Noobie AMV pitfalls - advice from the veterans?

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Noobie AMV pitfalls - advice from the veterans?

Postby 808-buma » Sat May 07, 2005 1:37 pm

Hello all,
well, of course being a noobie at AMV's, I've read a lot of the technical 'how to' files here on a-m-v.org and want to thank the authors for their work. Without them, a lot of us would be completely lost in a sea of video files and strange programs without any ideas of how to use them.

But this post isn't your typical 'how do you make an AMV', but rather, what do the more veteran members think are common mistakes, pitfalls, cliches, faux pas, etc that you see in first-time AMV's? What makes you eyes :roll: when you see it, or ask yourself "oh crap, not another [fill in the blank] again...<delete file>"

How about technical aspect mistakes?

Basically, looking for ways to not make my first AMV look like a first AMV...

and thanks in advance
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Postby AquaSky » Sat May 07, 2005 2:10 pm

A few of the mistakes I've seen in first videos :
- Subtitles. Using downloaded footage in itself is a no-no, but even moreso if you leave the subtitles in. That's just lazy.
- DivX logo (or fansub group/GameSpot logos). If you follow the compression guide, you should be DivX logo-free. As in the above case, if you're using downloaded footage and it's got a logo, crop it out or use LogoAway.
- Lip flap. Unless you're lip-syncing, having mouths moving is distracting from your video.
- Rough or no deinterlacing/IVTC. Some scripts work better than others, so it's important to experiment to find which gives you the best results.
- Off timing. Pay careful attention to the beats and be consistent.

Those are the most prevalent ones I've come across, anyhow.
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Postby Scintilla » Sat May 07, 2005 2:40 pm

Make sure to compress your audio.
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Postby CHAMELEON_D_H » Sat May 07, 2005 2:42 pm

bad quality.... it might sound weird, but some AMV's have worst quality than digi-fansubs.... even for a n00b following the guides, DVD quality can be achived.....
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Postby godix » Sat May 07, 2005 3:02 pm

One mistake I've noticed from time to time, someone reads all the technical guides and software help forums and actually pays attention to what they read so their quality is actually decent. Unfortunately are so god awful annoying the video is unwatchable because they haven't yet learned why you shouldn't do a pure white flash every single drum beat of the entire freaking song. If you've digested all the 'how-to' guides around start asking yourself the 'ok, now why do it?' before throwing around effects.
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Postby dokool » Sat May 07, 2005 3:22 pm

http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=41561

Watch this video. It covers everything.
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Postby bum » Sat May 07, 2005 7:38 pm

listen to dokool. He's a wise person who denies that his trip to japan had anything to do with the amount of asian schoolgirls their.
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Postby jasper-isis » Sat May 07, 2005 8:00 pm

Empty black bars (borders) and noisy edges. Especially the latter. Crop them out for online distro, please.

And I agree with VegettoEX's video, especially that bit about the orphan frames.
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Postby dokool » Sat May 07, 2005 8:46 pm

bum wrote:listen to dokool. He's a wise person who denies that his trip to japan had anything to do with the amount of asian schoolgirls their.


I've never even been accused of that connection, how could I deny it ;-)

Besides, they all have chlamydia...
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Postby megaman917 » Sat May 07, 2005 8:51 pm

One major pitfall is when the song you use doesn't relate to the anime used in the video in any way.

Keep in mind: Even if you follow all of the guides and everyone's advice, it doesn't necessarily mean that your videos will be good. And even if you don't follow the guides and everyone's advice, it doesn't necessarily mean that your videos will be bad. Always keep in mind what you want you want your video to look like, always try to show originality, and avoid using the over used.
"If you're not cheating, you're not trying!" - R.I.P. Eddie Guerrero (1967 - 2005)
Through tragedy, she found triumph. R.I.P. Coretta Scott King (1927 - 2006)
Long live the "King of Pop"! R.I.P. Michael Jackson (1958 - 2009)
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Postby BishounenStalker » Sat May 07, 2005 9:36 pm

The #1 pitfall of every bad AMV has more to do with concept than anything. Overusing song/anime combinations and doing nothing to distinguish your AMV from the other 9,000-odd ones like it is the biggest. Generally, people get sick of seeing the same thing over and over again.

But other pitfalls include editing and technical aspects, such as:

- Total lack of beat-matching. If your song has a solid beat, it's important to pay attention to it and try to time your scene changes or action sequences (such as fight scenes) with prominent drum beats. How you decide to do that is up in the air. Some do it by action alone, some use white flashes, some use strobing...whatever works for that particular AMV.

- Total lack of lyric matching. Please, for the love of puppies, there should be at least some correllation between the lyrics of the song and what's happening on the screen. It doesn't have to be literal, but it should be there.

- As someone already said, subtitles are one of the most common technical slip-ups. As a rule of thumb, fansubs = baaaaaaaaad. But sometimes, you don't have a choice but to use fansubs because domestic DVDs either haven't been released yet (such as One Piece), or the release has just started, and episodes are in very short supply (like Fullmetal Alchemist). Using fansubs comes with some extra work in the cropping department; if you're going to flout ethics for whatever reason, keep it under the rug. Crop your subtitles, please!

- For the love of kittens, deinterlace/IVTC your AMV. Before or after editing, nobody cares as long as it's done. Those Scanlines of DOOM are incredibly distracting.

That's all the major screw-ups I can think of right now. I know there are more, but I'm pretty sure that covers a lot of the more annoying don'ts.
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Postby BasharOfTheAges » Sat May 07, 2005 9:38 pm

dokool wrote:
bum wrote:listen to dokool. He's a wise person who denies that his trip to japan had anything to do with the amount of asian schoolgirls their.


I've never even been accused of that connection, how could I deny it ;-)

Besides, they all have chlamydia...


I wish i kept the chat log from the first time i spoke to you on AIM... it went something like:

Bashar > "So what's Japan Like?"
Dokool > "The schoolgirls are real!"
Another Anime Convention AMV Contest Coordinator 2008-2014 & Head of the AAC Fan-works Theater - follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/AACFanTheater
:sorcerer: :sorcerer: |RD: "Oh, Action!" (side-by-side) | |
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Postby downwithpants » Sat May 07, 2005 9:56 pm

http://www.animemusicvideos.org/phpBB/v ... php?t=2163
basically

don't stress out trying to perfect your first video though. there's a lot you will learn only after producing it. instead, have fun making it otherwise you might never enjoy the hobby. people will understand it's your first so don't worry about the gory details.
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Postby megaman917 » Sat May 07, 2005 10:12 pm

downwithpants wrote:http://www.animemusicvideos.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=2163
basically

don't stress out trying to perfect your first video though. there's a lot you will learn only after producing it. instead, have fun making it otherwise you might never enjoy the hobby. people will understand it's your first so don't worry about the gory details.


x2. What he said.

For many of us, progress is a slow process. And for many of us, new or veteran, it's all Trial & Error. So, always try to improve yourself with each video.
"If you're not cheating, you're not trying!" - R.I.P. Eddie Guerrero (1967 - 2005)
Through tragedy, she found triumph. R.I.P. Coretta Scott King (1927 - 2006)
Long live the "King of Pop"! R.I.P. Michael Jackson (1958 - 2009)
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Postby 808-buma » Sun May 08, 2005 12:11 am

dokool wrote:http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=41561
Watch this video. It covers everything.

buahahaha - just what I needed - visuals on what not to do visually! Loved this AMV (or what not to do in an AMV). Thanks so much for the vid as it will help a lot.

BishounenStalker wrote:Overusing song/anime combinations and doing nothing to distinguish your AMV from the other 9,000-odd ones like it is the biggest.

okay, so, no Linkin Park / DBZ vids for me then :D Gottcha! I think I've picked a not so used artist as well as a not very much heard song too, but am using Ghost in the Shell, which does seem at least a bit popular. Hopefully I can do it justice.

megaman917 wrote:One major pitfall is when the song you use doesn't relate to the anime used in the video in any way.

I think I've got this covered too - don't want to mention the song yet, so hopefully my judgement is good in this department.

and yes, I realize that most first-time AMV's will suck big time, but I just don't want mine to suck too much. Thanks for all the advice - and keep them coming! Us noobies need to know this!
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