The Quickening - Videos

[MasterZero8]

Ahhhhh, Melee dropped?
Darn and I was hoping he would make it far.
Well I'm sure he had his reasons.

And awesome work to everyone else in Group B, those are some great vids.

[xDreww]

Lopez for the win!! That is all.

Just saw your vid, and it's aweshum

Who mines? I haven't started yet.

[Kinematics]

Round 2B

Ahh.. disappointed that there wasn't an Amagami video in this set. Le sigh. Oh well.


[Centurione] Replayed Love!

Scenes were a bit haphazard, but in a good way. Important lyrics were matched well, while the repeating chorus flowed nicely through the few series used, without lingering on anything too long.

Video designs of the various series didn't clash, so didn't feel disruptive.

Transition movement (general feel of motion moving from one clip to the next) was a bit chaotic, and needed more work.

General sync often felt 'off', but not really 'wrong'. Deliberate non-sync?


[Kairih] Stuck In Replay

This one built off a single series (Toradora) that was also used in "Replayed Love!", however doing so made it feel more constrained, as it had to stretch further to keep the dynamic going. The song is repetitive enough as it is, so keeping focused on a single series hurts it here.

Echoed images on the beats (eg: 0:20) didn't work well (at least for the first few instances); low opacity and fast cuts while also being away from the central focus element of each scene made it almost impossible to see anything other than, "Something moved." The ones at ~0:50 and ~1:13 did much better (on the technical side), though the actual scenes used didn't seem to help contribute much.

Didn't do very well in matching the non-repetitive lyrics. Seemed to be too much focus on violent aspects of Taiga's personality at the start, that just didn't really mesh well with the flow of the song.

The playback control overlay near the end was amusing, but also cheesy. Aside from that, most of the effects used in the last ~30 seconds of the video seemed to work really well for it, and probably would have helped the earlier portions of the video. The colored rings at ~1:43 had too many full-saturation colors, though, and would also have been better if it weren't one of what felt like several random one-off effects scattered throughout the video.

Overall weakness was that a large portion of the video selections just didn't feel like they 'belonged' with the song.


[NxxS] I love Replay

Same issue about using a single series as "Stuck In Replay" had.

Zoom-out cuts got verrrry aggravating very quickly. It synced well, but the motion effect of the video constantly pulling away from me just got on my nerves. Will give credit for picking an effect and using it consistently, but...

Some video encoding nastiness around 1:02, and noticeable artifacting in several other places. Likely an effect of using a constant bitrate mode encode.

Overall feel was that there was almost no relation between the song and the video; it was just a shortened version of the film serialized for the song, with some effects thrown in.



Top pick:
Replayed Love!

Runner up:
Stuck in Replay

[GuntherAMVs]

*sails in on airship*

LOPEZ! Wherever you are, I know I'm kind of late, but I loved your Round 2 vid~! Best of luck, sir~! *salute*

*flies off into far reaches of the sky*

[LopezAMV]

The first RAR of R2 videos is up!

GJ Lopez, your vid is the best one for this round imho

Thanks!

Lopez for the win!! That is all.

Lol, thanks for the support

Lopez for the win!! That is all.

Just saw your vid, and it's aweshum

Drew's vid is the best one so far.

Round 2A

[LopezAMV] And Then I Said 'Meow Meow Meow Meow'

Pure action, no story.

Seemed to focus too much on Bakemonogatari for the intro section. Given the vast number of source animes, it seemed to linger there longer than it should have, compared to the rest of the video.

Transitions were done well, for the most part; constantly kept up with the pace of the audio. Somewhat weak when revving back up around 0:55; pace was good, but selected cuts just didn't seem to work. Segment from 1:30+, though, was *very* well done.

I've really enjoyed reading your comments since this thing started and this is no exception. To be honest I'm a little surprised, I expected you to tear it up a little bit more lol.Figured it just means that I'm doing things right (for the most part) =P

*sails in on airship*

LOPEZ! Wherever you are, I know I'm kind of late, but I loved your Round 2 vid~! Best of luck, sir~! *salute*

*flies off into far reaches of the sky*

Is Cid piloting that airship?
Glad you like it =) and thanks for the words of encouragement.

[Kimberly]

Lopez for the win!! That is all.

Just saw your vid, and it's aweshum

Who mines? I haven't started yet.

No I was quoting your thing because I agree with it. Hahah, my reply was to Lopez. My bad!

[TwilightChrono]

Awesome Vid Lopez. Just got around to watching mah competitors videos.

Good Stuff

[Kinematics]

I've really enjoyed reading your comments since this thing started and this is no exception. To be honest I'm a little surprised, I expected you to tear it up a little bit more lol.Figured it just means that I'm doing things right (for the most part) =P

Well, if you realllllly want a more comprehensive critique....

@[LopezAMV] And Then I Said 'Meow Meow Meow Meow'

Spoiler :

General:

0:01 - lip flap needs cleaning up
0:06 - I assume the digital squaring effect is part of the anime? (I still need to get back around to watching SAC..) Anyway, if not, it should have been used as more than a one-off effect; if so, it probably should have been avoided since it's so noticeably distinct, and never used again.
0:08-0:12 - To go with the lyrics, probably should have used Nadeko shots for that whole sequence (tons of options could have been clipped from her room), and then cut to the next bit a little sooner
0:10 - not sure what the curtain is from; could see it as a transition device linked to the girls' skirts, but didn't really fit
0:33 - slow shot of the lance going past Saber: beautiful
0:36 - lost sync with the beat; needs more twitch >.>
0:37-0:41 - not bad, exactly, but felt like the video slowed down, lagging behind the audio (in a thematic, not technical, way)
0:54-0:58 - the boy dissolving into paper fit well, but the rest of the cuts just didn't quite work; didn't mix well
0:58-0:60 - slowly accelerating plane is slow
1:05-1:08 - running through the woods betwixt the planes felt off
1:12 - two consecutive shots of the same plane in the same basic movement
1:45 - The few frames of the girl with the giant finger having the finger extend probably didn't need to be there; you had a lot of wall-crashing clips before the cliff fall, the finger doesn't really fit in between
1:52-1:53 - Batou boxing; sadly, feels too low-key for this video, especially with the sudden impact punch in the next clip; feels like a little kid showing up a pro boxer

Direction: Very good. Most action flowed very smoothly from one clip to the next in one continuous motion (Nostromo is a master at this). Points where it felt slightly disjointed:

0:06 - going from Koyomi to the Major, change in focus from behind-right of viewer to directly ahead
0:08 - going from the Major to Tsubasa, focus shifts from character on the right side of the screen to the left, both facing the same way, so felt like a sudden skip instead of a reversal
0:11 - Nadeko's skirt spins one direction, then we cut to her turning in the opposite direction
0:39 - minor: the reversal of the rotation around Ed felt slightly off
1:09 - while I did say the running in the woods felt off, it did provide a means of changing the direction of the motion for the next plane scene, so good on that
1:37 - Saber's armor transformation; it definitely fit as a strong impact point to match the beat, but it occurred right after she was running at Lancer; slight discontinuity
1:47 - Saber's downward slash after the pan shots around her puts her head much higher in the frame than the previous shots, so feels a bit disjointed
2:02 - while the plane flying into the sun was a nice ending note, having it occur immediately after Mami's flintlocks fired felt wrong.

Anyway, I try to avoid getting too nitpicky on most videos, but if they're getting up into the "very good" levels regardless, I suppose more specific critiques are more useful for the editor.

[LopezAMV]

I've really enjoyed reading your comments since this thing started and this is no exception. To be honest I'm a little surprised, I expected you to tear it up a little bit more lol.Figured it just means that I'm doing things right (for the most part) =P

Well, if you realllllly want a more comprehensive critique....

@[LopezAMV] And Then I Said 'Meow Meow Meow Meow'

Spoiler :

General:

0:01 - lip flap needs cleaning up
0:06 - I assume the digital squaring effect is part of the anime? (I still need to get back around to watching SAC..) Anyway, if not, it should have been used as more than a one-off effect; if so, it probably should have been avoided since it's so noticeably distinct, and never used again.
0:08-0:12 - To go with the lyrics, probably should have used Nadeko shots for that whole sequence (tons of options could have been clipped from her room), and then cut to the next bit a little sooner
0:10 - not sure what the curtain is from; could see it as a transition device linked to the girls' skirts, but didn't really fit
0:33 - slow shot of the lance going past Saber: beautiful
0:36 - lost sync with the beat; needs more twitch >.>
0:37-0:41 - not bad, exactly, but felt like the video slowed down, lagging behind the audio (in a thematic, not technical, way)
0:54-0:58 - the boy dissolving into paper fit well, but the rest of the cuts just didn't quite work; didn't mix well
0:58-0:60 - slowly accelerating plane is slow
1:05-1:08 - running through the woods betwixt the planes felt off
1:12 - two consecutive shots of the same plane in the same basic movement
1:45 - The few frames of the girl with the giant finger having the finger extend probably didn't need to be there; you had a lot of wall-crashing clips before the cliff fall, the finger doesn't really fit in between
1:52-1:53 - Batou boxing; sadly, feels too low-key for this video, especially with the sudden impact punch in the next clip; feels like a little kid showing up a pro boxer

Direction: Very good. Most action flowed very smoothly from one clip to the next in one continuous motion (Nostromo is a master at this). Points where it felt slightly disjointed:

0:06 - going from Koyomi to the Major, change in focus from behind-right of viewer to directly ahead
0:08 - going from the Major to Tsubasa, focus shifts from character on the right side of the screen to the left, both facing the same way, so felt like a sudden skip instead of a reversal
0:11 - Nadeko's skirt spins one direction, then we cut to her turning in the opposite direction
0:39 - minor: the reversal of the rotation around Ed felt slightly off
1:09 - while I did say the running in the woods felt off, it did provide a means of changing the direction of the motion for the next plane scene, so good on that
1:37 - Saber's armor transformation; it definitely fit as a strong impact point to match the beat, but it occurred right after she was running at Lancer; slight discontinuity
1:47 - Saber's downward slash after the pan shots around her puts her head much higher in the frame than the previous shots, so feels a bit disjointed
2:02 - while the plane flying into the sun was a nice ending note, having it occur immediately after Mami's flintlocks fired felt wrong.

Anyway, I try to avoid getting too nitpicky on most videos, but if they're getting up into the "very good" levels regardless, I suppose more specific critiques are more useful for the editor.

Now that's what I'm talking about.
You've got a great eye for detail I agree with you almost completely :3.

[Otohiko]

Awesome commentary there

Sorry I haven't been posting my judge comments - I have most of them, but they need some organizing and additions. I've unfortunately been really busy, among other things with judging another (very large) AMV contest and preparing to help run an all-weekend AMV room for a con this week. On the other hand, many of you have already made awesome constructive comments on the vids, and at least half of the +/- points on Yue's results posts are things I wrote.

Keep rocking though