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Some news
2007-03-04 12:46:50
Due to the actual circumstances I have very rare private access to the internet. Even all 2...3 weeks, when I'm at home, I cant access the internet because of the stupid people at the phone company. I did cancel the internet access to 31st of March, because in April i want to move. But these idiots did disconnect me immediatly. I phoned them and told them about their mistake. They promised me to care for that problem, but didn't do anything. I'm still offline. And I still have to pay my ISP for the flatrate, despite I can't use it's service. For sure, for my new home I'll choose a different carrier.
On Friday on my way home I wanted to listen to the Noir OST II in my car. But the music in the radio was that good that I didn't listen to the CD. Short before I reached my home the station began to fade away. So I started the CD, "Le Grand Retour" begun to play. I reached my destination exactly with the last sounds of it. That's funny.
Four weeks ago I had a car accident. The car started to spin at an iced street and I couldn't gain back control over it. So I landed in the ditch. The car was an economical total damage (means the repair is more expensive than to buy a comparable used car). But I had luck. Only some overstretched muscles at the neck and the right shoulder an a bruise at the right hand. The safety belt saved me from heavy injuries. So fasten your safety belt always.
At work I'm "playing" around with a finger print sensor. Normally I wouldn't write about my work in this journal, but obviously the writer of the manual for this sensor is an anime fan, especially Evangelion. The examples he uses to show how to secure and access a computer with this sensor show it. The computer is called "NERV", and users are for example "Ikari" and "Rei Ayanami".
I have found the lost journal entry at my hard disk. Fortunatly I had saved it before submitting it. Keep in mind that it was written at 24th of January, so temporal references are from this date. Here it is:
After being long time pregnant with it I finally did release "A Secret Love". It may not be perfect, but during the last days I improved it a lot with tweaks of effects. If I didn't release it now, I probably didn't release it ever (a bit like Kirika with Nazarov).
After such a long time you might expect a lot "Making of", but you shouldn't forget that there had been a lot time of inactivity. So what to begin with? I did decide for this version of "Who want's to live forever" instead for the original one because Verena's voice fits so much better Chloé than Freddie Mercury's. I never had the intention to use the full song, because the lyrics of the second part don't fit so well. But in the first version I did use the full bridge, so the AMV was 25 seconds longer.
That brings us to the dropped scenes. A long time I had included scenes from ep.19, as the saplings meet in Austria. This has relevance to this AMV so far as Chloé gives Mireille hints that she's a sapling too. But I found never a way to express this in an AMV. Over the bridge had been much more scenes from the saplings fight. But this was too distracting from the main theme, and turned that romance video partly into an action AMV. This was one of my problems - to decide which of the clips of the fight to keep and which to drop. It was during the last days that I found the solution like it is. For the scene in which Chloé touches the plant I did use the beach scene of ep.4, which shows Mireille wearing a Bikini. But somehow this was disturbing, and it needed again a while until I had the idea for a good replacement - the scene in which Mireille cares for this plant.
In the first versions the scenes were in temporal order - later I changed it a bit to fit better the lyrics. As you may remember - during the work on this project I did switch from MovieDV 4 to MoviePack 7. That change let me throw away many hours of hard work. For the scene that shows Mireille and Kirika together in front of the wine fields I had cut out Kirika frame by frame with GIMP. But the result wasn't satisfying - her silhouette was flimmering. So I remade it completly in MoviePack with the floating mask. That way the outlines that didn't move always were the same and didn't flimmer. With the plant scene I had much work either - to let Mireille shine through a transparent leave but to keep Chloé's finger solid. My first attempt in MovieDV was with the WipeFX, but it looked really noobish. Later on I did use several chroma keys - much better, but not perfect. After I knew how to use the floating mask I did apply it here too.
The idea to use that book-transitions came as I looked through the adorage demo package. It's one ofe the rare transitions/effects that look good for me. The majority will make your video look cheap and amateur. The idea to make it look with effects like someone photographs the first scene I got in a "late" (in sense of progress, not time) stadium. The first thing I added was a flash between the scene and the photo. The idea to add all these display things I got less than two weeks ago. And then I wanted it more realistic and added the blur to imitate an autofocus. I was thinking about adding some lensflare, but it seemed to much. Finally I realized that a flash in bright sunlight doesn't make any sense and replaced it with some kind of closing iris.
On sunday I watched "Tomb Raider - The Cradle Of Life". I noticed that the German VA's for Angelina Jolie - one of my favourite actresses - and Nico Robin, my favourite One Piece character, are the same. -
Wtf?
2007-02-03 09:03:46
My journal entry with the "Making of... A Secret Love" is lost!? How could this happen? Damn, this was a lot of work.
Tuesday I started to work in my new (or should I say old, since I worked there 4.5 years ago) job. This means, except when I'm at work, I will rarely have access to a computer. Very little posting, nearly no editing for the next 2...3 months.
This week I got the tax refund for 2005. Now it's a joy to look at my bank account, before it was deep in the red numbers. I have to see what remains after I move, maybe I upgrade my computer or get a new one. -
2007-01-20 14:08:02
I think I have it now. Project "Secret" should have come to an end. It's only one point I'm thinking about, but that's something that can be changed with a simple mouse click. I made the ending credits, same style as for my last project. It's easy now with having a template. I tried the first time the CD "rip" utility of MoviePack - it works well, of course only with CDs that aren't copy protected. MoviePack did surprise me. The footage for that project is in the MidiVid MJPEG codec. After the switch to MoviePack I wasn't able to render with this codec, had always to transcode to HuffYUV. Out of couriosity I tried it again - and it works. I wonder what has changed that it works now.
I made some more experiences with After Effects plugins. Downloaded a demo package, and the effects which were loaded did work. And I was able to figure out what this "Duplicate Channel" error message means. It appears if effects are meant to work on multiple tracks. MoviePack handles such situations different - the additional clips are loaded via the effect in the same track.
I'm watching "Stargate: SG1". In the season that's actually aired in German TV I've noticed something - they have changed the weapons. Before they used M16 assault rifles and P90 PDWs. Now they are replaced with their more modern Heckler & Koch pendants - the G 36 and the MP 7. The G 36 in it's different versions appears very often in newer US productions. I wonder why. -
2007-01-16 12:21:07
Today I did work a lot on project "Secret". Was able to correct the flow of some parts. Had an idea how to end it (and realized it). Could make something visible with effects that I wasn't able before. What remains is tweaking the effects. Partly they don't integrate into the AMV. So it is still enough to do, but I'm confident to finish it within the next 2 weeks (If a creators block doesn't happen again).
I had to find out something bad about MoviePack. Sometimes it causes jagged edges, like the footage wasn't properly deinterlaced. I have checked the source files - they are fine. I've treid many options - no matter what I did, the problem remained the same. I have no idea what causes this. I'll check this in future projects, if it happens too. -
Friends
2007-01-15 15:08:00
Friday I got my contract for the new (and old) job. So I was in my old hometown over the weekend. I used it to celebrate my birthday with my old friends. One of them, who has a phone flatrate, made all the necessary calls. Around 20 of my friends came. I didn't expect it, because the invitation came unexpected, but everyone had a gift. Now I can open a bar. XD I wonder why they have the impression I'd drink a lot. :/ As they heard that I will return, everyone offered me to help if I move. But one of my friends impressed me the most. He came from a town around 150 kilometers away to celebrate with me. And as if that wasn't enough, since he had birthday himself not long ago, he took a part of the bill. I told him how he impressed me, and his reply was: "You're always doing the same." I'm a lucky man to have such friends.
I have read an article in a newspaper about official suggestions for new reglementations for street cafes and beer gardens in my old and new hometown. During summer it has a lot of them (compared with the citizens I bet it has more than Paris), what is very nice. But the new regulations would kill a lot of them if they get confirmed as they are. No plastic stools and tables. No benches (they are usual for beer gardens in Germany). All stools and tables have to be the same model. No bright colors for the sun umbrellas, and very limited advertising. So the restaurants can't use the umbrellas sponsored by the breweries. To fullfill these requirements many of the restaurants would have to spent a lot of money, what means either they don't make street cafe or beer garden anymore or they have to rise the prices. In addition the possible area became limited to the width of the restaurant. Before many restaurants used the otherwise unused area in front of banks, bureau buildings, churches and so on. If they can't use these areas anymore, they can serve less guests. And that are only the highlights. I'd like to know who is that bastard that did set up these rules. He should be killed for that.
The star rating of an AMV seem to depend more on fandom for the anime and/or song than on the quality of the AMV itself. "Flash Amamori" has a rating so far that is worse than any of my Noir AMVs. I don't believe this.
The next three months, until I have a new flat, probably not much will happen regarding AMV. I'm not sure if I will take my comuter into the room that I rent until I have a new flat.
JOURNAL: Keeper of Hellfire
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