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FINALLY...a new video
2006-02-18 04:15:45
WOW! Its amazing what just forcing yourself to sit down and edit will do. I have finally turned out another video. I had the urge to do it, the materials, and even kind of had the time, but when I sat down to do it, I just couldn't get started. So, I changed the song about five times, and even changed it in the middle of editing (although just to trim it down a little bit.)
What I have produced is the most effects filled video that I have made so far. I actually got AfterEffects gun shy half way through, and released a beta to Icy Cloud of AquaSky Productions, and she said, "that section at such and such is a little plain...maybe you should put in some effects." Or something like that. So, I did, and it ended up full of masks and photoshop.
I timed this video very carefully. Just about every clip has footfalls, bullet holes, blood spatters, or something that syncs up with a beat. Sometimes, the transitions are so close that you won't see minute beat syncs, like when Rico shoots the guy coming out of the bathroom, and the bullet holes in his chest sync up with the lyrics ("tell stories...about...") but there's this photoshop ghost frame of rico panning left and going through about five layers of effects keyframes, so you might not see it.
The funny thing is, completing this video has given me a strong creative boost, and I am already ripping and clipping my next video. I won't talk about it here, but I think I will be able to have it done in a week or so. Most of it possibly today.
I hope that you enjoy this one. Check my profile for the link to "Girls" -
Editor's Block
2006-01-25 11:05:19
man, I have got the most serious case of editors block! Part of it comes from how incredibly busy I have been lately (yeah, I'm still in Baghdad) and part of it is from my lack of motivation. I have started on two concepts, but neither of them ended up feeling very solid. I have four songs that are possibilities, and I have edited down three of them into three minutes or less, which would allow me to submit them to even the strictest euro cons (i.e. Holland.)
I have improved my living accomodations down here. I am still in a bombed out old factory with hundreds of other people, but at least I have a corner "hooch"...a position of power! I have walls to two sides, so I can set up my projector and watch anime on a very big screen, and I have a window. The view sucks (bomb barricades, mud, a fire escape, and tons of trash and rubble) but I can brush my teeth in the morning and spit out the window, or urinate in a bottle and dump it outside if I don't want to trudge through the mud to a porta-pottie in the middle of the night.
We have a big training event today...and it's the rainy season. I was a truck commander in a convoy, and had to evacuate a casualty with a throat wound after my truck was hit with an IED. It was a very muddy and adreneline pumping experience. I somehow miraculously got a nut (like nuts and bolts) jammed in the muzzle of my rifle. How does a nut, the exact size of the end of a flash suppresor on an M16, just happen to be on the floor of my Humvee, in the exact place wher emy muzzle bounces off the floor to pick it up? Man, that was something I have never seen before, and I am sure glad that I didn't fire it with that thing jammed in there. I would have lost fingers, eyes, and teeth. Lesson learned...I'm frantically checking my soldiers, but nobody's checking me...I need someone to make sure I haven't missed anything every once in a while.
Man, I need to make another video.
Current mood: Hating people that publicize their mood.
Listening to: The click of my keyboard, and some booms outside...not sure what.
What else do those journal nerds put at the end of their journal entries? -
Kislany Vigyaz release
2005-11-27 08:48:19
Well, I have done it again. Twice in one month, in a war zone, I have released another video. This one is an experiment in lots of new ways for me. It's the first time I have used a large intro segment, first time I have done scrolling credits, and the first time I have done a techno song. It is not the first time I have had to render a video in several small chunks, but it is the first time I have done it right. My first video, Out of Control, was rendered as three separate compositions from within After Effects using its encoding capability. No use of VdubMod or avisynth. That video contained about 50 clips, and was so horribly encoded that it crashed the computer when I tried to render it straight through. This video, Kislany Vigyaz, contains about 1000 clips, and crashed the editor when I tried to edit past the 50% mark.
The video is at http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?v=98029 if you want to check it out. The description is quite extensive, so I will let it speak for itself. This is my first Hungarian Language video, so I hope you bear with it. I won't do that to you very often. -
Dreaming (End of the World) release
2005-11-09 14:51:24
Greetings from Baghdad, Iraq! Yes, I am deployed with the US Army, and this is my first video completed entirely in a combat zone. I have just uploaded it to kero, and am waiting for the link to be available. I will post it on the forums, and go to #AMV on ZiRC to announce it there, too.
I have been wanting to do a video since I got here, and I basically just squeezed in time at the end of my duties each day. I spent some time the past week on the roof of the building we are occupying, building an outdoor theater for my soldiers out of scrap wood. I built a gigantic projection screen and hung a sheet on it, and built a rack that the troops refer to as "Bravo the Hut" after our company name, and the fact that it is as big as a small house. It is designed to give my projector and laptop cover from the wind and occasional sandstorms or sprinkles that come during monsoon season here. I sat up there at night all week, listening to the occasional car bomb or IED, sporadic small arms fire, and the warble of sirens as I edited. One night, I was sitting in the command center, rendering a beta version, and six loud explosions in a row rattled the whole building. I grabbed my rifle and body armor and ran outside, and came back in after everything was clear, heart racing.
I am getting closer to being where I would like to be as far as my ability to create and manipulate effects with After Effects. I lack a current copy of the software (I am using 5.5 production bundle) or any flashy plug in packs that are currently popular, like those beautiful backlighting plug ins, but hopefully I will be able to save up for more modern softare while I am down here drawing imminent danger and hazardous duty pay.
The concept for this video is listed in the catalogue entry for it. It is really most enjoyable, to me at least, if you keep in mind that the concept for the video has nothing to do with the storyline from the movie. I also beg your indulgence for my use of CG animation and not pure "anime." Hey, it's listed as confirmed anime in the new video entry dialogue, so I guess I am safe.
I can't say it enough times...a huge credit for whatever development I have experienced as an editor goes to Icy Cloud of AquaSky productions. She has been infinitely patient and encouraging with me as I have innundated her with beta after beta. Her ability to pick out the tiniest little errors and tactfully inform me of them had been of immeasurable value to me. I could never thank her enough for all she has done to help and support me as an editor. She is a true pillar of the AMV community.
I hope you will check out my new video and that you enjoy it. I am very proud of it. - Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It 2005-08-02 03:55:46 Well, I have released my latest video. "Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It." I learned from a lot of mistakes in making this video, but still made a few new ones. Unlike previous videos, though, I beta tested this one very carefully, and fixed all the mistakes before officially releasing it. I am happy with the result.
JOURNAL: RutKiskasca (Matthew Foldenauer)
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