#2:
Suffers from a couple of mismatched scenes that felt randomly placed and the pacing was incredibly monotonous, it was like each scene was around the same length all meshed together with short crossfades. That being said however, it’s not entirely a bad thing since it gives the AMV a surprisingly fluid flow, just it doesn’t distinguish the difference in the song’s tempo (fast/slow parts), kinda like a merry-go-round instead of a rollercoaster. Anyway the sync and the mood was LOVELY and as a huge Chihayafuru fan, I REALLY REALLY enjoyed the atmosphere of the whole video so it’s pros definitely outweighs the cons (for me), nice job!
#3:
I really did try but I just couldn’t sit through this. XD I’m sorry I have no other comments.
#4:
Felt just like any other generic Toradora romance AMV but with slightly better editing. Your scenes just didn’t really piece out anything clear except there’s a relationship between the two characters so while there’s a concept, it’s not exactly something very interesting. I personally liked the overlays but there were a few sections where I felt you could have did without or had blended them in more subtle/lighter so it’s not so prominent.
#5:
There’s a tonne of lipflap in this which makes it really distracting especially since how it was partially lip synced to the woman...wasn’t really that funny either but concept was ok.
#6:
This felt like it was made by two editors since the first part contained a lot of overlays/noise/film grain effects whereas the second part was more raw and mask/zoom oriented. Not saying it’s a bad thing since it gives the video a more...distinguished feel to each part but that being said, I personally prefer a more consistent effect style throughout. That or you just rushed the ending.
Anyway the AMV itself was beautifully crafted, I hate messy overlays but this one was elegantly styled and the abstract nature of the anime with all the symbolism gave it a slightly trippy yet ethereal feel which felt really nice. A blend of internal and beat sync along with well chosen effects made this one really shine. Though you should really do something about that bad song cut at the end since the outro feels a bit flat and your concept was pretty subtle (by that I mean, hard to get) and non-Penguindrum viewers will most likely be super confused. Bit more polish and this could easily be my new favourite Penguindrum video.
Definitely one of the best in the contest for me, I really enjoyed it. Well done.
#7:
Pretty plain and pacing was slow for the faster/upbeat parts of the song. It’s like there’s some trade-off between consistency and pacing these days, it’s consistent but the pacing just doesn’t match with the song so it felt very very long...but hey, it was kinda cute and I liked the ending.
#8:
Uncropped scenes....D: WHY??? Concept wasn’t very clear but I’m guessing it’s something along the lines of time and guessing from your title it’s to do with running out of time in which case the running scenes do make a little more sense. The mood was pretty awkward though, at times the scene was so serious and dark that it didn’t fit with the song at all and instead of being something upbeat/funny it ended up coming off as weird.
#9:
Dang, this was really well edited! Good font choices and pretty decent lip sync. The mood did feel kinda awkward in parts though, like DRRR feels a tad too serious at times for it to work as comedy except with Kida and Shizuo since they have a lot of expressions to work with (though Shizuo’s is mostly being angry). And Celty missing a head doesn’t help. Also 1:29 with the girl (I forgot her name) just felt stale. I think what you needed was a better source for this audio track. Anyway as someone who often replies to messages late, this actually made me feel a bit bad. Actually I better go reply to those messages like now. XD
#10:
This one was pretty long but at least it was decently edited. I did feel the pacing was too consistent to the point where the pacing felt exactly the same throughout (until the quicker part near the end). I do like how you used some uncommon scenes for this anime because I’ve seen so many videos with this source but never understood the story once. Well at least this one intrigued me slightly more in checking out the source.
#11:
Title reminds me of Pink Haze’s “Trial by Drowning” which had some of the best overlay composition work I’ve ever seen. And I can see some resemblance here though not as sophistically integrated. There’s some really nice transitions in this and I actually liked quite a lot of those overlays though the video gets really chaotic at a few parts and everything’s just so fast I’m like “wait whaaaaat wait for meeee D:” which made it hard to focus on what’s really going on. Though well with a song like that, I can’t imagine anything BUT a fast video, just I wish there were less manual zooms since the footage itself has plenty of motion already. Nonetheless, it was pretty well edited and enjoyable to watch. Good work.
#12:
Way too long and some scenes really dragged on. Mood and storytelling was pretty good though and the AMV would have been pretty awesome if it had more polish.
#13:
I have a feeling you did some repainting in this (especially in the OP) since there’s a few dodgy artifacts you left behind (but don’t worry they’re not that noticeable). Lip sync was pretty stale and weak and parts of the AMV look rushed but the text was stylish and integrated well overall. The masks/colours and effects all fit well together too and the song is catchy, nice, I quite liked this one!
#14:
I can’t find any particular faults with this because I don’t know what it’s supposed to show. It’s mainly just uninteresting.
#15:
Concept got old fast and editing was really bland. Source quality was also pretty questionable at times (namely the uncropped borders and some aliasing). Sorry, it was mostly just uninteresting.
#16:
Pretty nice. Some sync/cuts felt a little off so the flow isn’t very apparent, this issue is more noticeable in the Natsume part, the Dusk Maiden section was actually handled pretty well. I also liked the mood of the video. It’s not really a horror/creepy video because the song’s a little too upbeat for that but it still managed to send a chill down my spine. (I didn’t know Dusk Maiden was THAT creepy, maybe I will watch it afterall xD) I don’t really get the correlation between the two sources though, it’s like you just randomly decided to switch animes midway for no reason but it’s a minor issue since the rest was decent and enjoyable.
#17:
Was pretty funny and lip sync was very well done. I have a suspicious feeling some of the font choices and text effects were deliberately done horribly to match the type of advert it was parodying but I still feel obligated to mention that the glows and shadow effects look ugly. XD
#18:
Lip sync started to get weak after a while and was I the only one who thought it was terribly slow at times? :\ Especially since the song is kinda upbeat. I felt like the concept had a lot of potential to be good though but the editing seemed kinda rushed.
#19:
Well that was an interesting story, though it was a bit short (the jist is, he was tricked). But nice mood/atmosphere shows your song/source combo worked out well together.
#20:
I felt like this could have been really cute with a different song, Sukitte is so drama-oriented, it just doesn’t fit the mood very well. There are also some serious pacing issues and I felt like all the cuts and fades were in the wrong places so the flow felt extremely broken.
#21:
Awesome! I really liked this one especially the sync. I also liked how well the effects blended in together with the footage and added just that tiny bit more to your already superb sync to just make it that more awesome. Only gripes I have is there’s a bit too much camera shaking/panning at some points which you could have did without so the video would look less crazy and more cleaner and some scenes felt a little too fast/sped up, but otherwise, good job!
#22:
Christ that aliasing. >__> I also didn’t really get why you used so many sources unless your common link was just the music theme in each of the animes (which makes Princess Jellyfish the odd one out) but that feels very loose. Could have probably been a pretty good AMV if you had stuck with just Sakamichi on its own since the mood was pretty decent.
#30:
Pretty average with border issues (CROPPPPPP!) Editing was decent but it wasn’t very entertaining unfortunately.
#33:
This one felt like it was made by the same editor as #20 but the song/source combo was actually sweet and would have worked pretty well. Sadly the editing isn’t quite up to par. It’s the exact same problem as #20, I felt like the cuts and fades were in the wrong places and the video didn’t flow smoothly. I also didn’t like those effects used since they looked kinda ugly and there wasn’t much point to them.
#39:
It was okay, some scenes looked a little off coloured but overall, it wasn’t particularly interesting or engaging. Just…ok. Also your intro was really fast and didn’t match with the pacing of the song.
#44:
Those borders! I don’t understandddddd! D: As for the video itself, it’s not my type and neither have I seen the show so I don’t think I have anything constructive to say.
#46:
That was surprisingly good! Editing was decent for the most part and the source was interesting enough to keep me watching even if I wasn’t a huge fan of the instrumental (just didn’t really get into it). The flash at 1:59 looked a tiny tad dodgy though since the scene itself was quite dull and dark.
#48:
One of the nicer romance videos I’ve seen where the progression in relationship is slightly more obvious. Editing was quite flat though and I wish you had hit the quicker beats for a change in pacing so it didn’t feel so boring. But it was a sweet video overall.
#50:
Haha well that one certainly worked well together.
#51:
I said to myself to watch this movie after last year’s pro videos and I still haven’t. Anyway it was generally nicely edited but lacked a little more sync for such an action heavy song but overall, enjoyable. Probably like the first HTTYD video where I actually learned more than just the boy finding a dragon and helping it fly.
#68:
Ellie
this was pretty sweet and the mood was adorable, though it did feel just like any other average Wolf Children AMV. Also I felt a few cuts/fades kinda broke your flow a little but overall it was good.
#70:
Some pretty interesting scenes in there that were different from the usual I’ve seen in FLCL and believe me, I’ve had absolutely zero interest in watching this show but this did pique my curiosity a little. Editing was a bit flat so it wasn’t very engaging for the most part but not bad overall.
#71:
Good theme with the song/source combo but pacing was terribly slow and lacked the sync necessary to make an impact with this song. The lyric sync was decent but I felt like you could have done more with this song.
#72/73:
I don’t think clothes rip that easily. XD
#74:
It’s really hard to take this video seriously (or maybe we weren’t supposed to?) since the song and source combo were so mismatched. It’s just so awkward, like I didn’t know if I was supposed to laugh at certain parts or not because the scene felt comedic but the song was so serious. The editing was decent though and I did like the part where the skies turned dark at around 0:28 though if that’s any consolation.
#75:
Very intense mood and interesting scene selection made it more intriguing than your average EF video. That being said, your scenes really lacked consistency. The same bit of information is constantly being dished out at different intervals in the video and it’s like I get the point already so just move on to something else before it gets boring. Still, it was pretty well edited overall and I liked it.
#78:
This movie looks really interesting but I’m not 100% sure what it’s really about. The old guy seems like a toymaker/movie director but then there’s this younger guy who seemed to have made a robot that could draw but then he died and left it to the little boy and there’s another guy fiddling about with it. The robot seemed to be bringing out cooler/fresher ideas than the old guy who looks to be...jealous? Yeah I don’t get it but it was cool.
#79:
Oh I know who made this one haha. A lot of improvements since the last beta I saw though I’m still skeptical on some of your scenes because I’m not really sure of what you’re trying to show. The pacing and the sync of the action sequences are a LOT better now but the random (mostly memory) scene beatsyncs in midst of the action are quite awkward and broke the flow you had going. Still, it was pretty good.
#80:
Uncropped sceneeeees! D: Anyway I felt like you had a really cool concept but failed drastically in the execution of said concept. Like at 1:25 where you showed the running and the ball scene in corresponding media which was a nice touch but the manga part stuck out because it was 1) not coloured 2) still motion compared to the animated motion/movement in the other two.
Also when handling manga scans, you’re best doing a pre-clean/level/dusting in photoshop just to get rid of the grey dust/noise/artifacts that’s usually generated when saving as jpeg. When using panels on the edge of the page, you SHOULD draw in the missing borders yourself otherwise it just looks awkward. And if possible, you should zoom in so it’s fullscreen (but without it being too pixelated/blurry) so there’s no huge white spaces around the image.
#90:
Gosh all my feels. T__T I’ve seen more than enough Clannad videos but well edited ones like these still manage to get me all sad and teary. Some of your panning was quite heavy and felt distracting after a while and also, I wasn’t sure what you were doing by showing Nagisa being alive at 2:37 enjoying their family moments together and then showing her die at 3:21 with flood of memory scenes afterwards. It definitely gives the video a lot of emotion but would make it extremely confusing for someone who hasn’t seen the anime. Even I was confused and I’ve seen the entire show. But still, THE FEELS. T__T
#95:
Sorry, it was just really boring.
#97:
This had potential to become great but sadly fell short. For a start, it was a mix of comedy and horror because they looked too happy in some of those scenes so overall I ended up laughing at the absurdly mismatched scenes instead of being scared like I should have been. And did you just pick the granny to be their new foster-mother??? XD Also the uncropped borders looked ugly, ugh.
#98:
Forget the editing, the quality was so terrible I couldn’t even get past 30 seconds. I don’t know why you thought it was acceptable to enter an AMV with this video quality into a “professional” contest.
#101:
Good editing and great atmosphere but the source doesn’t really fit the song so it didn’t exactly stand out to me. Also a little confused as to what happened in terms of storytelling.
#102:
Ending was pretty abrupt and the beginning of the AMV felt a little broken, at times it felt like you cut the scene too early so I wasn’t sure what you were trying to show. Once the faster part kicked in though, it got pretty interesting. Nice.
#105:
I’m not overly fond of the fact it was just a condensed version of the 26 episode anime into 4 minutes because it’s an anime with a difficult story to compress. That being said, other than that I don’t exactly know any other way of editing this show either so I won’t chastise you so much about it. XD Hmm...couple of pacing/flow issues where broken flow led to a weird change in pacing. Also wasn’t too fond of the mask transitions since they don’t blend or flow very well with the surrounding scenes. Otherwise, not bad.
#109:
Those shakes...>__> And also the video quality...<__< Was pretty average overall with very average editing. Could have been decent if the video quality was at least cleaner.
#110:
Had potential but still looked bad and was boring to watch. Pacing was actually alright but your scene selection needs some serious work, it felt severely random and Titan isn’t exactly a difficult source to piece a simple story out of :\ also how on earth did you manage to make a new HD show look that bad?
#113:
The effects gave me chills. But not in a good way. The masks looked super obvious and the particle overlays looked a mess, like they were thrown in just to make it look chaotic but didn’t blend well or highlight anything in particular and coupled with that frame blending gave me eye strain after a while. The sync itself was decent and I think the video would have been somewhat quite good if the editing was cleaner. Madoka has such nice animation and not making the best use of that is well...stupid. :\ And ugh that Bevel effect. WHY? D:
#115:
Another one that had potential but was badly executed. Editing needs some improvement. Horrible font choice and horrible text effects. >__> If you’re going to use voiceovers and add subtitles, at least make them seem more like readable subtitles. Most of your idea was heavily reliant on what was being said and little on your scenes, they almost seem like an accompaniment, randomly selected just to accompany the audio so most of the time they felt kinda pointless and unimportant. Nonetheless, despite all the flaws it was enjoyable which I couldn’t say for many of the videos I’ve watched in the contest so far.
#132:
No idea what happened but that was certainly dramatic. Story wise I mean. Editing wise was pretty average. Audio quality was kinda meh too and BORDERS. D:
#134:
I have zero idea of what you were trying to sync. It feels like lyric sync but then there’s some that look fairly obvious like beat sync but they missed the beats so they’re not really synced either...
Pacing was all over the place, a complete mess and you cut and crossfaded the clips in the strangest places ever so the flow was non-existent. I just don’t know what the hell you were trying to do with this video. Also horrible banding and watermark being visible the entire time don’t get you any bonus points either.
#135:
I think you entered this into the wrong contest. Oh my god those subtitles and that divx logo.
#136:
Oh god, this hurt my eyes. Why on earth did you switch between first and third person scenes? Actually, why on earth did you even use so many sources? There’s nothing in common to link them together and the sync was pretty bad too. But LOL @ 1:53.
#138:
Are you telling me there’s actually a manga out there about fish?!?! XD Haha this was pretty hilarious! Just some quality issues where too much zoom into the pages led to some pixelation.
#140:
The text was a bad idea and some scenes looked questionable. Otherwise pretty decent.
#163:
Probably one of the craziest list of sources ever, I mean Hellsing and Idolmaster in the same video? There’s like all this blood and violence then suddenly it cuts to brightly dressed girls dancing. O__o Despite that though, it did have a pretty chill upbeat mood which was nice even if it dragged on for too long (I thought it was going to end at 2:18). Also great flow.
#167:
That border at 1:39...D: The flow/pacing just felt awkward in this one, I’m not sure what the problem is exactly but it just didn’t feel right to me. Maybe it was your cuts? Or perhaps the transitions. Otherwise, scene selection was pretty good and the mood was nice. Overall it was decent but nothing that stood out.
