AMV Salad 5: Happy Meal (Nekocon 14, here we come!)

[Gaelstrom]

Yeah, I've done letterbox since day one, nobody seems to care in the audiences. The only thing you can do that makes any sense is to stretch the footage vertically so it takes up all of the screen, but that will still look a bit odd to some people.

Unfortunately with the footage ripping and stuff... I cheat. Even if I bought the anime, which I own most of the ones I've used (the ones I don't have aren't out yet), I still torrent MKVs of it and use a media converter in every chance I can. Hence I feel guiltless about it since I bought them anyway. Sometimes it doesn't work though, so I have to rip them, which just always looks strange, I know I'm doing something wrong. But one thing that rocks about this: once I have the footage of one anime converted, I bought a cheap terabyte drive specifically for footage that has been converted to 720x480 avis of crisp quality for future use on parodies or music videos.

I'd really love if we could find some type of explanation on how the fansubbers do it. They've gotten ripping down to an art form.

EDIT:

EVERYONE!! Something you all may be VERY interested in. On a random check after mentioning it here, I did a search. The OJOsoft total media conversion package, including audio, video, DVD, etc. is on sale for 50 bucks this weekend until the end of tomorrow. It really is an incredible program. Download a trial and give it a shot, but grab it this weekend, it's totally worth it. It's simple, straight-forward, and has worked great for me for years. Even if it seems like a chunk of money, it's a one-time investment, it's worth it if you work with the footage a lot, which I know we all do.
http://www.ojosoft.com/purchase/buy-all ... olkit.html

On another note, have any of you spent any time cropping characters from footage and come up with an effective method of doing it cleanly? I was considering snapshotting each frame and photoshopping the images out and rendering as Targas with alpha, the alternative is a LOT of careful masking, which is exceptionally tedious as far as I can tell. Anyone have any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

[moonbunnychan]

Any way you do it is long and tedious. When I do do it I use the photoshopping method (well, actually I use paintshop pro, but same difference). I've found it's more consistent looking to snapshot the frames and use the background eraser tool as well as a bit faster (though still extreeeeemely time consuming).
Also what do you use to convert .mkv files? I've tried with no success doing that. I rip my own dvds, but that generally takes several hours a disk, and I usually do it over night since my computer is more or less unusable while I'm ripping.

[Gaelstrom]

Any way you do it is long and tedious. When I do do it I use the photoshopping method (well, actually I use paintshop pro, but same difference). I've found it's more consistent looking to snapshot the frames and use the background eraser tool as well as a bit faster (though still extreeeeemely time consuming).
Also what do you use to convert .mkv files? I've tried with no success doing that. I rip my own dvds, but that generally takes several hours a disk, and I usually do it over night since my computer is more or less unusable while I'm ripping.

The link in the above message. OJOSoft Media Converter. If you get the all-in-one converter with the deal this weekend, you also get a DVD ripper, among other things, that can transform into AVIs as well from what I see (just got it myself ^^). And the most up to date version even converts several MKVs that weren't convertible in the old version I had before I updated. I don't like torrenting stuff I already own to do this, but DVD ripping doesn't even give the best quality compared to converting the MKVs half the time. It's scary. I REALLY wish I knew how the raw-rippers did it. I wouldn't worry as much. Right now it's not so much the time for ripping I mind, it's the uncertain quality for the time I spend, whether it's interlaced or progressive and such. Thankfully that doesn't matter with ore recent stuff.

Does Photoshop have something like a background erase tool? I've worked in photoshop a lot, I've never heard about that. But then I don't have a newer version.

[moonbunnychan]

Well also what I do a lot is color whatever's around the character I'm isolating in bright green and then treating it like a green screen. The backround eraser in Paintshop Pro essentially like, takes out a color at a time in an area. In Vegas you can import a bunch of image files together and have it merge into one file that it treats like a video.

[Honou_Miko]

kind of off-topic alert. kind of.

...Does anyone have a DVR, or something?

There's a commercial out for Happy Meals, and it says something like "There's something new in your Happy Meal." And there are a bunch of confused kids. And the announcer says, "It's called hope." And one kid says, "I don't see any hope." ...It goes on to talk about the Ronald McDonald House Charities, I think, but... if we could SOMEHOW get a hold of that audio, wouldn't it be amazing to just cut it off after "I don't see any hope" and use it for AMVS5 Happy Meal?

I can't find the commercial anywhere online... and I don't have any means to record it from the TV other than a small voice recorder that doesn't get good enough audio for that. Does anyone have the means to nab the audio straight from the TV? Keep an eye out for whenever it's on? I've seen it fairly often lately. IT'S HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43f_Y9XNgZk but with crappy audio.

Just an idea. Right now I'm back to work on trying to get the interlacing out of my clips... computer was out of commission for a short while, so, crunch time!!! D:

[Squancho]

Anyone else see potential for the Happy Meal thing being a running gag?
Who says we can't have two gags?
How many ways can we keep the audience in suspense waiting for what's "really" in the Happy Meal box?
Thoughts?

[Gaelstrom]

Sorry, Deuce, but I feel I should say that two running gags does not/did not work in AMVS3. I honestly feel they didn't read so much as running gags. The Adult Swim aspect was the theme and it worked, but then Head On read like three people did the same thing different ways rather than a running gag. I personally feel that if we put too many of the same clips in the same production at only 20 minutes, it has a much easier chance of backfiring on us. I'm sure I can be proven wrong, but I guess that leads to the next point.

For the Happy Meal thing, do you have a specific thought on how you'd make it work as a running gag, Miko? I can't see how it would work as more than a one-shot personally, but you could see something I don't. Can you share a potential idea on how you think it'd work for multiple clips?

Also, does anyone happen to have Season 3 of family guy? I am about to spend 15 bucks on the entire season for a single audio clip, and I'd like to save my money for something else for now. I wouldn't mind owning it, but for now I'm strapped for cash after purchasing the media converter, an anime season, and my car's tire exploding. And for 5 seconds of audio, I'd rather ask I need the line in Season 3, Episode 5 (And the weiner is...") where Quagmire goes "The hell... did I just get laid?" Could one of you let me know as soon as possible so I can buy it if I'm out of luck? I actually have the Dr. Who titles cleared of all the title stuff and I have a good list of footage to look into for the wormhole denizens. With the exception of a seminar this weekend, I'll be working to get this thing finished by next week and then move onto more clips.

Please let me know, I've got a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. And Deuce, once work calms down I'll be sure to rar up DVs of the now 4 clips I have done.

[Squancho]

I just did a check on how we're doing for time so far.
I haven't yet accounted for intros and closing credits.
I also haven't added my clips yet.

At this point, I see approximately 22 minutes of material on the time line.
With the clips and other material I'm waiting on we should reach that ever-elusive half-hour mark!
I'm hoping Otakon grants me a panel for AMV Salad this year.
I'm optimistic about this year's episode!

Now, as for those of you who expressed interest and have yet to contribute material or commit to doing so, it's time for you to get moving and submit your clips!

[Honou_Miko]

I like the idea of having the Happy Meal in the beginning and the end, with the suspense on what's in it. I agree I don't think it can be a recurring gag like Geico was last year, but I'm editing the commercial using Chibitalia stuff right now, and it WOULD be pretty hilarious towards the end to have Chibitalia look back in the box and find something completely unrelated to Hetalia whatsoever, preferably disturbing.

I do have a season of Family Guy, though I don't recall which one... it was given to me as a gift and I have to double check when I get home what it is. Regardless, did you try doing a search for "Family Guy s03e05" or something along those lines, on megaupload etc? Usually they don't have the actual episode title but they may have the number. I think the one I have is season 5, now that I think of it, since I seem to remember actually owning the cool whip scene. Also check hulu for official clips? You may have already done all this, so sorry if you did. ^^;

[Warlike Swans]

I actually do have season 3 of Family Guy. So if you still need it I'll get the audio up sometime tonight. I'm not sure if I'm going to Otakon yet, but if I do I'd gladly swap it for just about any anime. Its been sitting unopened in my closet for years.

I had an idea that would require the first episode of Code Geass season 2 which I can't get off netflix, anyone have that?

If the 'something new in the happy meal" thing goes through I think Futurama's "It's a suppository!" could be funny... If it was a running gag it could also be used at the end, "It's the credits!"