Game Music Videos - Holy. Crap. How do I do this?

Byakko · Post by **Byakko** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 8:14 am

Okay, I'm a newb, and I don't generally know you guys' attitudes towards GMVs (do you have a special term for them?) are, so please, if you dislike them, or have some personal vendetta against them, don't-kill-ME.

Right now, I'm working on a Lost Odyssey GMV. Of which my source footage is ENTIRELY comprised of HD trailer and game footage (and then, only a select few areas were ever covered in them).

Have any you tried extracting from a Xbox360 discs? Doesn't work without a specifically hacked DVD-ROM drive, which with the need for custom firmware, is pretty much impossible to find...

So right now, I have 24GBs worth of .iso files on my laptop which I got from a torrent (and yes, I DO own the game). And the best I can still do is extract FMV files. Nothing from the cutscenes done using the in-game engine, which I have to replay and record with my DVD recorder, but that's only possible in a month's time...

Okay, after that freak-out, these questions are basically...the source of my anxiety:

1. Considering the limited amount of footage available, how can I differentiate my GMV from others when the footage used are pretty much all identical?

2. Roto-scoping, all those other special effects...I can't imagine rotoscoping to be at all easy with the 3D models or FMV rendered models. Would there be some sort of way that this would be still be possible?

3. Examples I suppose would be great. LO's a JRPG, I'm going to guess stuff from the FF series would be most apparent. Any examples involving a specific theme and technical wizardry would be great - meaning, no Linkin Park action video things, or romantic scenes redone to various romantic music >_>

Character vignettes would be great

Thanks for listening. Sorry if my post appears...ranty.

After I'm done with v1 of this GMV of mine, would anyone be willing to provide some initial critique? Hopefully, someone who would take the considerations of limitations of GMVs.

dj_ultima_the_great · Post by **dj_ultima_the_great** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 10:20 am

1. Make a good video. No, I'm really not kidding about this. If you make a great video, it'll speak for itself. This means a good song choice (meaning one that actually works with the game, not necessarily one of your favorites or one that just happens to have a good beat), good concept (now that you have a song that works, actually consider the lyrics or style and match it), good beat sync (random montage of scenes is never very original), and last but not least, a good encode. This makes up for more than you might think, though if you're really adamant about it, it's not a necessity. I just strongly suggest taking the time to encode your video well, because VGMVs with great footage quality really are a rarity and it will make your video stand out.

2. I only have two things to say here. This:

and this:

If they can do it, I have faith that you can too.

3. I'll come back to this one. I'm a huge gamer and VGMVs are my personal passion, so I'll dig up some examples from my collection for you.

I might be willing to beta, depending on when you catch me. It's easier if I know the game, but I'll do my best if you'd like my help.

- Jen

Fall_Child42 · Post by **Fall_Child42** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 10:38 am

1. Are there many LO videos? if so do they have something in common? if so to differentiate yours... don't do what they did ... it's as easy as that ... round these parts I think Advent Children would be most noticeable for this problem ... they are either flashy action or lame romance all using the same scenes and all using the same types of music.

All you have to do to make your LO video different is do something different, try a differnt style of music ... tell a different story ... do something unique and fun.

2. It's still possible ... but lighting makes it more difficult to look right.

3.

Though I have to say, looking at examples and trying to emulate them is the exact opposite thing you want to do to make something different.

One good idea to do something different is if people say "you shouldn't do this, or it's wrong to do this, or nobody can do that" you should do that. fuck em'

Byakko · Post by **Byakko** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 10:54 am

dj_ultima_the_great wrote: 2. I only have two things to say here. This:

and this:

If they can do it, I have faith that you can too.

Thanks, I'm downloading those right now, and will check them out soon =)

dj_ultima_the_great wrote: I might be willing to beta, depending on when you catch me. It's easier if I know the game, but I'll do my best if you'd like my help.

I think you can could help me critique on the overall technical aspect aka, do the transitions feel natural with the music, is the footage well paced etc. Though, because it's specifically a Character Profile piece, I might need to provide some information.

Fall_Child42 wrote: 1. Are there many LO videos? if so do they have something in common? if so to differentiate yours... don't do what they did ... it's as easy as that ... round these parts I think Advent Children would be most noticeable for this problem ... they are either flashy action or lame romance all using the same scenes and all using the same types of music.

Currently, there's about 10 (at best) LO music videos on Youtube, and with the exception of one, they're honestly...not high on the quality scale =/

However, because of the limited and general low quality of stock footage available, just about every single video is simply a montage of the game to various (usually rock) music. The other sort is the 'romance' montage video, for the same pairing, with the same footage, different music =/

The exceptional one was a montage, but one with a certain level of focus and better editing.

Technically, there really isn't a high standard of LO VGMVs. The fanbase simply isn't...rapid enough yet =/

Fall_Child42 wrote: All you have to do to make your LO video different is do something different, try a differnt style of music ... tell a different story ... do something unique and fun.

I don't think mine is really different, just that one of its style would have been made eventually and I was willing to both scour the internet and to extract any bit of high quality footage I could get.

It's a Character Profile, and because it's my first 'official' VGMV (I've done re-dubbing of game openings before), I'm opting for a No Effects simplicity (it fits the video and character anyway).

My next goal after this would be to use Queen's Who Wants to Live Forever, for a real FX-fest, but that's another story...

Fall_Child42 wrote: Though I have to say, looking at examples and trying to emulate them is the exact opposite thing you want to do to make something different.

One good idea to do something different is if people say "you shouldn't do this, or it's wrong to do this, or nobody can do that" you should do that. fuck em'

I need the examples because, given a lack of flexibility and variety in footage, I would like to see what can be done using video effects instead that would make the footage feel 'fresh' even if I have to re-use it eventually.

So, it's not really emulating but a sort of eye-opener on what can be done. At least then, I can get the confidence to try out some of the things I have conceptualized.

YouTube · Post by **Kionon** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 11:41 am

Sayde isn't really that active on the forums, but I am, and I helped him with some of the technical aspects of New Emotion (I think you'll catch my name in the credits). So if you need some help formatting the various footage types to all look pretty together, I'm around here and on #amv. Also your betas are always welcome in #amv-review.

Megamom · Post by **Megamom** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 12:35 pm

Well I have never done one, this way that I cannot help you, but in general I like this type of videoes!!!

Byakko · Post by **Byakko** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 2:05 pm

Kionon wrote:Sayde isn't really that active on the forums, but I am, and I helped him with some of the technical aspects of New Emotion (I think you'll catch my name in the credits). So if you need some help formatting the various footage types to all look pretty together, I'm around here and on #amv. Also your betas are always welcome in #amv-review.

Oh, I read some of the transcripts for from your #amv-review. They freaked the hell out of me @____________@'''

#amv is a regular IRC chatroom right? I haven't used IRC in a while so just double-checking

Anyway, thanks for the help and support ^___^ I *just* managed to get my extractor working, so now I have new footage (though as I found out, not as much as I had hope >_>) My beta should be more or less done by this week, hopefully, though r/l is starting to bark at me to handle it T_T

sayde · Post by **sayde** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 9:03 pm

Kionon wrote:Sayde isn't really that active on the forums, but I am, and I helped him with some of the technical aspects of New Emotion (I think you'll catch my name in the credits).

It's all true. Plus, Kionon really is a good person to go to if you have any questions.
Anyways, I do check my account daily despite my inactivity. So if you want any specific technical advice with rotoscoping, feel free to pm me. I'll usually reply within 24 hours.

sayde · Post by **sayde** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 9:14 pm

btw, if you can get dj_ultima_the_great's to beta your amv, do it. She can get pretty in-depth -- which is always a good thing IMO.

Byakko · Post by **Byakko** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 8:06 am

Okay, because I needed to get it out of my system so that I could get down to actual r/l work this week, I finished up the... - let's not call it Beta, I think it's more of a...Gamma...Delta...prolly Epsilon =/ - of my VGMV.

It's gone as far as I can go for this week >_>

I had several problems converting all the new footage I had, which pissed me off because I've finally figured out what the problem was after I finished, and I'm too tired to go back and sift through them to find more appropriate footage.

So, what I have now is very basically where I'm heading for this VGMV. I'm not sure how to log-on to the IRC channel, so if there's guide, or someone can give me instructions, that would be handy.

Although what I read of the #amv-review channel scares me...

What's the procedure usually, if you want to upload a beta for a select few people to view and give critique on?