Break Me [AKROSS Con 2012]

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Emong
A Damaged Lemon
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Break Me [AKROSS Con 2012]

Post by Emong » Tue Jan 15, 2013 3:03 pm

My entry at AKROSS Con 2012 and Anime Crossroads 2012 |:>

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Copy-paste from the video information:

This one is a full hearted character profile (in spite of not having entered in that category at Akross...) The story is centered on the protagonist of the anime, Chihaya, her pursuit to become to best karuta player in Japan and the people she's being supported by. The anime plays with the thematics of facing challenges and overcoming oneself in quite a dramatic manner and I wanted to convey all of this in my video. My simple idea here was to depict Chihaya's devotion towards karuta and her loyalty to the people she's close to even though she might get hurt in the process (hence the title).
Spoiler :
In b4 "it's nice but your transitions were distracting.."!
Last edited by Emong on Tue Jan 15, 2013 8:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Chained(E)Studio
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Re: Break Me [AKROSS Con 2012]

Post by Chained(E)Studio » Tue Jan 15, 2013 3:27 pm

Artti!!!!
This is so lovely *-*
I love it so much, I feel so fangirly over this cause I love Chihayafuru so much xD. I feel like you brought everything together that was shown with Chihaya and her friends. Also, your movement and sync is really great at least for me. Though I have to wonder why you didn't place it in Character Profile over Drama? I think it would have done so much better.

btw... this is one of my three tops for AKROSS this year ='3.
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Cecco
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Re: Break Me [AKROSS Con 2012]

Post by Cecco » Tue Jan 15, 2013 6:59 pm

Perfect combination anime/music i appreciate it much! :)
Good work!

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Taite
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Re: Break Me [AKROSS Con 2012]

Post by Taite » Tue Jan 15, 2013 10:33 pm

The only Chihaya amv I've seen that has very understandable story, even if it is just the anime's for the most part. I liked the focus on Chihaya rather than an even split of focusing on all three characters, since it definitely gives the video more direction.
The simple black and white scenes for past events/flashbacks was perfect and didn't confuse me any. Motion in these + blur was exceptionally great (regular Gaussian blur, in and out, on normal clips was also good, but it looks especially good here for some reason). I liked how you drew comparisons between the flashbacks and the matches she was "currently" playing at (As at 1:14-1:25), even though in the series there would be no direct correlation (also with the pushing scene in the beginning. This made me think that you were going to have a different storyline at first though! Haha, like Chihaya still being in love with Arata despite abuse or something.
First 36 seconds I have no complaints.

I disliked the effect at :49 and :41 where you fade through different zooms/angles on the scene. I think perhaps it is better than nothing, which is how I would have edited it and then it would have been boring considering all else that is happening in the amv, but it looks "cheap." I say that because, unlike your radial blur transition things, which although there were a few that had too much blur or whatever, it's not an easy recreation. I still don't know how to correctly use motion and blur when transitioning so it flows into the scene just right. The jumpy things, while easy to recreate (which isn't bad at all) just looked like it took less effort than everything else. I also thing another reason I dislike it is because each different zoom/ in/out was the same opacity or something as the original. From where I've seen it used before, which I can't recall where specifically but I have, the next clip is either darker, and then darker again, etc, or it has blur or idk. I'd have to mess with it myself to know if that's right. :?
I don't think I said all of that exactly how I wanted to, but I just didn't like those thingies haha.

As for the rest of the transitions, I liked them for the most part and had no huge issues. However, some I didn't like, and it's hard because it's not always consistent so I can't just say -the ones that did this.- It mainly has to do with how much blur there is. Like I said, I can't get this right myself, but when viewing say 1:04 (yt version), I get the definite feeling like there was too much blur, or the blur ended too soon, or the clip (this one specifically) was unique in that it just looks wrong coming up from the bottom of the screen. Even though I haven't done the effect/transition specifically myself, I know just when using a regular Gaussian blur on a clip that if you have too much and it fades out too fast, it looks hideous.
But at 1:11, it goes really well, because it looks like there is less blur, and the motion of the clip is constantly moving in the same direction as it came in, and it looks right for THAT clip. It's really just something that depends specifically on the clip, so you have to weigh in how much blur to use and where the pan should be going, etc. For the most part, I think you got it right (1:19-1:25 is the best example for me.)
In general though I can say I hated the transitions in which the bottom went not just up, but right or left, as in 1:29. Thankfully there weren't a lot of them.

Mask transitions toward the end when the song changed up were nice. I'm not a huge fan of them in general because people don't know when to fade the background clip or enter in a new one, but the beats of this song made it easily recognizable, so it's much better in this case.

2:53, where Arata was being introduced again, I feel like the transition could have been more unique or something could have been done with levels, idk, just to add more impact on the card slapping scene with the big beat. Since it's coming back in from a slower/different part of the song, I felt like it deserved more of an "entrance" as well.

Rest of it is very simple, the way I like it. The storyline was easily followable and also unique for a Chihayafuru amv for its focus on Chihaya. Nice job :up:
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Emong
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Re: Break Me [AKROSS Con 2012]

Post by Emong » Wed Jan 16, 2013 3:20 pm

Chained(E)Studio wrote:Artti!!!!
This is so lovely *-*
I love it so much, I feel so fangirly over this cause I love Chihayafuru so much xD. I feel like you brought everything together that was shown with Chihaya and her friends. Also, your movement and sync is really great at least for me. Though I have to wonder why you didn't place it in Character Profile over Drama? I think it would have done so much better.

btw... this is one of my three tops for AKROSS this year ='3.
copy-paste: Yay, you already know I'm glad you liked it ;)
Cecco wrote:Perfect combination anime/music i appreciate it much! :)
Good work!
Yah, this combo was just so good I simply had to edit it :bear: Thanks.
Taite wrote:
Spoiler :
The only Chihaya amv I've seen that has very understandable story, even if it is just the anime's for the most part. I liked the focus on Chihaya rather than an even split of focusing on all three characters, since it definitely gives the video more direction.
The simple black and white scenes for past events/flashbacks was perfect and didn't confuse me any. Motion in these + blur was exceptionally great (regular Gaussian blur, in and out, on normal clips was also good, but it looks especially good here for some reason). I liked how you drew comparisons between the flashbacks and the matches she was "currently" playing at (As at 1:14-1:25), even though in the series there would be no direct correlation (also with the pushing scene in the beginning. This made me think that you were going to have a different storyline at first though! Haha, like Chihaya still being in love with Arata despite abuse or something.
First 36 seconds I have no complaints.

I disliked the effect at :49 and :41 where you fade through different zooms/angles on the scene. I think perhaps it is better than nothing, which is how I would have edited it and then it would have been boring considering all else that is happening in the amv, but it looks "cheap." I say that because, unlike your radial blur transition things, which although there were a few that had too much blur or whatever, it's not an easy recreation. I still don't know how to correctly use motion and blur when transitioning so it flows into the scene just right. The jumpy things, while easy to recreate (which isn't bad at all) just looked like it took less effort than everything else. I also thing another reason I dislike it is because each different zoom/ in/out was the same opacity or something as the original. From where I've seen it used before, which I can't recall where specifically but I have, the next clip is either darker, and then darker again, etc, or it has blur or idk. I'd have to mess with it myself to know if that's right. :?
I don't think I said all of that exactly how I wanted to, but I just didn't like those thingies haha.

As for the rest of the transitions, I liked them for the most part and had no huge issues. However, some I didn't like, and it's hard because it's not always consistent so I can't just say -the ones that did this.- It mainly has to do with how much blur there is. Like I said, I can't get this right myself, but when viewing say 1:04 (yt version), I get the definite feeling like there was too much blur, or the blur ended too soon, or the clip (this one specifically) was unique in that it just looks wrong coming up from the bottom of the screen. Even though I haven't done the effect/transition specifically myself, I know just when using a regular Gaussian blur on a clip that if you have too much and it fades out too fast, it looks hideous.
But at 1:11, it goes really well, because it looks like there is less blur, and the motion of the clip is constantly moving in the same direction as it came in, and it looks right for THAT clip. It's really just something that depends specifically on the clip, so you have to weigh in how much blur to use and where the pan should be going, etc. For the most part, I think you got it right (1:19-1:25 is the best example for me.)
In general though I can say I hated the transitions in which the bottom went not just up, but right or left, as in 1:29. Thankfully there weren't a lot of them.

Mask transitions toward the end when the song changed up were nice. I'm not a huge fan of them in general because people don't know when to fade the background clip or enter in a new one, but the beats of this song made it easily recognizable, so it's much better in this case.

2:53, where Arata was being introduced again, I feel like the transition could have been more unique or something could have been done with levels, idk, just to add more impact on the card slapping scene with the big beat. Since it's coming back in from a slower/different part of the song, I felt like it deserved more of an "entrance" as well.

Rest of it is very simple, the way I like it. The storyline was easily followable and also unique for a Chihayafuru amv for its focus on Chihaya. Nice job :up:
Thanks very much for such a detailed comment :up:

The story: I'm especially glad this worked for you because when I was about 2/3 done with the video I got some feedback commenting on the storyline, saying it's confusing. So I tried to rework some details and desperately tried to find a way to edit the third chorus so that it would close up the video in a coherent way. As for the decision to go with a character profile, it was quite a logical choice for me due to the nature of the anime. All I needed to do was to abstract Chihaya's point of view from all the drama in the anime.

Blurs: I think what I should have done (but for some reason didn't do) was to adjust the keyframes on blurs so that the movement from one keyframe to another would have been smoother instead of plain linear. Another problem was that I edited the video in 24fps and only later changed it to 30fps and didn't really touch the video much at that point. The latter framerate would have allowed more careful work on the blurs.

2:53: Haha, I actually struggled with this part a lot. I just simply couldn't find a proper clip! Now I'm absolutely sure there would have been a better way to edit this (never blame the footage!) but somehow my imagination failed me there.

Again, thanks for the comment and I'm glad you liked the video :wink:

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Mastamind
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Re: Break Me [AKROSS Con 2012]

Post by Mastamind » Fri Jan 18, 2013 10:03 am

The first couple of times I watched this video, I didn't get the story at all. But that's alright, because I love the way you edit. The synchronization itself is perfect and fun to watch, and the more I watch this video the more I want to watch the anime.
Taite pretty much wrote my own detailed review. :P Really nice style and nice job :up:
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AimoAio
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Re: Break Me [AKROSS Con 2012]

Post by AimoAio » Fri Jan 25, 2013 10:54 pm

I really liked it ever since you showed me a beta but I love it even more now because you got me hooked on the damn song. :evil: There were a few things here and there that I would have fixed if I was editing such as that blur/mask/slide at 2:47 because I would have used the black background as a connection to transition between the two scenes (there's more and I can tell you if you want over Skype next time xD) but they're not something really bad so it's not a worry. I love the mix of past/flashback scenes in between the karuta matches, it really adds to the focus on Chihaya and helps keep the direction of the AMV solid throughout the whole AMV. Also the motions are awesome! :up: Personally, they're one of my most favourite points about the AMV, especially how fluid they look and how nicely they blend together with the feel of the song but I watched this one or two times when I was feeling really sleepy at night and a few camera movements did make me feel a little uneasy. I don't know how I would have edited it otherwise though so I can't offer any advice about how to make it less...uneasy for people who didn't watch it at the right time. xD I absolutely loved the pacing and mood during the choruses and the mask section around 2:31 was especially awesome. 2:38 is a perfect example of how to fade a mask in because it just looks so darn smooth and good!

Probably one of the most memorable Chihayafuru AMVs I've ever seen. It has a unique and solid approach to it coupled with some excellent editing and great scene selection that makes it stand out. And also as mentioned before, really cool song choice! Don't see many AMVs using this type of song very often! It's pretty much left it's impression on me quite well so if anyone was to ask me for a good Chihayafuru AMV, this would be one of the first I'd recommend straight away. Seriously, awesome work! :up:

Now you better put your all into working on that F/Z AMV. :twisted:

Emong
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Re: Break Me [AKROSS Con 2012]

Post by Emong » Sat Jan 26, 2013 7:19 am

Mastamind wrote:The first couple of times I watched this video, I didn't get the story at all. But that's alright, because I love the way you edit. The synchronization itself is perfect and fun to watch, and the more I watch this video the more I want to watch the anime.
Taite pretty much wrote my own detailed review. :P Really nice style and nice job :up:
Thanks very much! It really does seem like I failed to tell the story to those who haven't seen the anime..but oh well
AimoAio wrote:I really liked it ever since you showed me a beta but I love it even more now because you got me hooked on the damn song. :evil: There were a few things here and there that I would have fixed if I was editing such as that blur/mask/slide at 2:47 because I would have used the black background as a connection to transition between the two scenes (there's more and I can tell you if you want over Skype next time xD) but they're not something really bad so it's not a worry. I love the mix of past/flashback scenes in between the karuta matches, it really adds to the focus on Chihaya and helps keep the direction of the AMV solid throughout the whole AMV. Also the motions are awesome! :up: Personally, they're one of my most favourite points about the AMV, especially how fluid they look and how nicely they blend together with the feel of the song but I watched this one or two times when I was feeling really sleepy at night and a few camera movements did make me feel a little uneasy. I don't know how I would have edited it otherwise though so I can't offer any advice about how to make it less...uneasy for people who didn't watch it at the right time. xD I absolutely loved the pacing and mood during the choruses and the mask section around 2:31 was especially awesome. 2:38 is a perfect example of how to fade a mask in because it just looks so darn smooth and good!

Probably one of the most memorable Chihayafuru AMVs I've ever seen. It has a unique and solid approach to it coupled with some excellent editing and great scene selection that makes it stand out. And also as mentioned before, really cool song choice! Don't see many AMVs using this type of song very often! It's pretty much left it's impression on me quite well so if anyone was to ask me for a good Chihayafuru AMV, this would be one of the first I'd recommend straight away. Seriously, awesome work! :up:

Now you better put your all into working on that F/Z AMV. :twisted:
You just couldn't leave this thread to die now, could you?

Thanks! Also for the motivation boosts during the beta stage. You did really help me out there! :D And you know what you gotta do now - edit a Vanbot amv! :awesome:

I.. I will... some day.... :uhoh:

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Re: Break Me [AKROSS Con 2012]

Post by AsuSa » Mon Jan 28, 2013 4:23 pm

Woowww!!! more more action =D!! nice video :up:

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