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Massive Website Update
2001-12-15 16:31:47
Okay, maybe not massive. How about .... *HUGE*!!! Alright, sorry. I'll calm down.
Check it out: http://www.xombie.net
I even have a picture posted (ooohhhhhh, scary)
As a side note I have all my DVD episodes ripped and am in the process of encoding to MPEG4 v1 so I can use them the way I want. After encoding 3 of them I found out TMPGEnc has a batch encoding option so the other 15 (!) are now queued. *sigh* They should be down by 5am tomorrow.
Oh, by the way, I am a newbie at web page stuffs too. Of course, you could tell, though, right? -
God.... What Time Is It?
2001-12-15 08:01:06
I have bad sleeping habits. I'll grab a late evening nap (damn, those cats *are* rubbing off on me) and then stay up very late because I'm just not tired. The more I do this the longer I'll stay awake. It's 6:41 am now and I woke up sometime around 1:30am. Stupid, just stupid.
At least I had something to occupy me with. I worked on my 2nd video and I believe I have the rough draft done. This time around I did things a little differently. I had a song that I wanted to use (and didn't even have to cut this time, although the refrain, or is that chorus?, tempted me) and I know the anime it just *had* to go with. So, I went out and bought the DVDs for said anime. Boy, mistake #1. Those're expensive. I've been living off of (free) fansub anime for too long. However, I wanted some quality (and non-subbed) anime for this project. So now I had the anime. I started ripping the DVDs until wiser heads (dreddnott) pointed out that I would be more intelligent if I had an idea of what I wanted before I began grabbing episodes. So.... I have 3 discs worth of old/crappy avis of this anime (very secretive, no?) and loaded those up. I zoomed through them and jotted down scenes I wanted or scenes that looked like they might fit. I had a general idea of what I wanted to take place, but I needed a refresher course first.
So, scene list and lyrics in hand I fired up my trial version of Premier (14 more days left until it craps out on me. Although, an OS reinstall just might happen around that time too so I'll have to try out Premier again just to see how it operates in that version of windows ^-^) and started cutting up clips. I used the old avis and saved them as compressed mpeg4 v1 clips. They were different resolutions & all but I didn't really care. I just wanted the scenes so I could see how they fit.
Sigh. As I said in an earlier journal (anyone read that? anyone?) I almost canceled the project about 5 times. Now make that about 8 times. The song was very difficult to sync up. There were no real fast action parts and the guy sang through almost the whole damn thing. My first (newbie) instinct was to have someone lip sync through the whole thing. That was dumb. My second (hopefully smarter) thought was to have lip syncs at parts I thought needed it or to cover up where clips might not fit normally. Errr... did I just say that? Like I said, very difficult. Perhaps when/if you download this one you can see why.
Anyway, I just finished it up and exported the timeline so I'll see how it looks. It's still in the rough draft with loops and subtitles for the syncs but if I like how it looks I'll start ripping the DVDs.
And get this, I'm using *two* effects this time. <swells with pride> Yep. You heard me. Two. This new one is not all that simple and should be interesting in how it adds to the clip.
Ah, now it's 6:55 am. My typing (like my brain power) goes down hill quickly when I'm tired.
Wish me luck on putting the final draft together. If all goes well (and tmpgenc goes fast) perhaps I'll have something late, late, Sunday night. -
Not Much
2001-12-13 23:44:38
First - dreddnott, thanks for the kind words. I was pretty down for a while there. Tomorrow's payday, though, and I have off so I'm going to renew the insurance (through a different company, damn State Farm) and do all the license/tags/etc... stuffs. It'll work out.
Man, I'm on the ball. I put out two reviews today. Studio Hooghly, this is your cue. I only have one video for you to review & return the favor. Also, I'd like to state that I always review someone's video if they wish to do a review trade. Just email or shoot me a note.
Other than that I'm having problems with my second video. Since this is only my second and my first attempt at a vocal song I'm having difficulties visualizing the clips I need. My first thoughts were I need to have someone talking for *all* the lyrics but after making a few test runs that just looks plain stupid, as well as dull. So my next thought is to minimize the lip syncs and only show them in important places or during the chorus. I almost gave up about 5 times already but I think I'll plod on through. If it sucks in the end, I just won't post it.
Ciao -
What a day
2001-12-12 20:22:17
Feel kind of down today for some reason. Probably doesn't help that it's dark & rainy. Mostly, though, it's because I got pulled over on my way back from the grocery store. See, I canceled my insurance because State Farm was jacking around with their prices and for a while I didn't have a lot of money I could spend so I didn't get insurance with someone else. And my tags expired back in October. And my drivers license (from out-of-state) expired back in February. I can honestly say I knew about the tags & insurance but the driver's license slipped my mind.
Anyway, State Trooper guy is waiting patiently on the side road that I take to & from the grocery store. He pulls up behind the second car behind me and drives. I'm going the speed limit and I know my tags & insurance are out but I figured he couldn't see the little expired tag thingie. Oh well. As I pull into the street of my apartment he turns on the lights. He asks for id. Oh, huh, expired. Asks for proof of insurance. Oh, huh, expired. Would you park your vehicle and sit on my car for a while? Sit there and he starts doing the talk with the switchboard people checking me out. Yadda yadda back and forth, I guess to make sure I didn't steal the car. That turns out okay but he explains that he'll have to write me up for
1. expired tags
2. expired drivers license
3. no insurance
4. no seatbelt.
Yeah. No seatbelt on, either. I'm not a guy to get pissed at cops. If I did wrong and they catch me, well, I did wrong. I'm nice about it and agree with him. He starts writing the ticket(s) and then says, well, I hate to write you up for no insurance because they'll suspend your license. So he's nice and doesn't do that. I thank him. He writes up the rest explaining I'll have to make an appearence in court for the license thing. How.... nice. A court date. He writes it up and has me sign on the dotted line that I understand everything. I figure it's done but then he says, well, I'd hate to write you up for the license thing, so ... hmmm... I think two violations are enough. Well, that's nice. Another thanks. I'm done and get out.
I stupidly didn't ask if I still had to show up for court, though. I didn't want to push my luck and sound really stupid, though.
*sigh* I guess that stuff and all the other things that can bring me down (social stuff, etc) kinda crept up on me again. Blah, blah. I try not to let it get me because there are *always* people worse off than me. Hell, I'm doing good, job and apartment and all. Still, I'm human and it hurts a bit.
Usually to rememdy this I have a couple days of nice long sleep. It'll work out and fade away so it can creep up on my again. Repeat, rinse.
At least I believe I have a firm idea for my next video. I'm not going to add it and then do a "not yet" because I don't like those. I'd rather just make it and add it. The only thing is I'm not sure if I have enough clips to match. I'll find out. Hopefully it'll be a little original and I'll get to try out a few things I've learned. Wish me luck because I'm doing some lip syncs in this one. -
I got hosted!!!
2001-12-10 20:02:01
Okay, not really hosted, but even better. Random Variable Productions (www.randomvariable.net) thought my video was good enough to kick off their weekly anime review. If you go to their website check out the "Reviews, Reviews" section and click on "Here" to see a short review of my video!
Wow, I'm sooooo happy that I was chosen to help start this new sevice. Please check out the website if you have a chance.
Also, I may have an idea for my next video (I hope, I hope)!
JOURNAL: Xombie (Sam Shults)
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