My new Elfen Lied amv ;D

Aerialesque · Post by **Aerialesque** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:02 pm

Hey guys, I have a new amv to share with you. ^^

<a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... mption'</a>
Anime: Elfen Lied
Music: 'Candlelight,' by Imogen Heap

This is my first video I have to show from using Vegas 6.0.

(yes...I've finally moved on from WMM, haha). It took me a little while to adjust to the program, but thanks to Ladymercury's tutorial, it was whole lot easier than I thought it would be. Any thoughts/opinions/criticism would be much appreciated. I hope you'll check it out. XD

Orwell · Post by **Orwell** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:48 pm

Third option: Compress the audio. Unless there's a specific reason not to, always compress the audio.

Aerialesque · Post by **Aerialesque** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 1:05 pm

Ah, okay...I will do that next time. ^^

dj_ultima_the_great · Post by **dj_ultima_the_great** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 8:17 pm

I had downloaded this a few days ago, but I hadn't gotten around to watching it until just now.

I found this to be a somewhat surreal video. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was because it was relatively bloodless, and I always found the story of Elfen Lied to be more intriguing than the violence. It has decent beat sync (although there isn't much of a beat to speak of), but it's the mood sync that holds this up the most. I do kind of wish that you had done more around 2:26, when the cymbal beat kicks in. The video seemed to be edited the same way the whole way through, and that would have been a great area to kick it up a little more. Maybe with effects, maybe with just quicker scene changes or more action. That's up to you. I just felt like it needed more.

Overall, I really did like this video, although it's probably not a keeper for me. However, I do recommend it to fans of the series.

I said it with your last video, and I'll say it again. You're a good editor with a strong future if you just keep up what you're doing and continue working hard to improve even more. ^_^

- Jen

Aerialesque · Post by **Aerialesque** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 4:28 pm

Thank you so much for the review. I agree with your suggestions, and I'll continue to keep working to make my videos better. I appreciate your encouragement, it really makes me want to keep going. ^^

MaximoffZero · Post by **MaximoffZero** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 6:55 pm

Hey there,

I'm new here and I just happened to stumble on this post. You did a good job on this video. I liked how the cuts were rapid even though the song was slow and you definitely got your idea across of showing the more sentimental side of Elfen Lied.

The only problems I had are:

1) like Orwell said, you should compress the audio.

2) Since the vid is widescreen, you should crop the letterbox bars off of the video (and change the resolution) so people with widescreen monitors like me can view it in actual fullscreen. I don't use Vegas so I don't know if it lets you do that or not, but do it if you can.

3.) This can't be helped sometimes, but I personally think it looks awkward when there is no lip sync intended and yet the character's mouth is still moving. That might just be though and like I said sometimes it can't be helped.

Overall, you did a good job and I think that dj_ultima_the_great is right in saying that you are a good editor with a strong future (if anything more than me). I left you an opinion. Keep up the good work!

Aerialesque · Post by **Aerialesque** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 1:56 pm

First off, thank you so much for your opinion.

I understand about the audio and the parts where there's no lip synch but the characters' mouths are moving...that all could have been fixed. But about the letterboxes...I wasn't sure whether I was better to leave them in, or cut them out. For some reason, I thought I was supposed to have them in there, to have a 4:3 ratio. The other way to do that would have been to cut off parts on the sides, and that didn't seem like a good idea. So you're saying it's okay to just leave it in 760x360 format (in my case)? I have no problem with that, I just wasn't sure what was best for me to do, haha.

Anyway, thanks again for the detailed reply, (and for the opinion!)...I really appreciate it! ^^

MaximoffZero · Post by **MaximoffZero** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 4:56 pm

You're Welcome! No problem!

And about the widescreen bars, what you should do (if it's possible) is crop off all of the black lines and put it at either one of these two resolutions on your output:

720x406
640x360

If some one is watching it on a normal 4:3 monitor (or TV), it will add the black bars as needed while the video is being watched in full-screen so you don't need to worry about the shape (as long as you set it for one of the above resolutions). Doing this will also make the video look a little better because the compressor you're using won't be wasting it's bitrate on encoding black bars and it can fully concentrate on compressing the actual video.

Anyway, I hope that helps!

Aerialesque · Post by **Aerialesque** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 6:33 pm

Oh, okay! ^^ I understand now. Thank you, that definitely helps! ;D