Advice to new AMV makers

Jnzk · Post by **Jnzk** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 12:30 am

Yokou Seishirou wrote:Avoid Beta Testing at all cost, all you get is a bunch of people with their ideas to shwere they are trying to make you edit THEIR video rather than yous.

I gotta agree with this.

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 12:33 am

Yokou Seishirou wrote:Avoid Beta Testing at all cost, all you get is a bunch of people with their ideas to shwere they are trying to make you edit THEIR video rather than yous. But if you do beta-test only take at least half of what they say for granted.

That's called having bad BETAs - They should know their job is to point out slight flaws in what you're going for not reworking your entire concept (that is assuming you're giving them something that actually follows a pattern and not random junk thrown together that they can't make heads or tails of).

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 12:41 am

Beta testing on the level that I get it now (real nitpicky!) would probably have killed me as a new editor. On the other hand, beta testing seems to be a good way to keep old editors from getting too comfy/bored

Brad · Post by **Brad** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:20 am

I personally think that beta testing can certainly be a very beneficial practice. I agree that you shouldn't follow beta advice if you genuinely don't agree with it, but sometimes you will be given ideas/inspiration that you otherwise just would not have otherwise thought of, and can help bring about things in your video that you WANTED to do, but just couldn't get your head around. It's always nice to have a fresh pair of eyes look at something.

Esrhan · Post by **Esrhan** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:52 am

Don't bother with the Opinion Exchange forum.

Bauzi · Post by **Bauzi** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 5:50 am

AtomX wrote:I personally think that beta testing can certainly be a very beneficial practice. I agree that you shouldn't follow beta advice if you genuinely don't agree with it, but sometimes you will be given ideas/inspiration that you otherwise just would not have otherwise thought of, and can help bring about things in your video that you WANTED to do, but just couldn't get your head around. It's always nice to have a fresh pair of eyes look at something.

x²

DriftRoot · Post by **DriftRoot** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:19 am

ngsilver wrote: It doesn't matter what anime or music you use, how long you've been at it, how many people think you are teh bomb, what programs you use. If you don't like what you are doing, if you're not passionate about it, why do it?

I'd like to add that since AMVing is generally a hobby, and hobbies are generally something you should enjoy, if you're not having fun then something's wrong. Maybe it's the particular project you're pulling your hair out about, maybe it's your skill level, maybe it's the inability to deal with harsh opinions about your work...whatever the case, keep focused on the enjoyment level. If it's not where it should be, evaluate why and make a decision about how to give it a boost. This may entail trashing your project, getting serious about "real" training in video editing or giving up altogether and switching your AMV hobby into the purely watching category. Lots of people can say movies are their hobby, but they don't go out and try to make the next "Citizen Kane" and no one thinks any less of them for it.

I trashed a project I had over 120 hours on because it instilled in me (and still does) a stomach-churning feeling similar to someone telling me I had to stick my tongue to a frozen signpost or be branded a wimp. It was hard as hell to give up...but hey, why should I make myself miserable over a stupid AMV?

JaddziaDax · Post by **JaddziaDax** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:51 am

AtomX wrote:I personally think that beta testing can certainly be a very beneficial practice. I agree that you shouldn't follow beta advice if you genuinely don't agree with it, but sometimes you will be given ideas/inspiration that you otherwise just would not have otherwise thought of, and can help bring about things in your video that you WANTED to do, but just couldn't get your head around. It's always nice to have a fresh pair of eyes look at something.

i agree with this, some of my betas have helped me come up with ideas i either hadnt thought of or something that i couldnt figure out...

but always its okay to disagree with your betas, you get the final decisions its your baby after all...

getting advice is always a good thing, and its all okay, you just gotta make the final choices in the end, and not try to please every one.

Esrhan wrote:Don't bother with the Opinion Exchange forum.

unless you lurk there long enough to know who is nice and who isnt XD
and go for all the free ops you can from them O:

Emong · Post by **Emong** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:57 am

Well, I guess it's good to be a lurker on this forum for a while before actually posting anything..

godix · Post by **godix** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:04 pm

Beta testing has it's point, unfortunately for a lot of people the point is 'Hey look at how perfect what I did is' rather than to get actual feedback. That being said, no one should be stupid enough to change their video just because a beta tester said so. In the betas I've given I doubt more than half of my suggestions have been used and that's as it should be. After all, I'm not making the video so my opinion shouldn't count more than the person who is making it.

As for the original question here's some other things I've picked up along the way since I assumed you wanted more than 'do what you want to do':

Learn your editing program. And I don't mean just enough that you can squeak by, I mean you should know what all major features do and most minor ones. It makes life so much easier when you know about the opacity rubberband or the most effective way to do accurate motion.

Straight lyric sync gets tedious at times. Straight beat sync gets predictable as all hell most of the time. Straight internal sync gets boring many times. Straight lipsync just sucks. Mix up the ways you do sync.

Effects are just another tool to reach your goal of an enjoyable video. They are not the end goal in and of themselves. OTOH you shouldn't ignore them either, used right they help make a video better.

Popular doesn't equal good. Well known editor doesn't equal good. Member of one of the many cliques running around the org doesn't equal good. High star/op ratings doesn't equal good. You liking the video you made does equal good, for you at least and does anyone else's opinion really matter on that?