Instrumental Anime Project

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 9:57 pm

And on a short note, the next WIP file from me will be up tomorrow morning, so if you haven't seen the latest one - don't bother, as the new one will actually have titles that are placed intelligently

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 9:21 am

(sorry for the already-quadruple post)

Hmm, looks like the FTP is presently down. Tell me when it's back up, since the present version of Ararat is ready for upload - and I'll probably need feedback on it, since it looks pretty good to me (as an editor) right now.

rose4emily · Post by **rose4emily** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 12:20 pm

ftp was down - is now up (i have to unplug my computer to use it in lab across campus on friday mornings).

go ahead with the big Wasteland. it's long enough that the large file makes sense, especially given the care and attention to detail that went into that one.

as to third stone - have just rendered the "bleach" variation that i made. it's got a bunch of little bugs in the rendering that i have to fix (mainly black separator frames from the original scene cuts that are incredably notacable with the brightness settings i used and need to be pasted over with duplicates of the frames before them, but also a few stray frames on the edges of repeated cuts that also need to be edited out). i still haven't finished choosing scenes for the compositing of the currently really lame rain-bridge scene, or fully taking care of the micro-timing issues in a lot of the shorter transitional clips, or the colorizing that i have started but didn't include in the render because i haven't yet figured out how (all i've done so far, though is make the bat red in the intro scenes) - so it still has a long way to go, but i thought i'd try out the alternate look to see if you thought it added anything.

will move files and set permissions in the next few minutes so all new stuff is accessable.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 12:34 pm

Alright, uploading my WIP, waiting for your next version...

rose4emily · Post by **rose4emily** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 1:13 pm

Now available on an FTP site near you:

Otohiko's new Wasteland and Ararat version 1.3

Rose4Emily's Third Stone from the Sun version 1.2

downwithpants · Post by **downwithpants** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 12:47 am

hi guys, my tests are done and finals aren't for another three weeks, so i'll try to pick up on this project.

i borrowed fantasia (the 60th anniversary edition of the original) from the library and watched that. It's pretty neat that in the special features "Making of" section they showed what appeared to be a playbill reading, "From time to time the order and selection of compositions on this program may be changed." which i guess is the premise of the 2000 version. (apparently there was an unreleased section to Clair de Lune among other songs)

Also interesting was Deems Taylor mentioning three types of music: 1) music that was written with a story intended 2) music that was written to evoke imagery 3) abstract music written purely for the sake of music.

As for the narration intro part: maybe we can lip synch anime characters to our voices, or would that be too creepy?

downwithpants · Post by **downwithpants** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 12:50 am

rose4emily:
I watched your third stone video (v 1.2). ~ I haven't watched any of your previous versions, so I don't know what direction your changes have taken.

Start to 1:46: The sequence has a very nice simple, innocent, and summery feel too it. At 1:38 the steam coming from the plant is too hard to see with the brightness of the video, so it's kinda hard to tell what's going on... so if you add color or turn down the brightness it might help there.

1:46-3:02: 1:46 is a nice change to the more energetic sequence of hakura hitting naota with her vespa, but it shows a very motionless scene of naota from 1:49-1:53. Again it seems to get too bright from 2:12-2:20, as the scenes no longer stick to simple close ups of the character's faces (which is easier to pick up under the bleaching), but show more complex scenes where you need more details to see what's going on. 2:26-2:48 looks really nice in the bleaching, with the action matching the development in the music.

3:20-3:47: At 3:20, the scene change is a bit too sudden it seems. We're suddenly moving from naota, minami, and hakura on the bridge to naota at home, but since everything is black and white and bleached, it might be hard to pick that up without prior knowledge of flcl scenes, and then one would be wondering where did minami go and why are they indoors? Maybe a fade transition or a fade to white and back from white would better present the scene change. Ditto with the change to the railroad crossing scene. During the railroad crossing scene, alternating between images of naota and hakura implies some dialogue, which doesn't fit with the music too well.

3:58-4:54: From 3:58-4:14, the scenes seem to a bit to relaxed against the developing music section, which is increasing in complexity and pace. The scene of Minami's cigarette at 4:15-4:19 seems to interrupt the sequence of the preceding and following sequences that would otherwise flow one after the other. But the increasing chaos demonstrated in Hakura, Minami, and Naota's behaviors from 4:19-4:54 are fitting to the music.

4:55-5:20: The video release the tension well at 4:55. At 4:58-5:10 I don't think the bleaching is necessary. We've already seen the simple-texture idea and left it before, so it seems unnecessary to return to it for 12 seconds.

5:20-5:44 works very well with the relaxed section in the music. Actually the bleaching might work well here, after 5:28 where we see the characters.

5:45-6:36: are you going to hold the bridge for that length or is that just filler material for now?

7:14-8:16: This section worked really nice, with minami following kanji while the music develops over a repeating motive in the bass. Is the switch to monochrome (7:21-7:55) intentional or just an experiment?

8:16-9:00 This section seems a bit awkward as the video segment alternates between scenes of stillness or constant expected motion, to scenes of rapid unexpected changes in motion. But with some hammering out it seems like it could work.

9:02-9:20 This section feels out of place as the music has relaxed again. The scene of kanji descending is a bit too effectsy, and it doesn't seem to fit in the direction of the video, looking at the previous and following scenes. In contrast, 9:45-10:05 seems like the video needs more action, as the acoustic guitar plays rapid solos.

10:05-10:18 works wonderfully. The music (both soloing acoustic guitar and supporting violins) is very dissonant over the bass. This really supports the idea of Naota realizing Minami's guilt as arsonist really well. 10:18-11:14 also looks neat with the scribbled japanese text over the free form in the upper instruments. It does end kind of abruptly though at 11:14.

11:14-11:32, although it does lead in to the following section, does at the same time take attention off from the Minami arsonry story to Hakura's ood behavior.

11:32-end: The rest works pretty well. At 13:01, the action in the video continues on, even though music dies down, so it doesn't seem as well supported by the music. It would be nice to see the change to the explosion in the video at 13:18 against to change to the long legato notes in the music at 13:15, if you can get frame by frame editing down. A similar effect was produced at the end of Kevin Caldwell's Engel.

I noticed there are a lot of shots of the power plant throughout the video. Maybe you could explore and develop that as a recurring theme in the video.

rose4emily · Post by **rose4emily** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 2:29 am

Yeah, v1.3 has a lot of special little issues. I do need to drop the lighting some on the far-out detailed shots, as they don't work nearly as well as the close-ups where a few lines are all it takes to see what's going on (actually, I already did to some extent, but only enough to match levels, not enough to reveal the patches of field and such). The black separator frames also seem really intrusive and have to be removed, and the timing is still a bit off on the acoustic guitar solo (it should be syncing up with the lighting on the girders of the bridge) and the final explosions (those are synced to the two notes that fall in their vacinity in the project file, but somehow refuse to line up on the encode).

The black/white sillouette look for the scene with Canti as the "Canti, the God of Fire" standing on the roof of the burnt school and then ascending into the air is intentional. I kinda thought it'd look neat, and really highlight Canti rather than having more attention drawn to Mamimi at that point.

Oddly enough, there were no effects used on the scene of Canti's descent, it just looked like that in the first place. I saw it as a transitional "coming down" scene both in terms of Canti literally coming down and the use of the blue color pallate and the expression worn by Mamimi. This video, while encompasing the other characters, seems to me to be centered on Mamimi, and I thought this was a good place to bring her and Canti back. I also thought the flashing of Canti's lights and the spinning spotlights beneath him actually went well with the re-introduction of the acoustic guitar and bass.

The cut from the "Firestarter" chaos to Haruko and the cat occurs too soon. I have to repeat a bit of the Firestarter bit, though, to bridge the gap and put the transition on the musical change occuring closer to the long-shot view of Haruko rubbing her head along with the violin bows, doing that "crazy" hand-signal just before the similarly looney-sounding line opens in the music, and the cat assaulting her (or is it the other way around) on the acoustic guitar strikes. The hand sticking in the air though, really doesn't fit.

Some of the static scenes you mentioned (actually all of them but the rain-bridge) are places that are static for the purpose of using text there as part of the story. This could be seen in 1.1, but I temporarily took the titles out as I'm looking into a better way to include them that will make them look cleaner and more interesting. These talking scenes are meant to be like a silent movie, where you see a bit of text saying what is being said, and then you see some people moving their lips and making a few gestures that you can interperet as going with the title you were just shown. The actual source of the text is the repeated "nothing amazing happens here, just the ordinary" speech used on the static naota scene in the beginning, and the lyrics from the original Hendrix version of Third Stone from the Sun, which are included in the Naota/Mamimi by the river scenes before Haruko's arrival, on Haruko's arival, in the part where Haruko and Naota are talking by the railroad tracks, and on the scene where Naota and Mamimi are staring at each other just before the cut to the bridge where Mamimi "overflows" and giant robots come out of Naota's head. The actual lyrics from Third Stone are:

strange [Mamimi with glowing eyes]

beautiful [Mamimi embraces Naota from behind]

grass of green [didn't include this one]

with your majestic silken scenes [Mamimi and Naota in sillouette before the river]

your mysterious mountains [steam first comes out of Medical Mechanica]

i wish to see closer [close up of Medical Mechanica]

may i land my kinky machine? [Haruko's entrance on her Vespa of doom]

although your world wonders me
with your majestic superior cackling hen [long-view of Naota and Haruko by railroad]

your people i do not understand [Naota running away from Haruko by railroad]

so to you [naota looking up at nurse Haruko]

I MUST PUT AN END [Haruko draws her guitar and smashes the hospital table]

and you'll never hear surf music again [Naota staring with quivering eyes toward Mamimi][/b]

rose4emily · Post by **rose4emily** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 9:25 am

BTW - it looks like I'll be removing the 16:9 aspect restriction, as it seems I've made the only 16:9 video involved (unless we get to include Wasteland, that is). I originally made that one up to make it easier on people who had to remove subtitles, but it seems that isn't a problem for most of you. As for me - I can always add some black bars when I'm done.

pen-pen2002 · Post by **pen-pen2002** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 2:47 am

Sorry for the absence, I was away for the weekend for a dagorhir event (as if I wasn't enough of a geek already...)

Rose4Emily - DLing new version, sounds interesting.

Otohiko - As far as my vid goes a lot of the flashes or really quick cuts aren't in the final stages so the timing isn't perfect. However there is a good chance that I'm over editing so I'll take a look at that.

Ararat - Defiantly nearing the final version. I saw you made A.R.A.R.A.T more visible, good job on that. There are still two that are hard to read and those are "Door to be opened" and "great evil..." Another one that is readable but might use some tweaking is "continents to be crossed" placement is good but it could stand to be moves a tad up or down so it isn't covered by the white lines on the road. I kind of liked the original placement of "when the struggle ends" because it feels late now since it's after the transition to that section of the video but I'm getting into matters of personal preference here.

One last thing that I think could be improved before the final version. The last fight scene is now a good length but in cutting it down it seems like you have taken out some of the best timing from the long version. I understand that you want to keep the more storylike shots such as the falling weapons and clearing smoke but you do so at the expense of a lot of the failed charges which showcase him never giving up. The missiles don't seem to be timed as well in this version especially the one with the shockwave. They also now take up a disproportionate part of the fight. The shot of the kid looking amazed is also not one of my favorites. In the long version there was some great timing with him being stopped dead in midair and shots of his springing back into the fray. Everything from the pan shot on is great. Maybe this is a personal thing too but I think it's noticeable enough to take another look at it.

Keep up the good work, you're almost there!