-
Two hundred ninety first entry - "...to get back home..."
2007-03-25 23:55:18
Time - 11:43, Noise - Vast - "Lost"
You know what I decided? I want to do an AMV using a song by Vast. Not "Touched," although that is my all-time favorite song. It's just too overdone, and I don't have any really original ideas for it that haven't already been put into AMV form by some other talented editor. There are plenty of other very fluid, moody songs that haven't been used so heavily, and I think I might benefit from using something a bit more obscure, anyway.
Also, I want to make a Tsubasa video. The anime is nice, but it just doesn't do the manga justice. I mean, there are only so many times that I can watch a dramatic face shot get traded back and forth between combatants before I just want to scream, "ATTACK ALREADY, YOU BITCHES!!!" Don't get me wrong. The anime has its great moments, but I'm largely unimpressed. No, I'd rather use the manga if I were going to do a project. The problem is finding a song that fits the amount of the story that has been released. I keep wanting to do videos on concepts that haven't been fully explained yet.
...........
...obscure music? ...obscure concept?
Vast + Tsubasa = natural combination?
I wonder. Some of the songs could work, actually. Maybe someday I'll do it. Not anytime soon, as I have plenty of other projects to cook up videos for - a few of which are following a deadline.
Anywho, it's close to bedtime, and I have classes bright and early. Eight AM, yo. I really need to learn how to manage being *both* a nightowl and an earlybird. *sigh* z_z
Nighty night, folks.
- Jen -
Two hundred ninetieth entry - there's a cord on my keyboard... : /
2007-03-24 14:04:16
Time - 1:36, Noise - music for THE Video
Well, there's a cord on my keyboard. It would be my headphones cord, snaking over to the speaker so that I may edit THE Video without driving the other girls in my wing insane. Normally, I have it tucked under the keyboard, but I didn't really think I'd be typing anything for a while, so I was lazy.
So yeah. I've been editing THE Video for a little while now. I'm up to twenty five seconds out of a 4:49 song. Ouch. Actually, the song will be slightly shorter, since it has a very long fadeout, and I intend to chop off some of that. It'll still be well over four minutes, but at least nobody will have to suffer a long fadeout.
The only thing I'm noticing so far that might be a concern is lip flap. On one hand, it would be nice not to have them gabbing away during the video. On the other hand, you can't have a relationship without speaking! So, it seems weird to try and mask out the flap. It's not too bad, but there's a lot of talking in that anime, particularly in the beginning. Ultimately, I think I'm going to leave it in. It's more natural, and in the parts where there's tension between the characters, they *don't* talk. So that's natural-looking, too.
I haven't touched my Oni 4 clips for a while. I should render up a few properly in the next week so that I can offer sayde *something* at least, even if it's not an edited section of my video.
I ripped the entire first DVD of Fruits Basket over the last day or two. I like the .vobs in this anime. Unlike the ones for THE Video, they're divided into much smaller parts, so I can just ignore the parts that I don't want when I go to render. That's going to be convenient, because I only want a specific angle of the series - that being, Yuki and Kyou. I could care less about Tohru right now. No, she'll be of use in a future video, but not this one.
...okay, the girls in my wing REALLY need to stop screaming. I don't care if it's the weekend - it's annoying! Not only that, but there was a girl in Glenview at brunch who was singing very loudly. You could tell that she just wanted attention, because she and her friends would keep looking around as she did it. In short, I hate loud noises. People yelling, people singing, people whistling, and people slamming their doors all rank high on my list of things I hate.
Anyway, getting lots of technical stuff done with my videos, and I got some editing done a bit ago. And now, I'm gonna go chill with a videogame.
See you, folks.
- Jen -
Two hundred eighty ninth entry - one more~!
2007-03-20 22:19:34
Time - 9:53, Noise - Cold - "Cure My Tragedy"
I managed to obtain another of the videos I need. I didn't have much hope with PMs, since some of these creators haven't logged on in a long, long time, but maybe there is some chance I'll get them. Oh, actually I got another video too, but the creator only had the "lossless" (was it really lossless? I don't think so, but maybe it was for the time) copy, so I have to compress it down myself later. Maybe I'll tack on some Avisynth-ing while I'm at it.
I forgot how long it takes to rip and convert all of this videogame footage - and this is taking longer than normal because it's a long action/semi-RPG game. Onimusha 4 (offically called Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams). It has lots of story-oriented cutscenes. Very pretty. They should make for a hawt segment in Project FMV. If I ever get this all converted, that is. x_x
I'm trying to gently juggle my hard drive space. I have to keep deleting the previous step in my conversion process to conserve it. Twenty gigs is plenty of space for the FMV segment, but not enough for doing the pseudo-yaoi MEP. Speaking of which...
I have to rip a Fruits Basket episode for that project, just to make sure I don't have any problems. If I do, I already have a victim in mind to bum an Avisynth script off of. He doesn't know it, of course, but I'll be attacking him for the goods if it becomes necessary.
Still need to get crackin' on THE Video. It just seems TOO easy to edit.
<_<
>_>
It's a sneaky video sometimes, I think.
Blargh. I'm gonna end this here and pretend I don't actually have any homework to do. Some student I am. >_<
Nighty night, folks.
- Jen -
Two hundred eighty eighth entry - quality control
2007-03-19 16:18:56
Time - 4:16, Noise - Panic! At the Disco - "Time to Dance"
So many h.264/.mp4 videos lately...
...looks like I'm gonna have to invest some time learning that stuff if I want to keep up with everyone else. *sigh* Technical stuff is SO my weak point. v_v
Off to din din. See you, folks.
- Jen -
Two hundred eighty seventh entry - tedious, but necessary
2007-03-19 14:51:41
Time - 2:12, Noise - Cold - "Black Sunday"
So... as everyone knows, I've been slowly restoring my AMV collection since my hard drive went nuts after the upgrade. Well, I'm down to the last thirty three videos that I want to get back. These are the hardest ones to obtain, though. The forum thread I made was more or less a failure, aside from a few helpful posts and some PMs that resulted from it. The stats? As of right now...
Videos obtained - 2/33
Creators e-mailed - 5/33 (those were the ONLY ones I could find addresses for)
People PM'd - 2/33
Other sources contacted - 1/33
Videos unaccounted for: 23/33
*sigh* I was hoping for better results than that. Looks like it's off to p2p... which I can't really do until I go home for the summer, since the connection here at college blows. It's not really safe anyway, so I avoid it whenever I can. At home, though, it's fair game. Many of the left over videos are ones that came from back in my Napster days anyway, so I suspect that those "classics" are still floating quite freely around on that type of service.
My last thing to do before I go home is to try and PM creators that I couldn't snag an e-mail address from. My worry there, though, is that many of the editors haven't logged on in literally YEARS. It's pretty much a failed venture, but I'm willing to try it anyway. It's my last shot before the needle-in-the-haystack that is p2p.
On an unrelated note, I beat Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (the fourth PS1 game) for the first time. I had gotten halfway through the game before and ran out of supplies - and then my file got kaboom'd anyway, so I couldn't even cheat my way through the rest of it. So, I restarted the game about three weeks ago, and I had been very, VERY slowly working my way through, saving constantly and retrying any segment that seemed to use too many of my sources. I made it through the game with a ton of extra Medipacks, and a good deal of extra ammo. (Of course, you're forced to waste the strongest weapon in the game constantly shooting switches and similar bullshit, so it's not like it matters how much ammo you get for it.)
So, I beat the game for the first time. And it was hard. And there were parts that were so cryptic and cheap that I don't know what the hell Eidos was thinking. And you never even fire a single shot at the final boss. It's not even a fight, for crying out loud! No, instead you just scamper around the perimeter of the chamber, dodging his fire like a coward and pulling switches to lock him inside. And then, as if that weren't lame enough, there's a series of quickfire traps just as you're exiting the level. Totally pointless. I died more on those than I did on the boss. Then, just to drive the nail in a little further, they give you a shoddy ending and credits that are nothing more than names overlaying the demo reel from the opening, which is what it goes right back into! No save screen, no special unlocked items or abilities. No, it just sends me back to the main screen, right in the middle of the demo.
Worth it? Just to say that I beat another one of the games, yes. But other than that, I feel like I wasted twenty one hours of my life on that game. No sense of accomplishment at all.
And with that, I'll finally be starting Final Fantasy XII. I'm not expecting that I'll enjoy it very much, given the style of the game and the less than stellar review that my best friend gave me. Still, I'll play it. It's a Final Fantasy, and as long as they're not uber ridiculous and make you pay monthly like XI, I'll continue playing the games.
I still have Fatal Frame II sitting here, just waiting ever-so-patiently to be recorded as a speed run. However, at this point, I'm thinking that that may be impossible. I lost my tech guy, and without someone right here on hand, I doubt I'm going to be able to get this figured out. I guess I just need to follow up my post on the speed run forums and tell them that it's likely not going to happen. My only other option is a crappy VHS, which I can't do until summer vacation (I have no VCR here at college).
And it's unbelievably infuriating, because now I'm not sure why the fuck I even bought this stupid capture card if it's not going to work. Hell, capturing was the main reason I upgraded my system at all. If I can't do that, then I feel like I wasted five hundred dollars for nothing.
I just want it to be over already. I've been wrestling with these computer issues for what feels like forever, and it's putting me at my wits' end.
I was in a bright mood earlier today, but now I'm finally dropping off. Surprising. I thought I'd have been far more sluggish earlier in the day from the lack of sleep I got last night. I'm going to try relaxing for a while, maybe play a game. Most likely I'll just sit here listening to music and doing some computer busywork.
Long, long entry. Guess that's expected after a week off.
See you, folks.
- Jen
PS: uh... yeah. Playing TRIV was all I did over break. Boring life, I know.
JOURNAL: dj_ultima_the_great (Jen )
Current server time: Dec 27, 2025 02:03:48