Bleach AMV "Beyond The Precipice"

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Qyot27
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Post by Qyot27 » Mon Feb 27, 2006 8:14 pm

Kira_Douji wrote:I have the AMVapp (as noted in the AMV description which I guess no one reads :roll: ). I've Read <a href=http://www.a-m-v.org/guides/avtech31/>ErMaC & AbsoluteDestiny's Friendly AMV Guides</a> and followed their instructions exactly, so that's not the issue with the XviD encode, really, it's just the encoder itself not being able to compress that small and still look good. This was then compounded by the fact that I used a wav instead of an mp3, creating the large filesize which I was trying to overcome by making XviD compress smaller. What I should have done instead was change the wav to an mp3 and compress normally.

However, all I can do now is watch VDM pump out a HUGE Direct Stream Copy version of the currently released video and wonder how in the world this is supposed to be smaller than its wav counterpart.... Qyot27? The mp3 itself is smaller, but after I added it in, disabled the wav and chose "Direct Stream Copy" ... it's giving me a projected filesize of well over 2 gigs. Can you think of why this might be?

- Kira
Are you feeding it the XviD file or the AVS script? AVS scripts feed it uncompressed video. That's the only thing I can think of that would make it do that.
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Post by Kira_Douji » Mon Feb 27, 2006 8:37 pm

Hm, I'm just feeding it the XviD... *ponder* I'll try again when I finish forcing my CPU to an early death. Who knows? Maybe fewer applications will help.

- Kira
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Post by silver_moon » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:34 pm

Kira_Douji wrote:Am I the only one who's browser shows a local download? /worried.
I guess it just wasn't up yet when I started downloading the video. I can see the local link there now. :)
Kira_Douji wrote:As for the video... Could you clarify what you mean by "not much variation in the editting"? I'm afraid I don't really understand what you mean. Were too many of my cuts the same length? Not enough variation in the filters I used? Something else entirely? :?: I'd like to be able to improve my editting, so if you could flesh out exactly what you mean, I'd find it very useful.
What I mean by not much variation... yes, I do kind of mean a lot of the cuts were the same length. But more I meant that, when the music gets quieter or faster, you kind of just kept the same pace. The scenes didn't slow down any, the mood stayed the same, and the length of the clips stayed the same. When the music speeds up I expected the video to go faster and to have more energy and for you to cut clips faster. Also, when there were new sounds in the song, like a guitar solo comes in, I expected you to do something special in the video just to time to the guitar sounds, and to accent how the song changes. Like how later in the song when there were cymbal crashes, I kept wanting you to sync to them.
Kira_Douji wrote:Towards your other comment: does the video have to "go somewhere"? I wasn't attempting to tell a story with this, it's merely a showcase piece. "This is the dark side of Bleach". Are you saying that I should have chosen a different topic or that you expected more from the topic I gave? If the latter, what would have furthered the intent of the video?
I guess I just had trouble seeing how the scenes related to each other. It was kind of like "here's a section about these couple of characters" then "here's another section". To me it just would've seemed more dramatic if you'd have shown how the sections were related to each other in the storyline.
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Post by Kira_Douji » Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:03 pm

silver_moon wrote:I guess it just wasn't up yet when I started downloading the video. I can see the local link there now. :)
Phew. I was getting worried there.
silver_moon wrote:What I mean by not much variation... yes, I do kind of mean a lot of the cuts were the same length. But more I meant that, when the music gets quieter or faster, you kind of just kept the same pace. The scenes didn't slow down any, the mood stayed the same, and the length of the clips stayed the same. When the music speeds up I expected the video to go faster and to have more energy and for you to cut clips faster. Also, when there were new sounds in the song, like a guitar solo comes in, I expected you to do something special in the video just to time to the guitar sounds, and to accent how the song changes. Like how later in the song when there were cymbal crashes, I kept wanting you to sync to them.
Well, your meaning is much clearer now, thank you for taking the time to explain that. I don't think I really could have gone much faster with the clips during the "speed up" moments, so I guess my major failing there was scene selection. I tried to find more energetic sequences (mainly the battles, or just many shorter clips with some simple motion to them) but I guess I need to work on that a bit more.

There was one guitar solo where I synced the whole scene to just the guitar and drums: the fight scene between Hitsugaya and Gin in the first half of the video. Am I right to assume this isn't one of the parts that you are referencing? I just want to know so I have something to compare to; in general I understand what you mean. I agree that I probably could have used the symbols to my advantage more, but I was a little afraid of ending up with a video that had far too many white flashes. ^^;; I'll work on that, then.

silver_moon wrote:I guess I just had trouble seeing how the scenes related to each other. It was kind of like "here's a section about these couple of characters" then "here's another section". To me it just would've seemed more dramatic if you'd have shown how the sections were related to each other in the storyline.
That was more by design, actually. It was segmented to go with the feeling of distortion, with the separate sections melding at the end. I see your point, though. Perhaps the video would have been better had I decided to use that method. Definately something to think about for my next try.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and give such thoughtful commentary. I promise to make good use of it. ;)

- Kira
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Bakadeshi
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Post by Bakadeshi » Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:51 pm

Kira_Douji wrote:I have the AMVapp (as noted in the AMV description which I guess no one reads :roll: ). I've Read <a href=http://www.a-m-v.org/guides/avtech31/>ErMaC & AbsoluteDestiny's Friendly AMV Guides</a> and followed their instructions exactly, so that's not the issue with the XviD encode, really, it's just the encoder itself not being able to compress that small and still look good. This was then compounded by the fact that I used a wav instead of an mp3, creating the large filesize which I was trying to overcome by making XviD compress smaller. What I should have done instead was change the wav to an mp3 and compress normally.

However, all I can do now is watch VDM pump out a HUGE Direct Stream Copy version of the currently released video and wonder how in the world this is supposed to be smaller than its wav counterpart.... Qyot27? The mp3 itself is smaller, but after I added it in, disabled the wav and chose "Direct Stream Copy" ... it's giving me a projected filesize of well over 2 gigs. Can you think of why this might be?

- Kira
Ok i'll admit I didn't even look at the video, i was just responding to Qyot27's post ;p However to answer your question on the filesize... are you opening the Xvid vile via AVIsynth option in virtualdubmod or directly to virtualdub? Remember there are 2 options, Open file... and Open File via avisynth... if you use the second one that would also explain the high file size even though you opened the xvid file since AVIsynth would be converting it to raw data then feeding that to virtualdub.

To make things easier, I'll just explain the whole process from start to finish, so maybe you can see where your going wrong:

Open the file via "Open File...", first option on the virtualdubmod file menu. once that is open, go to "Video", select "Direct stream copy".
then go to "Streams" menu, select "Stream list". It will open a window with the WAV audio as an available stream. Right click on that stream in the window, and select "Full Processing Mode" from the menu that comes up. Then Right click again and select Compression. ANother box pops up, Select "Lame MP3" on the left panel (assuming you installed Lame MP3 from the amvapp) and select a bitrate from the right hand side. "44100Hz 192Kbps CBR Stereo" is usually what I like to use, but 160 and 128 can be used to conserve a little more space if you wish. Always choose CBR options though since VBR ones tend to desynch when playing back. That should work, if it doesn't you can ask me for more help via PM or whatever.

As for the video itself, I'll check it out after you compress your audio :wink:

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Post by Kira_Douji » Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:05 pm

I got the Direct Stream Copy to work. Only thing I changed was how many programs were running. :roll: So, aside from losing the original video and my computer being possessed.... everything's good now! I took down the ridiculously long download link and put up an indirect/direct link to the smaller file. I tried making an MP4 version, and although it (finally) syncs, due to not having the original video file... it's about the same quality. However, when the site admins remove the current local download, I'll be putting the MP4 up instead. Even if it's only the same quality, it's still smaller.

le sigh.

This is why patience is a virtue, I guess. :evil:

- Kira
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Post by Bakadeshi » Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:24 pm

as I said i would, I checked it out, and I have to agree with Silvermoon, that black border thing is anoying ;p Its good for the begining, but it starts to just be in the way after a while.

but ignoring that, I liked what you did for the most part as far as editing and effects usage goes. You know how to time and edit your clips well, no question there. However I do have to agree with silvermoon also on the point that the scenes seemed kinda random, in that I couldn;t realy tell where you were going, or what message you were trying to give with the video. Especially since the lyrics are in Japaneses and I can't tell realy well if you were lyric matching or not. If you ment for the video to just be random action, Thats not so much a bad thing either, but then I think the editing pace shouldve been faster, at least on the faster parts of the songs, to make it more interesting as a random action video. As a bleach fan, I have to give it about a 3.5/5 as it stands. I have yet to find a 5/5 bleach video in my eyes though....

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Post by Kira_Douji » Wed Mar 01, 2006 12:42 pm

Thanks for returning to comment. ^^; As far as the border thing goes... yeah, I've officially nixed any plans for border usage in my next amv. :roll: Ah well, you live, you learn.

Also, adding variation in timing/editting to my checklist. I should probably find a video beta... *goes about figuring that out* I'm finding that there is a real hazard in using non-English songs for videos when your audience is going to be English speaking. In my opinion, the lyrics do fit the imagery, but there's no real way of establishing that since I can't properly translate the meaning of each line. :( I guess I was a bit too ambitious in terms of how many characters I covered, although it really was supposed to be a "this is the soul society arc" sort of thing, not a story like Zetsumo, per say.

At any rate, thanks for the critique and on to the next project. ^_^;

- Kira
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Qyot27
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Post by Qyot27 » Wed Mar 01, 2006 2:40 pm

After having downloaded and watched it...

One thing that I did particularly like was the way the motion flowed together. It reminds me of something, but I'm not quite sure what exactly. Kind of a cinematic quality, I guess.

I'm really shooting myself in the foot watching all these Bleach videos when I haven't started on the series yet, despite the fact that I have up to episode 67 archived. :roll:
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Post by Kira_Douji » Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:04 pm

Qyot27 wrote:One thing that I did particularly like was the way the motion flowed together. It reminds me of something, but I'm not quite sure what exactly. Kind of a cinematic quality, I guess.
^_^ That comment made me really happy. I tried hard to maintain a flow to the video, so seeing someone comment on it is really ... I can't find the words either. heh. Thanks. :D
Qyot27 wrote:I'm really shooting myself in the foot watching all these Bleach videos when I haven't started on the series yet, despite the fact that I have up to episode 67 archived. :roll:


Oh geez! You've just seen... nearly every spoiler in the Soul Society Arc :?

- Kira
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