Reason to be proud? You be the judge

[SpiXe]

Hey guys, basically i'll make this quick and painless since i'm asking for you time.

AMV Beginners FAQ says it takes weeks if not months to create a good AMV. I worked maybe 14 or 15 Hours, and personally I LOVE my first production. I'm very proud of myself (because I've always wanted to do one), so did I just get lucky and make something nice, or am I just big headed and it really sucks.

I'm not asking for a full review, just take a minute or two and type out what you liked or disliked about it, and rate it at my page. Nothing major. If you like also I would be glad to do the same kind of review on any of yours as well. Help me out guys, should I keep making AMV's?

Spi}{e

[The Non-Professional]

you aint got no link, you aint got no review.

[SpiXe]

Crap, n00b mistake, heres the info...

Link to my page for feedback and download: http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=13413
Link to direct download: www.energize.tc/fatalfury.rar

[SpiXe]

you aint got no link, you aint got no review.

If there was no hold time between posts I would of beat you to that statement.

How bout that review now?

Spi}{e

[longview606]

Already gave an opinion. Could you review
This
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=11762

This
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... php?v=7491

Or This
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=13419

The last one perferably but I dont have it hosted yet so I would have to send it on AIM. Thanks.

[SpiXe]

Will do, appreciate the review/opinion.

I'll review Jaded Gun, I would of reviewed the 3rd but your not online. Look forward to it soon. Thanks btw.

Any other takes on the offer?

[Paul Kievits]

Wow this is your first video?

I downloaded this without any expectations and I must say I'm impressed with what you did with your first video in such little time, with a little improvement you could go ways.

I might actually review this for you, don't hold me to any dates though...

-Paul

[Ashton]

Well, reason to be proud? Maybe. You definately have a long way to come on the technical end. And since thats the easiest part, your in luck. Quick few pointers: Dont EVER encode in rar. I just spent 15 minutes downloading twenty different unrar programs until I found one that actually worked. This is bad. Besides, you only made up 4 megs. You want to know how to make up more than 4 megs really easily? Simple, remove the top and bottum of your video! You have a widescreen video encoded with the black bars. Major "doh!" time! Also, you might make up a lot of quality/space ratio by encoding in XviD or DivX isntead of MPEG (*points finger at self* Im guilty, and will fix my own videos when I get the oportunity.)
Aside from technical problems, I have a SERIOUS problem with your song choice. To be entirely honest the anime doesnt look all that interesting either. But that said, youve done well with the limited means of the concept.
As far as exicution, I have one minor complaint: You used a couple of ultra eye catching/destracting video effects that you probably could have done without (most namely the wierd circular transition)

All the PROBLEMS having been said, I will say that your clip selection was AWSOME for the most part. Something I wish I myself could do better. A lot of your clip choice themes and series as well as the timing really highten the expirience. You really have the hard parts down, you just need to get better footing on your technical side (and please, the mindless rock is really repetative, I think it reflects poorly on you in an unfair way)

Overall, Im going to give you an 83 percent on this. Defiantely fun!

[SpiXe]

Wow I had honeslty given up on asking for anything other then just trading opinions (which seems to work ok).

1. Thank for the compliments to both of you.
2. Now for an explanation:
- I've seen video's compressed in rar and just thought it might save time a bit, but your right it is only 4 Mb so probably not worth it, I'll be sure to change that.
- As for removing the top and button black bars, sounds like a great idea (also letting me get rid of that stupid sonic foundry watermark!) but what program would you recommend to do that?
- The DivX XviD quality is nice and all, but I tend to favor the mpg more. The compression may not be as deep (thus lower file size) but it most always avoid those horrible blocks or horizontal lines you get with a cheap encode. I'd much rather use harddrive space and bandwidth to have a nice clear crisp video then a smaller more compressed one that is blocky and blurred.
- Yes, I do regret putting the circuler motion cut in there, but I wanted an initial reponse to what (at the time) I deemed worthy to get responses on, i also didn't want it just "hard cuts". So I left it in to see if its a thing the viewers honestly dont like or it was just me [that didnt like it...]. Thanks for confirming.

I must say your right in general. I first got into this, thus creating my inspiration, after seeing some street fighter 2 amv's (of course set to rock music) that actually caught my eye. So of course I wanted to replicate the feelings it did for me (cause it wasn't bad at all) so I choose to go with one of those "pointless action set to rock hard music" video's. Accomplished. I have inspiration now for different types of video's. I'm especially interested in making a romantic/dramatic video that can truly hit someone emotionaly, but I'm still looking for the material/anime to do that with. But I'm currently done with the mind numbing endless action and rock music (unless i can inspired for something truly creative).

All in all, I must thank you for all your feedback. This is the kind of feedback I'd rather get then a review (though those are nice for a social basis I'm seeing), because this truly did point out what I need to work on and gave me honest thought out opinions. Thanx a ton for that Ashton (you too Paul Kievits). Hopefully you'll be around on the next vids

-Spi}{e

[Ashton]

- As for removing the top and button black bars, sounds like a great idea (also letting me get rid of that stupid sonic foundry watermark!) but what program would you recommend to do that?
- The DivX XviD quality is nice and all, but I tend to favor the mpg more. The compression may not be as deep (thus lower file size) but it most always avoid those horrible blocks or horizontal lines you get with a cheap encode. I'd much rather use harddrive space and bandwidth to have a nice clear crisp video then a smaller more compressed one that is blocky and blurred.

First off, use AVIsynth to remove the bars. It takes one line of code, and its done nearly flawlessly. But if even something as simple as that is too difficult (IE you need a GUI to see what you are doing) use VirtualDub.
As for refusing XviD, your crazy kid! You really should check out ErMaCs guide. I can garauntee if you fallow the steps carefully, you will be MOST impressed with the results. Also, if you are having problems with ANYTHING (especially the two things mentioned above) read the guide. It should become your technical bible, as it has answers to just about everything.