Spare me the After Effects!

dwchang · Post by **dwchang** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 5:59 pm

And I know i'm gonna get shit for this shameless self-promotion, but I'm guessing you wanted a copy of my video. You can find it here:

Glory of Love

Enjoy!

Dannywilson · Post by **Dannywilson** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 6:03 pm

It saves me time and produces better results than Premiere on things like subtle blurs, glows, masking, and text. I use it as a tool, not as a crutch; the best effects are the ones the audience thinks the original animators did.

dwchang · Post by **dwchang** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 6:05 pm

Dannywilson wrote:It saves me time and produces better results than Premiere on things like subtle blurs, glows, masking, and text. I use it as a tool, not as a crutch; the best effects are the ones the audience thinks the original animators did.

Totally agree. I love doing something with the footage that looks like it was part of the original show.

I did that a number of times in "Glory of Love," but no one notices...oh well. Someone has told me that the audience sort of DOES know in that they like it, but don't know why.

I also agree that it's not a crutch, but a tool to enhance what you have.

Nappy · Post by **Nappy** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 6:30 pm

I feel lazy when I make dramas :l

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 7:10 pm

I don't use After Effects.

paizuri · Post by **paizuri** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 7:18 pm

Me neither.

Koopiskeva · Post by **Koopiskeva** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 7:29 pm

Magix and MSpaint 4 lyfe |:

nailz · Post by **nailz** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 7:48 pm

i did my lain video with MSPaint.

jonmartensen · Post by **jonmartensen** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 7:56 pm

trythil wrote:I don't use After Effects.

I wonder why

Ashyukun · Post by **Ashyukun** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 9:26 pm

As one of the people whose video in the Otakon contest made fairly noticeable use of After Effects (I'd assume it was fairly noticeable at least), it's kind of hard not to respond to something like this...

If you didn't enjoy the rest of the contest, I'm sorry the rest of us failed so miserably in our editing efforts in your eyes (though I'm glad you enjoyed dwchang's Glory of Love at least). Unfortunately, whether you like it or not, the videos we make are ultimately made with our own visions of what they should be like, and most of us don't specifically make videos catering to the whims of the audience (with a few exceptions that intentionally do so to make a point- and, to the best of my knowledge, did not need to use AE...). It should be noted that if we did really just aim to give the audience what they wanted (at least the vocal majority of them), you would see a whole lot more in the way of effects in AMVs, because that's what your garden variety viewer seems to like (that, and Vash dancing...

).

Whether OMG Soopah l33t k00l effects are necessary or not is up to the concept the editor has, and in many cases these days AE (and other equivalent editing tools for those who use other weird things

) is a very powerful tool to help the editor express what they want to, whether it be by using an effect to highlight and important scene or to create a scene that simply didn't exist before. I've been in this game in effect for upwards of 7 years- when I first got started, the only thing we could really do effectively with the computers was to not be tied down to doing everything linearly and being able to lay up a timeline in whatever order we wanted. We were very much tied down to the footage on hand, and making any kind of modification to it took far, far more time than it was generally worth. These days, our tools are more powerful, and it is far easier to make the video show exactly what we want it to instead of having to compromise on our vision because the footage doesn't exist.

If you don't like this, I'm sorry- there are plenty of videos (a number of mine included) that use almost no effects, but are extraordinarily good, and there are still ones being made. But I do not expect, all told, for there to be a complete reversion of everyone dropping all use of effects in videos.

That said, I do to an extent agree with some of your underlying problem with the proliferation of effects and its influence on videos. Dwchang touched quite well on this in that in some cases, effects are used to cover up a lack of solid concept. For the most part, a video that is nothing but effects with no idea or theme behind it is just going to look like a bunch of randomly thrown together effects. I think that assuming the basic concept does not call for effects (i.e., Dragon Bebop Z, Transcending Love, Chibi Things That Kill) they should only be used if they truly further the original concept of the video, not just because, "You know, a lens flare would look uber cool here."

There will always be people with differing tastes in videos. Some people will look at something like Glory of Love and yawn and look for something flashier, while others will see something like Stop the Rock and gag at the effects and look for something simpler. We all like different things and have different ideas- and it would be nice if we all got along.

The AMV world should be built on "Love and Peace!"

AnimeMusicVideos.org

Spare me the After Effects!

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