API to create nice slideshow

November 25, 2010 11:34 AM

I have been searching the Internet like crazy trying to find an API or software development tool that would allow me to create nice slideshows, out of a group of photos, from one of my programs.

I have been searching the Internet like crazy trying to find an API or software development tool that would allow me to create nice slideshows, out of a group of photos, from one of my programs. It doesn't need to be as amazing as Animoto however it needs to have some nice transitions or stylize the images in some way. It can't just be image after image (that's easy to do). I've tried services like stupeflix.com, and similar online APIs, however they charge $1.50 to $3.00 per video which is far too expensive. A per video charge is almost completely out of the question unless it's very cheap. It would be great to find something in VB.Net or JAVA however I'll take what I can get. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for considering my question.

posted by JohnGL to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

You could ask this on stack overflow, but really is this really that hard for your to program? You just show one image, then another one.
posted by delmoi at 12:10 PM on November 25, 2010

I'm unclear by what you mean by "create" because I'm unclear how you intend to use this. On a web page? In a kiosk? On your home computer? I'm also unclear how video comes into this.

I have a list of some slideshow scripts here, if that's of any use.

What goal are you actually trying to reach here?
posted by DarlingBri at 1:12 PM on November 25, 2010

I am required by internet law to mention ImageMagick, which you probably already know about, in any thread related to image manipulation. What you might be missing is the fact that it's got a bunch of wrappers for several languages, including .net-friendly solutions. From your tags it looks like you already know about ffmpeg, so I'm guessing between the two it must be possible to come up with an acceptable solution.
posted by Dr Dracator at 3:11 PM on November 25, 2010

You could try using Apache POI to programatically create PowerPoints. Last time I checked, their PowerPoint support was rough around the edges, but it might have the features you need.
posted by asphericalcow at 2:13 AM on November 26, 2010