4 and an iPad version.
“There are so many great features about the program,” he says. “It is really well thought out top to bottom. I love how extremely easy it is to rotate, zoom, annotate and animate the photo presentation. The ability to integrate video into a presentation and then export the whole project in multiple formats is also great. I can’t imagine using anything else for my projects.”
Mark also enjoys using iStopMotion in collaboration with his children. Both his son and daughter have made short videos with the program, and Mark plans on integrating iStopMotion into some of the online courses he will be developing over the next year. He has been especially excited to use the program more since Boinx came out with the iStopMotion Remote Camera app.
“I want to try to incorporate both iStopMotion and FotoMagico into my online course development,” Mark says. “I am planning on putting together an online logic course, and I think iStopMotion may allow me to do some creative proof presentations.”
How cool would that be? We think combining iStopMotion and FotoMagico is a great idea. Try using BoinxTV in conjunction with the two to create a wild television broadcast! Check out Mark’s videos above and another one here for some more inspiration!