Approach To Making AMVs

OmniStrata · Post by **OmniStrata** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 2:00 pm

Loved that comic link.

Originally, I just did it the boring old fashioned way: work from left to right and match the lyrics and follow rhythm of music in either 2-4 beat editing cuts...

NOW:

I edit all the lyrical part of the song first using either 1-2 beat cuts for very fast scene changing even in SLOW songs just to tick off the viewer, then i add some mind-bending special fx and use random scenes as filler ala Naruto for the lyricless instrumental interludes...

Then I hand over my video to my quality control man who's the bomb at checking for quality screw ups... [yes Zarxrax thanks a ton!] and...

BLAM, new amv... *darn u guild wars... darn you!*

Ojamajo_LimePie · Post by **Ojamajo_LimePie** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 4:05 pm

JaddziaDax wrote:i do the parts that stand out more first, then fill in the rest.

Same here. Oddly enough, I almost always do the very end of the AMV first.

YouTube · Post by **Ileia** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 4:16 pm

Prodigi wrote:
Fall_Child42 wrote:gunbound gunbound gunbound....
the folly of any great editor.

"Great editor"? Awesome. I'm in the clear. *gunbounds away*

The Wired Knight · Post by **The Wired Knight** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 4:35 pm

Listen to random song X
Get idea in head
Listen to song X about 30 times with my eyes closed
Rip footage
Edit everything that came to mind
Fine tune everything that came to mind
Put together the bits I wasn't sure about
Edit edit edit edit
Go through the video frame by frame
Punch the guy outside my window
Render

Pie Row Maniac · Post by **Pie Row Maniac** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 6:14 pm

The Wired Knight wrote:Go through the video frame by frame
Punch the guy outside my window
Render

You didn't mind until you saw me.

Kalium · Post by **Kalium** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 6:18 pm

1) Watch anime.
2) Some time later, listen to song.
3) Curse loudly, because another idea has hit. Hard.
...time passes...
???
5) AMV!

HorrorPhD · Post by **HorrorPhD** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 6:21 pm

Hmmm...it kinda varies from project to project...but usually goes something like this:

1.) Get idea for video
2.) Listen to song repeatedly while scripting
3.) Collect footage based on script (and a little extra based on the "theme")
4.) Edit what's scripted and fill in parts that I'm unsure of
5.) Render Beta
6.) Watch beta and wonder what the hell I was thinking
7.) Repeat steps 4 through 6 until I and my beta viewers are tired of it, then I upload to the org.

Deathscythe_Animated · Post by **Deathscythe_Animated** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 8:31 pm

1. Randomly select a song.
2. Listen to song until I get sick of it.
3. Capture anime that I want to use.
4. Play around with clips and sample of the song til lightening strikes.
5. Develop story or points I want to deliver to the viewers.
6. Edit.
7. View.
8. Edit more.
9. View more and so on.
10. Finish with an AMV that doesn't even come close to what I envisioned, but much better.

Truth is, I don't have a set pattern. I could come up with an idea while I'm eating or when I'm at work. I'll usually work the idea over in my head several times, weigh what I've seen before by what I haven't, and come up with an idea of how I would like the AMV to look. An AMV rarely turns out to be anything close to what I had in mind. When I get into that mode it's like I can't control myself. Something else takes over. By the time I'm done, I can watch the video and it will be completely new to me. Then I jump for joy...[/list]

Melanchthon · Post by **Melanchthon** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:51 pm

Deathscythe_Animated wrote:1. Randomly select a song.
2. Listen to song until I get sick of it.
3. Capture anime that I want to use.
4. Play around with clips and sample of the song til lightening strikes.

I don't get how you could both randomly select a song and start editing without having any idea about what you're going to do.

My approach:

1. Listen to song or remember its existence.
2. Think 'hey, you know what this would be REALLY good with?'.
3. Think about what kind of video I'll end up with (just the rough pacing, general mood, and what, if any, effects will be necessary).
4. Mentally plan the easy scenes and think about the more difficult ones. Ignore the ones I have no idea about.
5. Decide that I have enough footage to make a video.
6. Rip every bit of potential footage and store in the form of eye-wateringly bad mjpegs.
7. Edit, starting with the easy scenes and building the vid outwards from those.
8. Rerip footage and make lossless clips, pre-processing each scene as necessary (nothing fancy really, mostly a matter of leaving the smoothing and sharpening off clips that look better without them).
9. Switch the mjpegs for the Lagariths, render out, compress.

I have one video that's almost ready for step 9 and half a dozen that are either at step 5 or step 3 (one of which I thought up today, one of which has been waiting in the wings since 2003). In time I hope to be good enough at planning that I can skip ripping entire series (I limit myself to 26 episode series anyway... I'd go insane if I ever did a DBZ AMV). As for the space issue... I remember reading somewhere that Lagarith takes up hardly any space when dealing with plain black frames, so I can just replace the unused frames of an episode with black 'placekeeper' clips (don't ask why I didn't do this with the current video. I think I misunderstood the EADFAG somewhere, or didn't think about what I was doing).

It is time-consuming and cumbersome to rip everything. However, if I take clips I don't need then I'll be wasting time anyway, and if I don't take a clip I later realise I need, then I'll have to rerip the VOB and all that other stuff and I don't like waiting five minute just to place a clip.

Malificus · Post by **Malificus** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:58 pm

1. Watch some anime
2. listen to songs.
3. Repeat steps 1 + 2
4. Repeat steps 1-3
5. Skip step 1, go straight to 3, and back to 2 again.
6. Give in and make some of the ideas I've been wanting to, while trying out stuff I haven't tried before each AMV.
7. Repeat steps 1-5, then step 2, step 4 again, and finaly step 1