Motion Maker: promo videos and email GIFs from your photos

The middle of the page is the stage: a dark preview that plays your animation as you build it (before you add photos it plays a short Example in the size and style you've picked, with the templates on top), with its pixel size in the top corner, Play or Pause, a scrubber to move through it, the time, and Sound on or off once music is chosen. Space also plays and pauses when you aren't typing in a box. Under the stage, a summary line shows how many clips, how many seconds, the transition, the music, and the template, then the timeline of your clips and the template picker.

On a wide screen the Photos panel sits on the left and the Edit, Music, and Export tabs on the right. On a laptop the Photos, Edit, Music, and Export tabs share the right side. On a phone the stage is on top, the four tabs sit under it, and one panel shows at a time. The tab you're on is in the page address (?tab=), and an open saved animation is too (?project=), so a link brings someone to the same place.

Five templates start you off: Product spotlight (square post), Sale or offer (story or reel, 9:16), Email banner (GIF, 600×400), Social banner (1200×628 link post), and New arrival (feed post, 4:5). A template sets the size, the transition, the type style, the look of new words, an aiKit Original track starting at its full section, and how long each clip lasts in beats of that track. It keeps the photos already on the timeline and re-times them. You can change any setting afterwards. With nothing on the timeline the templates show on the stage itself; once you have clips they sit under the timeline, and in the Edit tab's Template list.

The Photos panel is your Graphics Library: search, then narrow by Category and Tag (each with how many graphics it holds), Source (uploaded, made with AI, or made in an aiKit tool), and Client or Collection when you have them. Quick chips show your four biggest categories plus Favorites and Best rated in one click, and Videos too includes video clips (marked VIDEO). Click a picture to add it to the end of the timeline; a check shows on pictures already used. More load as you scroll, or press Load more.

Upload photos (the first tile) takes JPG, PNG, WebP, or GIF files from your computer, saves them into your Graphics Library under the folder Motion Maker uploads, and adds them to the timeline, so they're there for the next animation too. Add videos in the Graphics Library first, then pick them here. One animation holds up to 40 photos or clips; the count shows above the grid.

Each clip is a card with its number, its length in seconds (0.3 to 15), and with cut on the beat, its length in beats. Drag a card to move it (on a phone, press and hold, then drag), or use its arrow buttons; the × removes it. A T on the card means it has words. Click a card's picture to open it in the Edit tab. Use this length for all gives every clip the selected clip's length.

• Framing: Fill frame covers the whole frame (the edges of the photo may be cut); Fit whole photo shows all of it, with Soft blur (a blurred, darkened copy of the same photo), White, Black, or your Brand color around it.
• Zoom (1 to 3 times) and Move the photo on the stage: while it's on, the stage holds still on that clip and you drag the photo into place. Press Done moving when it looks right.
• Words on this clip: up to 80 characters, shown on up to two lines (aiKit balances the lines so one word never hangs alone; a line break you type is kept). Then Position (top, middle, bottom), Size (S, M, L), Color (white, black, or your brand color), Behind it (Shade, a soft dark fade on that edge of the frame plus a shadow; a Dark pill; a Light pill; or a Brand pill in your brand color), and Comes in (Still, Fade, Slide up, or Pop, over the clip's first 0.6 seconds). Words come in once the cut has landed and leave just before the next transition, so they never drift into the next photo. Long words shrink to fit so nothing runs off the edge. Remove the words clears them.

• Size: square post 1080×1080, feed post 4:5 1080×1350, story or reel 9:16 1080×1920, social banner 1200×628, video 16:9 1920×1080, email banners 600×400, 600×441, 600×338, email square 600×600, or Custom size (100 to 2000 pixels each way). The stage changes shape to match.
• Between clips: Cut, Crossfade, Slide, or Zoom. Transitions ease in and out. On the stage the animation loops; an exported video ends on its last clip (or the end card), and a GIF ends on its last frame and starts again on a complete still.
• Gentle motion on photos: a slow push in on one photo and out on the next. Videos play as they are.
• Type style: Modern (Inter, bold), Classic (a display serif), or Heavy (bold capitals), for all the words in the animation. Brand color starts from your team's brand kit (saved in Logo Kit) when you have one, otherwise a warm copper; your kit's colors show as swatches beside it, and the color you pick is remembered in your browser for next time.
• Write captions in my Brand Voice: type what the promo is about (for example the product, the offer, and the hours), press Write captions, and aiKit writes one short caption per clip in your saved Brand Voice, in positive words, using only your facts. Every line shows in a box you can change before you press Put these on my clips; nothing goes on until you do. With no Brand Voice saved yet it still writes them, in a warm, plain tone, and says so with a link to set one up. This is an AI action, logged like other Brand Voice actions.
• End card: Finish on a closing card shows, after the last clip, the last photo softened and darkened with your logo (the one picked under Logo watermark), a Headline, and one Call to action in a brand-colored pill, each easing in, for about two seconds (whole beats with cut on the beat). Templates turn it on and suggest the two lines; it appears once a headline, a call to action, or a logo is set. The watermark isn't repeated on the card. In a GIF the card's photo stays sharp and darker and its words fade in place, so it stays crisp in a GIF's limited colors. When a card is set, it is also the picture shown for the file in your Graphics Library.
• Logo watermark: Show my logo on every frame opens a picker of your Graphics Library filtered to logos (All images shows every picture). Then pick the corner, size (S, M, L), and opacity. The same logo heads the end card.

The Music tab lists six aiKit Originals: Bright Morning (upbeat), Easy Sunday (chill), Big Reveal (cinematic), Clean Studio (corporate), Night Drive (synth), and Bounce (dance), each with its mood, tempo, and length, plus No music. aiKit composes and plays these itself in your browser; no recording made by anyone else is used. That's why each one says free to use anywhere: you can put them in ads, posts, and client work with no licence fee and no credit line. The ▶ button plays about 12 seconds from the middle of the track.

For the chosen track, How it plays shows its waveform with the part your animation uses lit up. Starts at moves that part; Find the best spot picks the liveliest stretch as long as your animation, starting on a bar. Fade in and Fade out (half a second each) and Volume shape it. Music plays on the stage while you preview, and goes into the MP4 and WebM files; GIFs have no sound.

Cut on the beat (on by default) rounds every clip's length to whole beats of the track (at least two beats), so each change lands on the music. Turn it off to use exact seconds.

• Preview full size opens the animation large, with play, pause and the scrubber. Back to edit returns with everything as it was; Export and save takes you to the Export tab.
• Video (MP4, H.264 with AAC music) plays everywhere. Video (WebM, VP9 with Opus music) is for websites. aiKit draws every frame at exactly 30 frames a second and encodes it in your browser, so motion is smooth whatever else the computer is doing, and the file carries its length so players can seek; it usually takes less time than the video lasts. In a browser without these encoders, aiKit records the animation as it plays instead (the button then says records in real time). Keep the tab open until it finishes.
• GIF is for email: no sound, up to the first 10 seconds (aiKit asks first if your animation is longer). The first frame is a complete still with the first words fully in, because some email apps (Outlook on Windows) show only the first frame. To keep the file small, photos hold still between quick transitions and each frame stores only what changed.
• A progress bar shows each step, with Stop. The result plays in the panel with its size and length; a GIF also gets email advice (a good size under 1.5 MB, heavy over 1.5 MB, too big over 2.5 MB). Download saves the file.

Under the result: Title and Alt text (both needed; both start filled in from your clips), Categories (pick from your library's or type a new one), Tags (type to see matching tags, press Enter to add; Related shows tags that often sit beside the first one; animated clip is always added), Collections (pick one or type a new name; it's made for you), and Client when you have clients. Save to Graphics Library uploads the file with a poster picture from the animation, and then shows Open it in the Graphics Library (a link straight to the saved graphic), Keep editing, and Start over. Files over 25 MB, the library's limit, need a smaller size or a shorter animation first.

Save for later keeps the whole animation (clips, words, framing, size, music, and settings) under a name, for your team; it is not a finished file. Saving again updates the same one. Saved animations lists the newest 50 with a picture, the number of clips, the length, and the date, with a search box, Open, Duplicate (a copy named “(copy)”), and Delete (asks first). Your browser also keeps a draft every 8 seconds: open Motion Maker again and it offers Resume. Start over clears the timeline after asking; a saved animation stays saved.