Well, it took me three years of working on this monster, but I think it was worth the effort. (Details regarding this time span and all the pitfalls and triumphs therein are on the video page.) However, I will say this: if you like action, please take a look at this video.
It is the single most ambitious AMV that I have ever attempted, and I put untold hours into its completion. I will readily admit that "Diamond Dust" is still a far cry from some of the amazing videos I have seen on this site over the years, it is honestly my best attempt to master the action genre. That said, I will happily accept any critique you might toss my way. Good, bad, or indifferent, I cannot improve if no one speaks up.
Enjoy!
3 years of silence....
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Moonlessnight
- Joined: Fri Nov 12, 2004 4:15 pm
3 years of silence....
There is nothing like a moonless night to watch a few AMVs.
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Mastamind
- Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 8:35 pm
Re: 3 years of silence....
I'll cut the silence.
Cool video! A few things I'll pitch in:
The editing itself is great, you have a good sense of pacing and you brought out a very action-y feel. But that sequence from 0:33 to 0:40 could've been cooler if you stuck to the tight beat synch, but it started getting a little out of place towards the end. And careful at 0:24, looks like your lip-synching screwed up the background's panning few frames. The repeated scene at 5:06 was also pretty awkward.
The visual quality may be the biggest downer in your AMV. Interlacing+resizing is ugleee in more than a few places (1:22 and 3:11, for example), the letterboxes were distracting, and overall the quality was pretty poor. Cleaning up all your footage is very tedious of course, especially with so many sources, but it's a shame that the video quality detracted from the viewing experience here.
The effort you put into this video is obvious; the scene selection and the editing job seem painstakingly done, and that made it enjoyable. Some more polishing and attention to quality could have made it even more enjoyable, though. Still, fun to watch and good job
Cool video! A few things I'll pitch in:
The editing itself is great, you have a good sense of pacing and you brought out a very action-y feel. But that sequence from 0:33 to 0:40 could've been cooler if you stuck to the tight beat synch, but it started getting a little out of place towards the end. And careful at 0:24, looks like your lip-synching screwed up the background's panning few frames. The repeated scene at 5:06 was also pretty awkward.
The visual quality may be the biggest downer in your AMV. Interlacing+resizing is ugleee in more than a few places (1:22 and 3:11, for example), the letterboxes were distracting, and overall the quality was pretty poor. Cleaning up all your footage is very tedious of course, especially with so many sources, but it's a shame that the video quality detracted from the viewing experience here.
The effort you put into this video is obvious; the scene selection and the editing job seem painstakingly done, and that made it enjoyable. Some more polishing and attention to quality could have made it even more enjoyable, though. Still, fun to watch and good job
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Moonlessnight
- Joined: Fri Nov 12, 2004 4:15 pm
Re: 3 years of silence....
Many thanks, Mastamind! This is the first good thing anyone has had to say about this video. I readily acknowledge the interlacing issues and the letter-boxing issue is my worst editing nightmare (my software didn't scale ratios well before its most recent patch, distorting things to fun-house proportions).The editing itself is great, you have a good sense of pacing and you brought out a very action-y feel.
In all the places you mentioned though, the interlacing and letter boxing stems from footage salvaged from a hard drive crash. ...Yeah. It didn't fair well, to say the least. Unfortunately, those discs were lost in my move two years ago and I refuse to download the footage online (I would rather own the discs and I fear the US copyright people trolling most torrent sites). I think I might have left them at the ex's place, but can't say for certain, which is heart-rending in and of itself. If I can ever find those discs again or obtain new copies, I will happily remaster this AMV.
On a side note, if you ignore the black bars, it plays beautifully on my tv. Then again, I am playing a relatively uncompressed version of this vid there. In short, I think my web encoding skills have lost their polish in three year's time. **shurgs** I will read a few more encoding tips, hunt down the new versions of some of my old tools, and definitely do better next time. Promise.
There is nothing like a moonless night to watch a few AMVs.