How to Create a Video from Images using an API?

An effective way to showcase a collection of images is to turn them into a video. It's great for showcasing real estate photos, product pictures, or image compilations. In order to create a video from a series of images, you can use a video creation API. Here is how it is done, using just a single API call:

curl -s -X POST https://api.creatomate.com/v1/renders \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary @- << EOF
{
  "template_id": "58c1163e-f250-49df-b98d-e8c4aad01a2d",

  "modifications": {
    "Image-1": "https://cdn.creatomate.com/demo/living-room.jpg",
    "Image-2": "https://cdn.creatomate.com/demo/bathroom.jpg",
    "Image-3": "https://cdn.creatomate.com/demo/kitchen.jpg"
  }
}
EOF

How it works: Creatomate is an API for rendering data-driven videos. One of its uses is producing videos based on dynamic data. As the API runs in the cloud, there is no need to manage a video processing infrastructure, making it a great solution for adding video creation capabilities to software applications or automated workflows.

In the example above, a dynamic video is created using a collection of images and a video template. The API request is made using cURL, but you can use any programming language (JavaScript, PHP, Python, etc.) or no-code tool (Zapier, Make, Pabbly, etc.) to integrate the API into your workflows.

Here, we are using a template for a real estate video. However, if you would like to create an entirely different image compilation video, you can easily create your own templates using the online video editor. Once your template has been set up, you only need to send a single POST request to generate an MP4 file. This API request allows you to pass a list of images through the "modifications" parameter. As soon as the API has completed rendering the video, it returns the URL where the video can be retrieved.

Although this example only passes a few images to the API, it allows for advanced video creation by passing any custom data to the template. For example, in addition to images, the API also allows you to pass dynamic text captions or different video clips, so you can programmatically produce any type of data-driven video.

To get started, follow this quick tutorial or check out the API documentation.