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Me = stupid (whine, whine, whine)
2006-05-03 20:02:33
Last week I spilled Dr. Pepper on my laptop, which really really sucks because I killed the keyboard and those things are apparently bloody impossible to get hold of for my model. Probably the worst thing about the whole mess is that I managed to forget that the DVD-RW drive on my backup computer (an old Tiny with an 800MHz Celeron and a tendency to freeze for no reason... though it hasn't done that since I got an USB mouse. I thought the thing was finally on its way out, and now it seems that the thing causing the problem was the frigging ball mouse HATE HATE HATE) is functioning only as a CD read-only drive. So I can't even finish up the seven-odd frames of rotoscoping that would complete my vid, and there aren't any usable backups because it's kind of hard to log on with a dead keyboard.
So in the meantime I started a Level One Final Fantasy IX game, because I miss my daily dose of masochism and obsessive planning. So far I have two characters at level 1, two at level 2, and two at level 3. This is because the black mages in Gizamaluke's Grotto are a pisser of a fight. Unless you NEED to stay at level 1 (I'm just going for high stats, so a few gained levels here and there won't hurt much), it's better to kill one of them off and then work on petrifying the other one. Keeping two black mages and four level 1 characters alive is just too much to deal with (especially when you've managed to petrify one and then accidentally kill the other one-- it really saps your will to continue), and you only get one level up from one black mage if all four charcters are alive, so why bother? And then I accidentally ate a single enemy, so I got enough EXP off that to boost Zidane and Vivi to level 3 (and the extra HP on Vivi is massively helpful-- I think he's got about 94HP instead of his starting 60HP-- so I'm not complaining). Now I'm going to pwn Gizamaluke.
So far it hasn't been all that hard really. I got ten thousand gil at the beginning, which combined with the sale of a few Ethers got me enough money to buy 99 Wrists. One trip to Lindblum and a bit of running back and forth later (I wonder what the NPCs were thinking, watching this monkey-tailed kid running back and forth with armfuls of robes and hats XD), I have about 60,000 gil. Not bad at all for this early stage. Man, I can't wait until I get Stop (and have I mentioned yet how much I love Chocobo Hot and Cold (and parentheses...)? Best minigame ever!). Switching between equipment on order to use abilities is a major hassle. -
I finished editing my AMV! ...OH MY GOD MY LIFE IS EMPTY
2006-03-31 20:53:58
I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
I still have to replace the Collection footage with the Platinum and Revival footage. :p
...Except for the odd bits where the scanline blending--> PAL blending--> I'm-not-even-going-to-attempt-IVTCing-this blending has actually produced something worthwhile. There's one bit in particular... the 'inside Unit-01 acid trip' bit with the multi-coloured seashore. In the Collection footage, it has a kind of dreamlike flickering effect that prompted me to use it for that particular section. In the Platinum footage, the flickering is transformed into seizure-inducing white flashes that ruin the whole clip (also, the clean frames are a lot less forgiving of speed changes). I didn't even _realise_ it was supposed to be white every second frame. I might just make all the 'inside Shinji's head' parts Collection, and not only so the quality remains consistent. The entire scene before it is on Death and the rest of the vid switches to EoE, which means that the quality contrast will definitely be worth the annoyance of ripping and prepping yet another round of vobs. It almost makes me want to get the entire series on R2, but I've spent more than enough money on Eva and the Platinums were made from the same master anyway.
It's also more interesting than, say, applying noise to the relevant clips. I hate watching an AMV and thinking 'my efects are pastede on yay!' (Oddly enough, I like NTB. Maybe because that's the whole point of the vid). I'm probably the only person ever bothered by the way the rain in the second part of WotB doesn't fade with the clips. It wasn't even like I was looking for it either.
The final clips I placed really prove that a video can take unexpected turns even at the last moment. I wasn't sure how I was going to achieve the short 'at home with Misato' section and what kind of meaning the clips were going to have behind them, but I sure as hell wasn't expecting 'Misato beats Shinji up when she's drunk and he plays the cello to cope with the pain'. So much for keeping the clips in context. I guess this give me an excuse to expand the credits from a single screenshot to the part where she cleans his tonsils with her tongue... because, hey, Eva is all about the disturbing sexualities and the screwed-up male/female dynamics, and this video is about Shinji's relationships with women anyway and I really wasn't able to get much of Misato-as-Shinji's-(really bad)-mother-figure role into the main vid (the verses are so perfect for Asuka and Asuka alone... you'll see). Also, even after I cut the song down it goes on for twenty seconds after I wrap up the video. >_> -
One door closes, another door opens...
2006-02-14 20:03:13
Well, I promised myself that I'd pick up Eva Platinum if I could ever find the set for under $50... and I did, so I did. I think that the work required to re-rip and re-edit the clips will be less than the effort required to make the PAL Collection footage look good, and I'd have to go out and re-buy Collection 0:1 anyway because I haven't seen the disc in months. Plus it'll look really great, except for the bits I want to look dirty (there's a Eva vid to 'Ich Will' that I think would suffer greatly if cleaner footage were used. It's been described as Engel's rougher cousin, and the vid quality plays a part in that) Maybe it's because I'm so used to seeing the old DVDs, but Platinum footage looks a little... odd. Like it's been run through AVISynth one too many times by somebody who's just discovered Deen and mfToon (guilty, guilty...).
<b>Random AMV recommendation du jour:</b> Loose Ends, by DuskvsTweak
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?vid_id=103854
Trigun / Cowboy Bebop, with each one taking turns. Usually I prefer multi-source vids to be mixed almost to the point of alternating clips, but this works. It's a very well-structured vid that uses both colour and internal synch to great effect. The video information mentions Spike and Vicious clashing weapons as his (her?) favourite part, and I'd have to agree. It's one of those moments that makes me want to watch the video just to see those few seconds in action.
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SOMEBODY STOLE MY SONG GOD DAMN IT
2006-02-11 22:12:37
Well, I doubt it, but I was kind of hoping that I'd be the first one to use that particular song and the second one to use the song's artist. Serves me right for spending over six months on one AMV. I've made slow and steady progress on it and I now have less than a minute to go, and now I'm going to animate the credits just because I can, and because I wanted to use the Misato/Shinji moment in EoE but just didn't have anywhere to put it. You know, I find that one much more disturbing than Shinji/Rei, because at least those two are the same age and Rei isn't Shinji's legal guardian and therefore should know better.
Notes to self: Do not use resized, watermarked, crappy-ass footage for sections of vid that have to be masked and/or rendered out so that they don't take up four tracks and make video level co-ordination downright impossible. Thank god that I only needed to do all that for about five seconds.
I guess it's a good job that the whole vid has that PICVideo crap all over it, because otherwise I'd be seriously tempted to just release the video as it is, squishy aspect ratios and all. Also, parts of EoE are so much prettier than parts of the series that I now cannot rest until the quality is consistent across the relevant parts of the vid... which come to about four seconds total.
In other news, caiman_usa of Amazon are a bunch of utter fuckups. I ordered some SoulTaker DVDs off them on the 29th of December, and I haven't even received a dispatch email for one of them. I'm not desperate for the series or anything (though I did look at the back of the last DVD 'cause it was SHINY SHINY and ended up stumbling across what will probably be a massive spoiler. >.<), but this is just stupid.
I've also got a Trigun box set on order (not from them, thank god), but I don't really care about getting that because I know all the spoilers. I'm just in it for the KxV, anyway. XD -
Okay, now this one has something of a point.
2005-07-24 23:55:00
Inspired by an old forum topic, I'm going to be keeping tabs on my first AMV (which so far has seen a couple of hours work and about that many seconds of decent footage). I suppose there might be an argument for making this private as it's mostly for my own use, but what's the point of a journal on a public forum if it isn't made public? Also, I like to talk but I'm shy about posting on the forums.
Source footage: NGE plus the movies. They're all PAL, original releases (except the movies, maybe), and look like regurgitated shit next to some of the AMVs on the org. SephirothJenova's AVISynth script worked pretty well on a test clip, but at the moment I'm using small avi clips.
:I know what I want from the video, but not what clips to use. Making small HuffYUVs is a waste of my time and disc space.
:I have 10GB of space free, and I'd like to keep it that way. :) The whole of Eva came to ~6.5GB and I put what I could onto DVD. Yeah, it's going to be slow going reading off the D: drive, but space>>>>>speed.
:Easier to preview, especially once the preview window is halved to 216/160x120. :D
:I fully expect that by the time I'm finished editing, I'll be more knowledgeable about pre-processing and encoding, and I'll be able to put out better video. And I'll have had some practice with my editing program.
:The great thing about intentionally crappy source is that you're never tempted to try and make it look any better.
:I make horrible messes of timelines and clips. Really, it's kinder to put the poor things out of their misery once I'm done mutilating their helpless forms.
:The series and the movies have different aspect ratios and I don't know how to deal with that. Also, I have zero idea how to ensure that my video and audio stay synched upon final export.
:Whatever kind of beta-quality vid I end up with, it'll be quicker to recreate than it was to edit. I'll also have a clean slate, a clear idea of what I'm doing, and knowledge of how to improve my vid.
Source audio: I thought the song would be good for Eva even before I'd heard all of the lyrics, and hearing a certain line convinced me that I just _had_ to get to work. It could have been written with Eva in mind, and it hasn't yet been used on the org. It's also an undemanding song with clear lyrics, mood-suggesting instrumentation and plenty of hooks on which to hang appropriate clips. Jackpot!
Sadly for the forces of originality, it's another vid (or character profile) exploring Shinji's relationship with Asuka, Rei/Yui/Unit-01, and to a far lesser extent Misato due to her role as Shinji's guardian and mother figure (let's ignore the way she cleaned his tonsils with her tongue, eh?).
Editing program: MAGIX Movie Edit silver, which came on a computer mag's free DVD. XD It's only a step up from WMM2, but the only things I need at this stage are frame-by-frame editing (REALLY important given the difficulty of getting clean frames with a blended source) and multi-track editing. However, it only exports in its own format (mxv? Whatever, I'm not using it) or wmv. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it though.
Right then.
Video progress: I must've spent an hour tinkering with the fades on one second of footage and it's only gotten into more of a mess, so it's off to Audacity to listen to that part at half speed/frequency so I can figure out in what order my clips are supposed to be coming and going.
JOURNAL: Melanchthon (S B)
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