After getting some great press in Entrepreneur Magazine this month, Animoto’s business is taking off, and taking slideshows past the often-clumsy freebie sites – and yet it still offers such ease of use it’s simply mind-boggling.

Turned on to it by my partner, who had picked up Entrepreneur in an airport bookstore to pass the time and then immediately created a nifty show linked to a Facebook account, I was intrigued.

Created by TV and film producers, Animoto offers all of the slick production values you’re used to seeing in those mediums or created by really talented people using semi-professional software and apps such as SlideshowPro, Slideshow Producer, and the Adobe/Mac products – for FREE, or for really affordable $ if you want all the bells and whistles and ultimate control over the product.

It exports to DVD/CD, is completely automatic (if that’s the option you choose), and no two videos are the same. The software intelligently maps the music you choose and creates unique transitions and elements with the pictures you upload. For commercial users, there’s a large library of royalty-free music and the ability to include text (in sophisticated fashion) over your images, unlimited dvd-quality videos, call to action incorporation, spotlight feature and suppression of some of the Animoto branding. No whitelabel version yet but who knows – just ask.

I’ve purchased the business level version as I want to run shows on my commercial regional portal, www.bigpacific.com.

Here’s my first slideshow, in the freebie version: