In 2006, a group of four Bellevue High graduates teamed up to develop a web application that could do video editing at the click of a button.

Now the group has secured millions of dollars in venture capital to take the concept mainstream.

Their product is called Animoto, and its aim is to spice up slideshows without users having to develop editing skills. They simply upload images and music, and the application syncs it all up.

“We like to think of it as short-form documentaries or digital storytelling,” said Animoto co-founder Brad Jefferson.

The program netted a pair of 2009 Webby Awards – generally recognized as the Internet’s highest distinction – for best services and applications in both the judges’-choice and people’s-voice categories.

It also grabbed the attention of some major investors. Animoto this month reported $4.4 million in funding from investors, led by Madrona Venture – the group that helped bankroll online enterprises like Amazon.com and Classmates.com.

Animoto.com now has about 750,000 registered users, with around 10 percent paying for premium services. There is also an Animoto Facebook application with 2 million registered users, and an iPhone application with 300,000 users.

“We’ve proven the business model, and now we want to take it big,” Jefferson said.

Animoto is an application that combines the skills and backgrounds of its founders.

Stevie Clifton used to animate stills for the ABC documentary group; Jason Hsiao did production work for MTV, VH1, and Comedy Central; Tom Clifton earned a masters degree in music from a Kings College in London; and Jefferson worked at Onyx Software in a sort of apprenticeship with the company’s founder and CEO, Brent Frye.

Each of the creators played a different role in developing Animoto, with Tom sharing his knowledge of music theory while the self-described computer nerds wrote algorithms to match beats and tempos with downloaded images.

Jefferson added the charisma and start-up savvy.

“It’s been fun to put our careers and backgrounds to use,” he said.

The Animoto creators have some new ideas in mind for their product. One is to program the application to study the mood of an image to determine what type of music to play – sort of like artificial intelligence.

Jefferson insists that Animoto isn’t trying to take the fun out of video editing – at least not for those who like doing that sort of thing.

“Most people aren’t interested in rolling up their sleeves and going through the whole editing process,” he said. “Ninety-nine percent just want the final product, and they don’t care how it gets done.”