Deadlines not until may 1st. You've got time bluetrain. Just take it easy.bluetrain wrote: -I am unable to send a 10-20sec clip to either sayde or jen at this time. Maybe i will be able to tomorrow depending on whether or not i can salvage some data.
Project FMV: Official Thread (released!)
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AMV_4000
- Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2002 6:29 am
- Location: USA
- Contact:
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bluetrain
- Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:54 am
- Location: Australia
- Contact:
Right my bad... why was i under the impression it was april 1st? This better not have been a sick joke... *Sigh*sayde wrote:Deadlines not until may 1st. You've got time bluetrain. Just take it easy.bluetrain wrote: -I am unable to send a 10-20sec clip to either sayde or jen at this time. Maybe i will be able to tomorrow depending on whether or not i can salvage some data.
*one day something with some effort will reside here*
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MioMug
- Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2005 10:13 am
- Location: My mind, its quite comfy here.
Well considering that the May 1st deadline was posted before today, I'd say your all rightbluetrain wrote:Right my bad... why was i under the impression it was april 1st? This better not have been a sick joke... *Sigh*sayde wrote:Deadlines not until may 1st. You've got time bluetrain. Just take it easy.bluetrain wrote: -I am unable to send a 10-20sec clip to either sayde or jen at this time. Maybe i will be able to tomorrow depending on whether or not i can salvage some data.
Hope your computer comes out of rehab ok.
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bluetrain
- Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:54 am
- Location: Australia
- Contact:
I love your mep track Arkada. Probably my favourite of the mix!
Yeah today is about the earliest i'll find out whether or not i have to upgrade or replace completely. Let's hope its better value to jest go out and buy a whole new computer!! That would be the ultimate situation... then i could strip the old machine of useful parts and try to sell the rest! Winner!
I think i'll maintain my rushful way of thinking, because it means i'll have everying done on time... *hopefully*
Yeah today is about the earliest i'll find out whether or not i have to upgrade or replace completely. Let's hope its better value to jest go out and buy a whole new computer!! That would be the ultimate situation... then i could strip the old machine of useful parts and try to sell the rest! Winner!
I think i'll maintain my rushful way of thinking, because it means i'll have everying done on time... *hopefully*
*one day something with some effort will reside here*
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Dark Seraphim
- Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2005 1:47 am
- Location: Manhattan,NY
- Contact:
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dj_ultima_the_great
- Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2003 7:52 pm
- Status: Resident Videogame Editor
- Location: Wisconsin
Okay, I have a number of points to address, so expect this to be a decently long post. But please read all of it. Let's get the responses out of the way first.
@angel234: I appreciate the offer, but I'd rather keep it at four "official" testers. The more testers I have, the longer it's going to take for everyone to get a track that's been approved as "finished" by all of them. As always, though, please offer feedback on this thread when you see someone post a beta. I'm sure everyone would appreciate hearing opinions from their peers on the project.
@bluetrain: sorry to hear about your computer. I can sympathize, since I was having some pretty serious issues too, right about when I first started this project. If you have any problems making a deadline because of this in the future, make sure to let me know. I don't want to crack the whip at someone who's just having computer problems that aren't their fault at all. Also, I'll update your beta testing information on the main page after I'm finished with this post. Furthermore, I'm very sorry about switching the deadline for the lossless footage so suddenly. It honestly wasn't meant to be an April Fools' scare to anyone. It's just that when sayde said that he'd like to change his deadline, I thought it would be better for me to give people more time as well. (Besides, it's easier to remember to submit several things on one deadline than it is to remember to submit several things over multiple deadlines.)
I mentioned this in my last post, but it bears mentioning again because I've decided to change the policy slightly. While I definitely encourage (and appreciate) posting links of your betas in this thread to share with everyone, please remember to PM me with the link. That way, I can send it to the other three testers myself and I'll know for sure that they got it.
Another thing that I think may be of benefit to some of you would be to watch what I consider the three best (serious) MEPs to date. If you've never seen them, they're a real treat to watch. Also, though, pay attention to how each track flows into the next one. See how whether there are a ton of effects or no effects at all, the people still had tracks that complimented each other and were edited brilliantly.
Ayumix: D a y b r e a k - about as close to MEP perfection as I've ever seen so far. It uses a hoard of effects in terrific ways, and all of the editors put in tremendous amounts of effort.
Demons Within - uses effects, but it's mostly good old-fashioned beat sync. Our project will probably be most similar to this one.
The "Unearthed" Project - the reigning MEP king of mood sync. If you're having troubles picking scenes for your music, watching this may inspire you a bit.
I'm not telling anyone to copy the styles of these projects. However, I am suggesting that watching some of the most successful projects with a critical eye might help you to improve your track (and your fellow editors' tracks) just a little bit more.
With that all said, I come to my last (and longest) point. Please don't think I'm picking on you, angel234, but your track brought up an issue that I think everyone could learn from. An issue that I'd rather stave off before it becomes a real problem.
NOTE: if you're using fullscreen footage that doesn't have any kind of borders to worry about, then skim this section anyway, but it shouldn't apply to you.
Technical stuff is not, nor has it ever been, my strong point. However, I know enough to get by, and I do know how to make sure that we have a project that comes out looking nice. For that to happen, though, I'll need your help. On that note, I give you Exhibit A:
There are a number of things wrong with this.
1. Black borders on the sides. The borders needed to be cropped off and the image needed to be resized proportionally (the example is below).
2. Footage is mediocre quality. It's watchable, but it needed to be smoothed via Avisynth, or to a lesser extent, a VirtualDubMod filter.
3. Effects should NOT go off onto the borders. To remedy this, edit your footage without the borders, and then add them onto the finished product. Alternatively, if your footage already had borders to begin with, you can edit your footage as is, then use the Avisynth command crop() to get rid of the junk on the border and addborders() to create new, clean borders.
4. You can't see this from the images I posted (because I downsized them for the sake of not cluttering the post with huge pictures), but the overall resolution was too large. It was 740x480, and I had asked for 640x480.
I corrected three out of the four errors myself and this was the result:
1. Got rid of the borders on the sides.
2. (see farther down)
3. Cropped off the borders on the top and bottom to get rid of the extra glow from the effects spilling over and then added new, evenly proportioned black borders in their place.
4. Resized image proportionally to 640x480.
You'll notice that I keep using this lovely word "proportion" over and over. That is the key. Everything you do, you must do proportionally or you will have squished or stretched footage - and that always looks terrible. Look at this Avisynth script to see what I did to make the second image:
The last resize isn't technically necessary I think, but I added it in just to show you that that was the resolution I ended up at. Notice that I cropped odd amounts off of each side. You should expect this from your VG footage - especially if you captured - since it's almost never as precise as DVDs. The important part is that the borders you add yourself are even in pixel count on both sides. It would look very odd if you had 100 pixels of black on the top of the video and 30 pixels on the bottom. Also notice that I never changed the proportions of the image.
The one thing I was not able to fix was the video quality. If I were to do this, it would have severely blurred many of the effects that angel234 used in his segment. The best time to clean up footage is just before you edit your video. This is also a good opportunity to resize it (however, this can be done just as easily after the video is completed as well). Once you give your track to me, there isn't much I can do without affecting your editing, so please try to do clean up well beforehand.
If you're not sure what to do with your footage, you don't know how to use Avisynth, or you just want me to take a look at what your footage looks like, please ask me!! I'm very happy to help! After all, if I get nothing else right in this project, I'll at least get the technical points correct.
One more thing: in regards to the technical side of things, if you don't follow the rules, you don't know what you're doing, and you don't come to me for help along the way, I'll be a very unhappy camper when I get an incorrectly sized track. Sure, I'll fix it myself, but it may not look as you intended it to look.
Furthermore, the more hoops I have to jump through to get people's tracks to look correct, the less inclined I'll be to ever do a Project FMV 2. So consider it karma. You do a good job, and so will I. You help make a great project, and it'll come back to you in the form of another opportunity for this MEP someday.
Anyway, I think I've gone on long enough. More than enough, and I'm not even sure I covered everything. Again, please don't think I'm being harsh on anyone. I like everyone's editing quite a lot so far, but I need to make sure that we're all on the same level in other regards, and posting this gargantuan essay was the most efficient way I could think of to do it.
With that, I bid you happy editing~!
- Jen
@angel234: I appreciate the offer, but I'd rather keep it at four "official" testers. The more testers I have, the longer it's going to take for everyone to get a track that's been approved as "finished" by all of them. As always, though, please offer feedback on this thread when you see someone post a beta. I'm sure everyone would appreciate hearing opinions from their peers on the project.
@bluetrain: sorry to hear about your computer. I can sympathize, since I was having some pretty serious issues too, right about when I first started this project. If you have any problems making a deadline because of this in the future, make sure to let me know. I don't want to crack the whip at someone who's just having computer problems that aren't their fault at all. Also, I'll update your beta testing information on the main page after I'm finished with this post. Furthermore, I'm very sorry about switching the deadline for the lossless footage so suddenly. It honestly wasn't meant to be an April Fools' scare to anyone. It's just that when sayde said that he'd like to change his deadline, I thought it would be better for me to give people more time as well. (Besides, it's easier to remember to submit several things on one deadline than it is to remember to submit several things over multiple deadlines.)
I mentioned this in my last post, but it bears mentioning again because I've decided to change the policy slightly. While I definitely encourage (and appreciate) posting links of your betas in this thread to share with everyone, please remember to PM me with the link. That way, I can send it to the other three testers myself and I'll know for sure that they got it.
Another thing that I think may be of benefit to some of you would be to watch what I consider the three best (serious) MEPs to date. If you've never seen them, they're a real treat to watch. Also, though, pay attention to how each track flows into the next one. See how whether there are a ton of effects or no effects at all, the people still had tracks that complimented each other and were edited brilliantly.
Ayumix: D a y b r e a k - about as close to MEP perfection as I've ever seen so far. It uses a hoard of effects in terrific ways, and all of the editors put in tremendous amounts of effort.
Demons Within - uses effects, but it's mostly good old-fashioned beat sync. Our project will probably be most similar to this one.
The "Unearthed" Project - the reigning MEP king of mood sync. If you're having troubles picking scenes for your music, watching this may inspire you a bit.
I'm not telling anyone to copy the styles of these projects. However, I am suggesting that watching some of the most successful projects with a critical eye might help you to improve your track (and your fellow editors' tracks) just a little bit more.
With that all said, I come to my last (and longest) point. Please don't think I'm picking on you, angel234, but your track brought up an issue that I think everyone could learn from. An issue that I'd rather stave off before it becomes a real problem.
NOTE: if you're using fullscreen footage that doesn't have any kind of borders to worry about, then skim this section anyway, but it shouldn't apply to you.
Technical stuff is not, nor has it ever been, my strong point. However, I know enough to get by, and I do know how to make sure that we have a project that comes out looking nice. For that to happen, though, I'll need your help. On that note, I give you Exhibit A:
There are a number of things wrong with this.
1. Black borders on the sides. The borders needed to be cropped off and the image needed to be resized proportionally (the example is below).
2. Footage is mediocre quality. It's watchable, but it needed to be smoothed via Avisynth, or to a lesser extent, a VirtualDubMod filter.
3. Effects should NOT go off onto the borders. To remedy this, edit your footage without the borders, and then add them onto the finished product. Alternatively, if your footage already had borders to begin with, you can edit your footage as is, then use the Avisynth command crop() to get rid of the junk on the border and addborders() to create new, clean borders.
4. You can't see this from the images I posted (because I downsized them for the sake of not cluttering the post with huge pictures), but the overall resolution was too large. It was 740x480, and I had asked for 640x480.
I corrected three out of the four errors myself and this was the result:
1. Got rid of the borders on the sides.
2. (see farther down)
3. Cropped off the borders on the top and bottom to get rid of the extra glow from the effects spilling over and then added new, evenly proportioned black borders in their place.
4. Resized image proportionally to 640x480.
You'll notice that I keep using this lovely word "proportion" over and over. That is the key. Everything you do, you must do proportionally or you will have squished or stretched footage - and that always looks terrible. Look at this Avisynth script to see what I did to make the second image:
Code: Select all
avisource("C:\Switchback_1.avi")
crop(48,80,-42,-82)
lanczosresize(640,324)
addborders(0,78,0,78)
lanczosresize(640,480)The one thing I was not able to fix was the video quality. If I were to do this, it would have severely blurred many of the effects that angel234 used in his segment. The best time to clean up footage is just before you edit your video. This is also a good opportunity to resize it (however, this can be done just as easily after the video is completed as well). Once you give your track to me, there isn't much I can do without affecting your editing, so please try to do clean up well beforehand.
If you're not sure what to do with your footage, you don't know how to use Avisynth, or you just want me to take a look at what your footage looks like, please ask me!! I'm very happy to help! After all, if I get nothing else right in this project, I'll at least get the technical points correct.
One more thing: in regards to the technical side of things, if you don't follow the rules, you don't know what you're doing, and you don't come to me for help along the way, I'll be a very unhappy camper when I get an incorrectly sized track. Sure, I'll fix it myself, but it may not look as you intended it to look.
Furthermore, the more hoops I have to jump through to get people's tracks to look correct, the less inclined I'll be to ever do a Project FMV 2. So consider it karma. You do a good job, and so will I. You help make a great project, and it'll come back to you in the form of another opportunity for this MEP someday.
Anyway, I think I've gone on long enough. More than enough, and I'm not even sure I covered everything. Again, please don't think I'm being harsh on anyone. I like everyone's editing quite a lot so far, but I need to make sure that we're all on the same level in other regards, and posting this gargantuan essay was the most efficient way I could think of to do it.
With that, I bid you happy editing~!
- Jen
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masterGT
- Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2006 8:53 am
- Location: The Inner Universe
@Scott Green and Takefuji:
Your betas are great so far. Can't wait to see more of this tasty stuff
@bluetrain
I'll keep my fingers crossed, that you soon get arranged your pc-problems.
Your betas are great so far. Can't wait to see more of this tasty stuff
I pm'ed you the lossless footage of my part before you posted this, but I think it complies with the points you mentioned. Please give me a feedback if the quality, proportion, aspect-ratio,... is ok for you before I continue working on my part. Thx.dj_ultima_the_great wrote:With that all said, I come to my last (and longest) point. Please don't think I'm picking on you, angel234, but your track brought up an issue that I think everyone could learn from. An issue that I'd rather stave off before it becomes a real problem.
Thank's for setting the deadline a month later, you saved me a lot of stress last friday. According to the fact that I'm on holidays without my pc, I cannot send you the footage before the end of the next week, but I've edited about 35 sec. of my track now. I only have to change some scenes and then getting you a part of it.sayde wrote:So with in mind, I've decided on a new deadline. I would very much like people to start sending in there beta's starting april 1st. I'll be accepting footage throughout the entire month of april. This means that May 1st will be the new deadline for getting your betas/clips sent to me. I think 30 days is enough time to complete 20 seconds or so of your segment. Feel free to pm me the link if you don't want to share your progress w/ everyone else (for whatever reason).
@bluetrain
I'll keep my fingers crossed, that you soon get arranged your pc-problems.
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bluetrain
- Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:54 am
- Location: Australia
- Contact:
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dj_ultima_the_great
- Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2003 7:52 pm
- Status: Resident Videogame Editor
- Location: Wisconsin
Okay, just reminding everyone that we're not dead or anything. I just haven't had any updates to make. Also, I'm reminding everyone that the May 1st deadline for getting your two sets of footage into me and sayde is coming up soon, so keep that in mind, alrighty?
@masterGT: I'm so sorry I didn't respond earlier. I never even saw your post 'til now for some reason. Looking over your footage, it looks decent. A bit blurry, but you said that you had already tried to fix that. I'll see what I can do with it when you give me your final beta, but I probably won't change anything. The only thing I noticed really is that your borders look lopsided. But it's easy to fix. I could do it after you submit it to me, but I'd rather you did it before that. Put this in an Avisynth script:
That should do the trick. It's just centering the footage, that's all.
Anywho, I think that's everything I wanted to mention. Oh, and the first beta deadline is one month from now (May 20th), so be ready for it, okay folks?
- Jen
@masterGT: I'm so sorry I didn't respond earlier. I never even saw your post 'til now for some reason. Looking over your footage, it looks decent. A bit blurry, but you said that you had already tried to fix that. I'll see what I can do with it when you give me your final beta, but I probably won't change anything. The only thing I noticed really is that your borders look lopsided. But it's easy to fix. I could do it after you submit it to me, but I'd rather you did it before that. Put this in an Avisynth script:
Code: Select all
crop(0,72,0,-50)
addborders(0,61,0,61)Anywho, I think that's everything I wanted to mention. Oh, and the first beta deadline is one month from now (May 20th), so be ready for it, okay folks?
- Jen