Vivaldi wrote:I believe after you reach a certain level of involvement in the hobby, you start to see amvs as srs business because you witness the depth and breadth of film editing and design as a medium, and try to apply that realization to amvs. You see how deep the rabbit hole goes, and try to give all that creative potential to the only outlet we know.
Then, after a certain threshold, we start applying ourselves to OC, or the bigger picture, and amvs become fun again.
The funny part is a lot of people who end up getting caught up in the technical or design aspects end up not producing videos so much anymore. It comes from setting the bar too high in effort to make a video that's up to your new found standards, but these higher standards become counter productive when you realize how little you're putting into practice. At least, that's what happened with me. You can't
completely learn mistakes out of your creative process and in the end, you're better off producing something with errors rather than producing nothing because it's somehow 'not right' or up to your own standards.
I'm subscribed to a lot of people on youtube who just edit for heck of it. They release a dozen videos a year and while at times, they are not up to 'standards,' you can see more creativity and experimentation in their work than you would in the person that is an encyclopedia of FX and editing knowledge because they're actually out there DOING SOMETHING. They may not have the technical understanding to explain the montage or design theory behind their work, but because they've gotten all that practice in, they're able to just do it and have more fun in the process because they're not getting caught up in the technical side of things.
But let's be real for a second, many of us, including myself, like the standards we set for ourselves. We like to get critiqued for our work and think that we do really is serious business. So it's hard for some of us to sit back and just do 'whatever.' What I'm trying to do with myself is find a balance between the two. I do think a lot of the technical aspects do help me with my work, but I have to acknowledge at some point that the knowledge for stuff like this is unlimited and that I wont be able to make up for my flaws in the technical side of things. I've resolved to flat out, just make videos. The technical stuff that I know will help me make them better but I wont get caught up in them that I wont finish a video because it's just not up to my own standards. This is a creative process in which you learn by doing. If you stop half way, you've missed out on half the knowledge. Push yourself to get work done because doing so will help you in finding solutions to the very problems that get you stuck. You cant think bad decisions out of your system.
I'll end with something a friend told me that I think a lot of people can learn from:
There was a point where I felt I couldn't come up with an idea that was worth spending huge amounts of time and effort on, or that I couldn't make an animation that would do justice to a great idea. Ultimately I've come to the conclusion that what's important is to *make things*, and not to worry about the outcome. I can't 'think' bad decisions out of my system, I have to actually make the bad decisions in order to learn. And there's a lot to learn, from storytelling to continuity, shape design and readable silhouettes, gestalt and contrast, value and colour composition, principles of animation, etc. I can't get any of this right until I've got it wrong a few times
Maybe it's just me who is like this with their work? but I thought it'd be nice to share with everyone else just in case it could help them.
and love what we do. 
