The Animoto API allows users to create promotional videos from their photos in two steps: directing and rendering. Directing analyzes the photos and music to determine the best presentation, creating a storyboard. Rendering transforms the storyboard into an actual video file. Users can direct and render together or separately. The API supports authentication and accessing media over HTTP, with endpoints for directing, rendering, and combined directing/rendering jobs. Workflows include posting manifests to start jobs and retrieving completed videos.

1. Animoto API
Getting Started

2. Conceptual view of Animoto API
• Auto-creating promotional videos or adding customized videos based
users' photos.
• Creating a video using the Animoto API consists of two major steps:
"directing" and "rendering".
• Directing is the process in which the Animoto system analyzes input
visuals and music and determines the best way to present those visuals
with the specified music. The output of directing is stored in the Animoto
system for later use and is called a "storyboard".
• Rendering is the transformation of the artistic choices made by the
director (and stored in a storyboard) into an actual video file that can be
downloaded and viewed.
• Every time a new set of photos is to be transformed into a video, or every
time a new set of artistic choices is to be made, a new storyboard must be
created via directing.

3. Prerequisites
• Authentication
• HTTP-Accessible input media
• Animoto speaks HTTP and REST-
( (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS)

4. Service hosts and endpoints
• /jobs/directing
• /jobs/rendering
• /jobs/directing_and_rendering

5. Example Workflows

6. Combined Directing And Rendering Workflow
• Create a Directing and Rendering Manifest.
• POST the manifest to the Directing and
rendering service
(/jobs/directing_and_rendering) and get
a Directing and Rendering Job.
• Poll the directing and rendering job resource
for completion or wait for an HTTP callback.
• Fetch the linked video resource

7. Separate Directing and Rendering
workflows
• Create a Directing Manifest.
• POST the manifest to the directing service
(/jobs/directing) and get back a Directing Job.
• Wait for the job to complete (poll or use callbacks)
• Create a rendering manifest from the resultant
storyboard and the desired rendering parameters.
• POST the manifest to the rendering service
(/jobs/rendering) and get back a rendering job.
• Wait for the job to complete (poll or use callbacks)
• Fetch the linked video resource

8. Re-Render a video
• Create a rendering manifest with the
storyboard of the existing video and the
desired rendering parameters.
• POST the manifest to the rendering service
(/jobs/rendering) and get back a rendering
job.
• Wait for the job to complete (poll or use
callbacks)
• Fetch the linked video resource

9. Combined Directing and Rendering
workflows

10. Create a Directing and Rendering Manifest

11. Directing & Rendering continued..

12. POST the manifest to the Directing and rendering service
(/jobs/directing_and_rendering) and get a Directing and
Rendering Job

13. Fetch the linked video resource

14. Download rendered Video
• Video resources are the output of the
Animoto renderer.
• Video resources are essentially references to
downloadable video files as well as some
metadata.
• Video resources can be retrieved by GETing a
valid video URL.
• Display the video in our Site.

15. Questions