Instrumental Anime Project

SarahtheBoring · Post by **SarahtheBoring** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 6:51 pm

This is a cool idea. I won't join, 'cause that would drag down the quality, but I might let it inspire me to do something on my own time. 8) (I'm thinking Everclear, "El Distorto de Melodica.")

Cool idea. Hope to see more work from it.

rose4emily · Post by **rose4emily** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 7:26 pm

Unfotunately, VirtualDub is Windows only. I'd try running it in Wine, but somehow the idea of trying to edit video through a non-commercial program running on top of a non-commercial emulator on a machine that can barely keep up with editing video in the native OS seems a bit crazy.

Stills (and sometimes short loops) can work, esp. in slow scenes. I know they are the method of choice for the original animators for determining the pace and direction of the action onscreen, but I find it hard to justify their extensive use in fast scenes where it'd be one frame here and one frame there for hundreds of frames on end. Not to be lazy, but I have other things that demand my time as well and I've yet to find a better way than cutting out single frames and then pasting each one back in a couple times.

There are a few rock and jazz tracks up there. For jazz I have a couple of Jaques Loussier's piano/bass/drum renditions of Bach's music, Miles Davis's "My Funny Valentine", two of Michael Manring's works for solo bass, and Jethro Tull's arrangement of Bach's Bouree. Rock - well, there's the Blue Man stuff. I think I'll add Joe Satriani's "Flying in a Blue Dream" if I can find it. Electronica - there's the Wendy Carlos track, and the NIN and V.A.S.T. tunes (albiet the softer side of each). I could throw in some Paul Oakenfold if anyone really wants to do it, but it seems like bright synth arpeggios over thumping backbeats might be a little too run of the mill for this one.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 7:40 pm

Ah, yea, true, with the jazz tracks, etc.

Well, the more instrumental music up there, the better (I think). Realistically, I don't think all of it is AMVable, at least for me, but it works for inspiration and brainstorming anyway.

I'm just not sure how narrow or broad you want to get with the track selection there - but I can always toss in more of various stuff. I think most music I have is instrumental anyways...

***

Hmm, as for the editing - well, realistically, all you'd have to do is use VDub to slow down small clips and then import them into the actual editing software. But, again, I don't know much about how it all works.

It's probably possible to get around it without too much work. I haven't used any slowing down at all lately since I don't like how premiere handles it, anyway.

downwithpants · Post by **downwithpants** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 9:31 pm

pen pen: just watched your video. it is definitely different from caldwell's. His is more beat-driven, being a techno mix and caldwell just having that unhuman style of editing. your video is more suiting to your music: a flowing modern classical song with no percussion.

There are quite a few clever and well executed examples of editing that match up to elements in the music. So far the style and scene selection look appropriate.

A few problems I noticed: The first scene after the opening credits and the last scene looked choppier than the rest. Also, try to avoid scenes where the characters are moving their lips and attention is drawn to the fact that they're supposed to be speaking (although I admit I did that in my video too). It wasn't too bad layered (0:36-0:46), although the last guy (0:43-0:46) does make it a bit more obvious he's supposed to be talking by his body movement.

The direction looks good and I'd like to see where the video goes. And I'd love an opinion on my video when you get around to it.

i'll try to watch rose's sometime soon, and otohiko's i'm saving for later, since I haven't watched end of eva yet, but my friend said he'd send me a copy sometime soon.

For jazz, I have a CD from my high school jazz band. It features more showtune-style jazz with improvised solos - Gershwin, Ellington, Davis, Cole Porter to name names. The band did a clean performance with the songs for the most part. i'll upload the songs tonight.

I've made an video to one of the songs actually, but it used downloaded footage so I wouldn't put it on this project. http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=20929 is the link. and there's some information on the jazz band in the video info.

pen-pen2002 · Post by **pen-pen2002** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 11:54 pm

Thanks for the encouragement guys, I'm definatly starting to feel better about this project as I'm moving into the next section. I'm trying to do more effects wise but so far I'm coming up really short. What I'm working on now is adding increasingly powerful flashes to the buildup scene right before the chandelier and man it takes a long time, I have new respect for seizure vids. I know very few of you use premiere but I have a specific question: I've been playing around with motion settings but I remember there also being a transparency option where you could show only a section of the frame. I can only do it on a couple of clips though. How do I use that for anything?

Slowing down footage: Don't know of any programs other than premiere or Vdub. Avisynth could do it with AssumeFPS although that would be hard to do without knowing exactly what percent you needed. As far as premire goes it's okay because most of my changes are less then 5 or 10 percent. As for that first scene after the intro that DWP mentioned, It's actually sped up 190 percent. Shouldn't that make it smoother? I tried doing it with Vdub and importing but it looked the same. Grrrrrr. I'll see about fixing it and if not maybe replacing it although I like the opening, maybe some light overlays...

DWP: Thanks a lot for the advice. The lip flap was interesting because I usually hate that in videos. I was trying to get the best close-ups as I could that show off the character but I needed footage from before they enter the ship and there isn't much. The overlays are actually increasingly weighted towards the characters so that's another reason the last guy is the most noticeable. I'll see what I can do, at least there are no lyrics for them to be out of sync with.

downwithpants wrote: I'll try to watch rose's sometime soon, and otohiko's I'm saving for later, since I haven't watched end of eva yet, but my friend said he'd send me a copy sometime soon.

You are in for a treat. I wish I could watch the wasteland for the first time again. BTW Otohiko, I noticed you masked out that desk from the pendulum shot, good job. Oh and yes, it is scary how well I know that vid.

I love how we can't seem to post here without commenting on about 5 diferent topics.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 6:51 am

You are in for a treat. I wish I could watch the wasteland for the first time again. BTW Otohiko, I noticed you masked out that desk from the pendulum shot, good job. Oh and yes, it is scary how well I know that vid.

Then you might notice a couple of small nitpicks I have actually created there... but I won't tell which.

I wish I could ever see any vid I make for the first time. This is why I'm such a feedback whore. It's a shame you have to compromise a whole dimension of a vid for yourself by making it

And... yea - don't watch it before seeing EoE. It'll make even less sense than it should normally.

***

And no, I won't comment on 5 subjects for now. So far, everything has been on hold up to today due to excesses of schoolwork. I gotta watch Spriggan, listen to some more music, brainstorm, op. DWP's vid - but no time as yet.

If all goes well though, I'll finally have something new to discuss over the weekend. I've been thinking of various editing/effects solutions to go with the rhythm section in 'Kashmir', and it'll probably be tricky to balance, so I'll certainly be here for WIP feedback whenever I start it.

pen-pen2002 · Post by **pen-pen2002** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 3:29 pm

In direct contradiction to the end of my last post I have a short simple question to ask. How many people as of now are in on this project? (or have the FTP address.) I am asking because I am wondering what we are looking at as far as length of the whole project. I have recently decided that I will probably not cut the song unless I run into serious footage shortages even though there is a part I don't care for. So I'm looking at a 7 minute video as my final project *begins tying hangman's noose*

I know we have 5 minutes of bliss from DWP and another 13 from Emily for a total of about 25 so far without commentary or whatever. Otohiko will be at least another 5, probably more like 10 if I know him.

Wait I can check *downloads kashmir* only 5 for this version. So what are we aiming for? I'm thinking of making a banner or two and I want to know if I should encourage more people to join.

Otohiko: speaking of Kashmir I grabbed as many different copies as I could off my campus server and I found one with the London Philharmonic orchestra that has a bit less on the drums and is a bit longer. I can upload it if you like. As for how it will work with Spriggan (I always want to call it Striker because I read the manga first and liked it a lot more.) The show does have a bit of an exotic flavor and it would work well with the driving rhythm. It's not like "OMG that's perfect!" but it depends on what you do with it. As soon as you have something, upload it as I'm curious as to how you would approach it. I know how HW is though. I have a 5 page paper due tomorrow that I really should be working on right now. *hides*

Otohiko wrote:Then you might notice a couple of small nitpicks I have actually created there... but I won't tell which.

Sounds like a challenge....

Damn, this wasn't exactly a short post was it?

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 6:52 pm

And ah, yea, if you have a good version of it, go for it. I think it'll come in handy. I thought my dad had that Zeppelin CD in his collection, but I was wrong - so - a high-quality version of it will definitely be needed.

Kalium · Post by **Kalium** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 8:30 pm

I've got the IP. I'm not certain if I will be able to do a long track, but I'm eyeing something to Minuet in D. Anyway, I can certainly provide source.

rose4emily · Post by **rose4emily** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 12:15 pm

well, i'm back (it's good to be done with class for the week).

there are about a dozen people who've asked to join the project, but the number of active participants is smaller (about four or five, it seems). i'm not sure on a final length yet - i thought i'd wait to see what comes in and then make some of the compilation decisions based on that - but it looks like we might be shooting for 45 min to an hour or so as a total project with credits and video intros and so forth.

which reminds me - video intros. i know that the inspiration of this concept was Fantasia, and it makes sense to me to do the same type of thing with this. i have figured out how to do masks to simulate showing clips on a television on the screen, and know how to do audio edits for narration, and was wondring if anyone liked the idea of putting a little narrative before each clip with a title pane on the "tv" screen before zooming in to show the actual video.

as to my segment, i've done a lot to clean up and improve the timing but am waiting until i finish the text elements and overlays before i render again and post the updated version. if you have it, but haven't watched it yet, please wait until i post version 1.1. it'll be a much better use of your 13 minutes. i have another idea for the piece "little wing" and haibane, but am not sure whether i will be able to finish it while the rest of the project is active or not, so it might not make it into the compilation.