Hmm, AMVs...A Costly Investment?

[XiaoMovieMaker]

I was searching my shelves for some DVDs i was hoping to rip to start an AMV. Then i noticed..."i'm a little short on anime... "

And then i wondered...i went to Staples today and saw many products, such as Adobe Photoshop CS3 or Adobe Elements. I was shocked by the price which even breached up to 600$ or more.

So I began to wonder...after compiling the price of all the anime DVDs and the editing software, doesn't the outcome end up quite expensive...?

It's a killer price to pay isn't? Much too expensive for my wallet...
I'll have to settle with finding RAWs or DVD RIPs on the interent...but about how much have you hard-core movie makers spent in these productions?

[lynit]

the DVDs aren't so bad. And Photoshop's not really needed, unless you want to go into the masking sort of thing.
Plus, when I first started buying DVDs (about a year or so ago o.o), I kinda thought it was expensive at first. Just buy one thing right now, then buy another in a little while, and another. Pretty soon, you're starting to have a collection

[Malificus]

there are good, cheaper editing programs out there |:


But for an idea as to my anime/amv related costs, I have 300 discs of anime and Vegas 7.0. Altogether, probably coming out to be a good bit over 5K. and that's not counting my computer or extrernal hard drive.

[XiaoMovieMaker]

5,000 dollars worth of AMV equipment...
I don't even have a job, let alone am a teenager yet...

[Moonie]

5,000 dollars worth of AMV equipment...
I don't even have a job, let alone am a teenager yet...

How bout starting a Lemonaid stand?

[XiaoMovieMaker]

^those don't work any more...
i make money using E-Lance, since i do know some computer programming, but that's about it...

[CrackTheSky]

I only buy anime that I'm going to use in an AMV. And I only ever buy anime series in box sets. So I suppose that kinda limits what I can use, but at the same time I've found some really great stuff that was previously unknown to me that I bought just because it looked interesting and was available in a box set (Stratos 4, Kino's Journey, among others).

As for the software...well, Sony Vegas 6 is available for only $99 here. Magix Movie Edit Pro can be found for $50, and several people here use that. Hell, you could conceivably make a video using only AviSynth and VirtualDubMod (and believe it or not, it has been done). You could also use the free, open-source Blender if you were dedicated enough to learn it.

When it comes to image editing programs, you shouldn't need to spend lots of money on Photoshop when you can find several capable free alternatives such as Paint.NET or The GIMP.

So, as you can see, the hobby doesn't HAVE to be really expensive while keeping it all legal.

[NS]

5,000 dollars worth of AMV equipment...
I don't even have a job, let alone am a teenager yet...

E-lance?

And i'm only 16. but I have a job. you're just to lazy >_>

[Orwell]

Only buy anime at sales, and buy all software at educational prices. Legal, yet cheap.

[inthesto]

Sadly, it's less expensive than the arcade.

Especially when you suck.

But yes, just wait until Geneon/ADV have their gigantor blowout sales, keep it to box sets otherwise, and make sure your musical tastes don't mostly involve old, rare import CDs.