How many of you use/can use After Effects in your AMVs?

[TheLuminaireShow]

I hear there is a correlation between house/trance AMVs and After Effects =p

That's a primary reason I want to learn it! I primarily want to make upbeat and trance AMVs

[Nya-chan Production]

No-one ever wants to make ambient videos ;___;

[Otohiko]

No-one ever wants to make ambient videos ;___;

Lies!

I'm with Brad otherwise - it's a tool, and only really works when you know what you need it for. I have absolutely no ideas that involve AE, and I've never felt the urge to use it, especially since I still only use something like 20% of what Premiere can actually do. And that's cool too, I guess.

[Brad]

No-one ever wants to make ambient videos ;___;

Untrue :O Here.



There are several shots in this video that relied heavily on AE, even though you may not realize it (which is the point). For example:

00:22 - 00:27 - Liz wanted to show a shot of Chiaki hearing Nodame play the piano, then look through a window and see her. This sequence did not actually exist in the anime as shown. I took separate clips and composited them together to make it happen.

01:07 - The transition where the sheet music wipes on the shot of Nodame kissing Chiaki also did not exist.

02:24 - For this part, she obviously wanted the moment to be a really happy moment. Unfortunately in the actual scene, Chiaki's face looks horrified (since in the show he's actually kind of a dick). So I replaced his face to make him look happy, in addition to adding some lighting and color effects to accentuate the mood.

02:38 - The original shot had an overlay in it saying the name of the song they were playing. It was such a pretty shot though so Liz wanted to use it there. She handed it off to me and I patched out the overlay in AE.

03:48 - 03:56 - This ending shot is actually a combination of 2 different static shots, combined together and a camera movement added in.

Also did a bunch of lip flap removal on various other shots.

The main reason I'm listing these is to give people an idea of what CAN be done with AE besides the obvious "flashy" stuff it's become known for. Not there's anything inherently wrong with big and flashy, but if you start thinking of your footage as bendable and breakable, you realize that you can really make your source look however you want if you're willing to put the time into it. It also helps you think about the story of your video in the way YOU really want to present it as opposed to what's in the source already.

[Nya-chan Production]

No-one ever wants to make ambient videos ;___;

Untrue :O Here.



There are several shots in this video that relied heavily on AE, even though you may not realize it (which is the point). For example:

00:22 - 00:27 - Liz wanted to show a shot of Chiaki hearing Nodame play the piano, then look through a window and see her. This sequence did not actually exist in the anime as shown. I took separate clips and composited them together to make it happen.

01:07 - The transition where the sheet music wipes on the shot of Nodame kissing Chiaki also did not exist.

02:24 - For this part, she obviously wanted the moment to be a really happy moment. Unfortunately in the actual scene, Chiaki's face looks horrified (since in the show he's actually kind of a dick). So I replaced his face to make him look happy, in addition to adding some lighting and color effects to accentuate the mood.

02:38 - The original shot had an overlay in it saying the name of the song they were playing. It was such a pretty shot though so Liz wanted to use it there. She handed it off to me and I patched out the overlay in AE.

03:48 - 03:56 - This ending shot is actually a combination of 2 different static shots, combined together and a camera movement added in.

Also did a bunch of lip flap removal on various other shots.

The main reason I'm listing these is to give people an idea of what CAN be done with AE besides the obvious "flashy" stuff it's become known for. Not there's anything inherently wrong with big and flashy, but if you start thinking of your footage as bendable and breakable, you realize that you can really make your source look however you want if you're willing to put the time into it. It also helps you think about the story of your video in the way YOU really want to present it as opposed to what's in the source already.

I am glad for you linking this vid (downloading it), but romance isn't really ambient ;x

[ZephyrStar]

Yup, always edit the stuff I'm doing before I take it to AE...with the ability to load a Premiere project file into AE and then set up compositions for the clips you want to work on, it's super powerful. But generally I make sure the editing is mostly complete first.

I always find it funny as well how people seem to put AE on this pedestal like it's some kind of amazingly advanced thing...I mean yes, it does take a bit to learn, but nothing more really than your NLE. I think most of it is wrapping your head around a concept, and then how to go about creating that concept using AE.

Same thing with 3D packages, though that learning curve is quite a bit steeper. Concept is again king... I continually gripe about people who have been doing 3D stuff for years and perfecting their skills yet continue to model stuff like Darth Vader heads and Warcraft orcs. "It has 25,000 poly, it took me 23 hours to model, it has normal mapping, and I rendered it with radiosity lighting and HDRI maps, it took 2 hours just to render this one still!"

...but it's a Darth Vader head.

[BasharOfTheAges]

I've really started to like the "replace clip with AE comp" thing in newer versions of Adobe CS. My focus is very procedural, so I like to do any effect work I feel like doing when it comes up, instead of saving it for later. This is mostly because I don't edit frequently, so I need to re-learn how to do things just about every time... Also can go several days between touching a project when I do edit. This process also allows for very quick tweaking of timing, so you don't get stuck with having to export for hours when you're in the middle of doing something more creative. Nothing kills the desire to edit more for me than days of doing nothing but tweaking. I need something that looks like forward progress (more on the timeline) every day or I just shut down mentally.

[TheLuminaireShow]

No-one ever wants to make ambient videos ;___;

Not true. I'd love to make a few ambient videos with some good progressive house music. I just want to make sure I know what all my options and capabilities are before I step up to the task. I got some really good Avicii, Dinka, Paul Keely and Armin Van Buren songs that demand the AMV treatment.

[Voidses_]

Can use AE a lil bit (a tiny tiny bit), but don't. Premiere and Photoshop do just fine. Will probably try to use it more in the future because it's fun to learn new stuff.

[pacotacoshell]

Everytime I open up After Effects, I just derp around for 5 minutes then give up.