The MsBehaviour Files: Online Editing Tools

A few years ago an edit suite would be a room full of people, high end hardware and expensive software. These have been replaced by desktop and now online editing tools that run through a web browser. Some online tools can resize an image quicker than you can open a desktop design package, and often for free when traditional vendors are still pricing geographically. It is cheaper to fly from London to New York to buy a box of one new software release, even with dinner and the overnight stay, than it is to buy it in the UK.Digital image manipulation can start with a simple tool like Snipshot, which allows you to do basic functions like crop, rotate and resize any image online. Most images for the web should be under 100 KB and you can also download Snipshot as a Firefox plug-in. I use another plug-in called Fireshot for making and editing quick screen grabs. If you like to send images directly from a mobile then it's possible to do touch-ups with Picnick, which lets you open and edit images on social networking sites. Pixlr is a simple looking tool that uses Flash and is designed for ordinary web users wanting to look good on their online profiles. They say: "Pixlr is built for non-professionals, the users that have basic editing needs. It's not for large Raw images or for printing. It is merely a tool for editing web images to be posted on blogs, news-sites, and social networks."

Probably the best editor we have tested so far is Sumopaint which Chelfyn rates as excellent. Sumo Paint is packed with design features as well as running a Sumo Paint Community, that allows artists to showcase work and vote for their favourites. It is still currently in Beta mode as most web applications are these days, following Google's Mantra of 'Launch Early and Iterate Often'.

If podcasting is more your style then work your way through the 70+ Podcasting Tools at Mashable. They include Odeo which allows you to record audio within your browser, and embed it anywhere online. Similar features for podcasters can be found at PodOmatic, and Clickcaster. The embed features in many of these tools are what allow you to spread your content virally. The best audio formats to use are .mp3 or .ogg if you want a free open source alternative. Ogg sounds better quality, but mp3 is a more standardised and well known format. The bitrate you choose depends on your purpose, but as a guidelines choose higher stereo for music, and lower mono for voice.

Even video files can now be edited online and uploaded to social networks, with a simple publish option offered by most services. To upload at exactly the right settings to get the most out of You Tube, resize your work to 480x360, then use the h.264 codec set to 512Kb/s.
This is currently the highest quality that You Tube uses, so you will see no improvement in quality by uploading a higher resolution or higher bitrate. You can use the free converter SUPER to do this - download from the link at the bottom of this page. Other useful looking tools for audio & media conversion can be found at Audio Converter, Media Convert, and Zamzar provides free online file conversion for documents, images, audio, video and compressed formats.

You Tube currently limits files to under 10 minutes or 1 GB, so you will have to split longer files into 10 minute pods using an online editing tool. Brush Video lets you upload videos up to 100MB, edit, add music, animations, watermarks & text, then export to a You Tube Channel. Jaycut gives you unlimited uploads and allows you to work on mixes of other people's videos, and create movies with your friends. Jumpcut is a similar service that lets you upload, explore, grab, create, remix, publish and share your work with the world.

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As well as being TBI's strategist & columnist, MsBehaviour is Producer & Presenter of the g33k show. She is also Managing Directrix of Mohawk Media, which produces internet TV, 3D Animation & Machinima.

30/10/08