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in a land so dark
2003-09-11 07:36:15
This is my kind of climate. I wake up this morning, and the fog is as thick as peanut butter. Not pea soup, peanut butter. Hundred yards' visibility? Try a hundred feet. It's burned off some now, but walking through it was cool enough to make getting up so early worthwhile. It's also useful; now I have a much better idea of what it's like to be in absolute cold-dark wearing IR based nightvision gear. I've got most of that part of the book done now, but I'm glad to see that I got it right.
Current video: Hypocrisy, "Evil Invaders" to Excel Saga. Progress check: 22%. Expected catalog number: #82. Clipped two eps, capped the seond DVD, and had to rebalance the markpoints because ep 9 didn't want to play. This kind of sucks, as that ep has a bunch of good source in it, but it cuts down on my total production time.
Today is going to be almost entirely consumed by class; I've got three courses, a discussion, a meeting with my group members, and probably a bunch of work on AI homework, though I might be able to push this off to the weekend. Ergo, I may not have time for serious video work, and thus will end up working on the book.
Offtopic: Here in A2 we have a taxi service known as Blue Cab. I was coming home from North Campus the other day and saw one of these vehicles marked #6. There's something wrong with people who can be amused by situational puns like that.
--Kai out
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let the world hear these words once more
2003-09-10 07:54:03
What the hell? Why won't the goddamned login work on Solaris? And the page looks like butt too -- fonts are too small when rendered by Netscape 4.76. Of course, that's the last thing on anyone's mind, but the fact remains that the most reliable way to get an open computer at the Media Union is to use a Sun station. Even in this school of engineering, people checked out on them are in short supply.
Current video: Hypocrisy, "Evil Invaders" to Excel Saga. Progress check: 14%. Expected catalog number: #82. Got through two eps of this yesterday, maybe another two tonight. I'm running an average of about 50 seconds per episode, so source volume is gonna quickly get outta control. Hopefully, it won't monkeywrench my capturing strategy later on in the game. I'm probably going to be able to make both this video and the secondary one several times over. However, it's not going to turn into Project Excel, with four or five videos. The ideas just aren't there.
One last beef with AWA Pro: aspect ratios. About one video in ten was done in uncorrected widescreen. Academy ratio is not that hard to restore, people. Last year, I noticed only three or four videos broken like this in a sample of 75. The number of misaspected videos went up, even though the size of the contest went down by about 30 percent. This shows:
* the increasing popularity of anamorphic widescreen on cinematic DVD
and either
* the growing market penetration of HDTV
or
* the need for a guide to proper encoding of hard-widescreened AMVs.
I dig widescreen. It looks more professional IMO than 4:3 for some reason, and consequently, I'm a big stickler for getting this aspect ratio right in videos that require it. It's pretty simple to do.
If you edited anamorphic as 720x480, or widescreen at 960x480, when you do your processing in Virtual dub, use a resize filter (I like the built-in precise-bicubic, but AviSynth also has a Lanczos method that's supposed to be better) to get it to 720x360, then use the built-in 'letterbox and resize frame' option to put it to 720x480 again. If you edited widescreen and have a 720x360 video, just skip right to the letterboxing step. Not hard.
Hard is AI-homework-level, which I ought to be getting to.
--Kai out
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reach for the sky
2003-09-09 07:57:08
Just did my Pro judging; most of the categories had the videos I wanted to vote for in them, but some were kinda messed up, as though not everyone had the same idea of what the definition entailed. Just as well; goes to show that even when you put it to AMV creators, contest judging doesn't always make sense.
Current video: Hypocrisy, "Evil Invaders" to Excel Saga. Progress check: 10%. Expected catalog number: #82. I put two hours of work into this project last night, and came up with a 1% increment. It could easily have been 2%, since I also clipped what I needed out of the clean opening and closing sequences from the first DVD and all the intro sequences for the first 5 eps, but that's just the way I have my markpoints set up. I have 50 percentage points of completion progress to distribute between 26 episodes, so ep 1 and ep 26 get 1% where everything else gets 2%. It's just about making things look balanced; I could as easily have marked eps 13 and 14 as 1%, but I didn't. I'll probably work on my 478 and 492 homeworks this evening and spend some time talking to Meg, but I do expect to get through at least one more episode.
-- begin AWA 9 Pro logpage --
video XX: fucked aspect ratio -- cutting/lyric match messed -- nothing done with music either: eg no foundation for concept. recovers, but the start still does nothing
video XX: speed mod sucks -- rfo?? some picture damage some fx not optimized killer <too-specific element reference deleted>
video XX: good but nonspectacular. not enough done with music. jawflap @ end sux
video XX: silly, but <anti-criterion deleted>
video XX: NO continuity but somewhat decent....xcept fx. This imp of <effect deleted> just looks horrible
video XX: wtf is with audio?? ok, but jawflap and messed music kill it
video XX: some broken aspect ratios, but good cutting and synch; ending uncreative
video XX: actually a good fx vid. funny but a little long for the joke
video XX: most fx good (esp lipsynch) but some aren't (zooms). lots of good cutting and motsynch
-- end AWA 9 Pro logpage --
And so comes to an end another week-or-so of ill-informed opinions on the AWA Pro contest. Some final observations: nearly all of the titles used in this year's contest have been at least licensed for world distro, which was somewhat less the case last year. Trigun took over from Rurouni Kenshin as most-overused in this contest. Almost half the music used was from non-RIAA or MPAA sources. There are very good videos (better than the one that I had in) that did not make the finals, so hunt up a copy of the tape sheet and go looking.
Awright, time for class. Hopefully, I'll get through the homework easy and get the video cranked up fast.
--Kai out
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kneel down for the ricochet
2003-09-08 09:34:45
Today's allegedly my day off, so I'm up on North Campus right now doing some bookkeeping on the .org that I'm completely out of date with. Both #80 ('Under Control') and #81 ('lost in days of blood') are now up on the Donut. I was cutting it pretty close with #81; the limit was 100MB and said video comes in at 96. Given such requirements I may actually put up #31 ('Revolt') sometime.
At any rate, I'm now under the gun to do my final Pro judging, as soon as I dig out the sheets with my un/pass. It would really suck if I couldn't find those; this was a good contest this year. I've got one imminent deadline and another release to ship, but I should be able to get out another contest release in addition to those by the end of the year. I just need to find somewhere to buy DVD shellcases at in case I run out.
Current video: Hypocrisy, "Evil Invaders" to Excel Saga. Progress check: 9%. Expected catalog number: #82. This project should probably keep me occupied through the end of the month. I've got the first DVD capped, and will clip up as many of those 5 eps as I can get through tonight. It shouldn't be too tough; the thing about 26-ep series is that you are never tight for source. If I get 15 seconds per episode, I can do this video with overage. If I get 30 seconds per episode, I can to another video I've got on the drawing board for this anime (the idea's a little shakier, so it's not listed yet) with 100% overage on both. Average eps run about a minute of source, so this is going to be pretty easy -- as long as I stay dialed in.
-- begin AWA 9 Pro logpage --
video XX: lipsynch a little messy; good mix of new and 'natural' fx. a little long, but it doesn't wear a whole lot. wahr gut
video XX: TIGHT ls, good cutting, hilarious concept. 10s!
video XX: weirdly missynched -- does <anime title deeted> just do this naturally? nice fx use, but... end cut real well, but starts slack
video XX: good cutting, but just a little disjointed. hi 2nd tier
video XX: cool if short. middlin.
video XX: nice originals, but almost too sharp. concept is inconsistent. very good, low 1st
video XX: some jawflap, but excellent overall
video XX: almost slideshow pace, but this rocks. this is why I love <technique deleted>. <effect specification deleted> rock flat. cool & subtle bg movements also neat. fuckin rocks
video XX: a few missed cuts, but very good otherwise. probably top <category deleted>
-- end AWA 9 Pro logpage --
This page brings up something that just nags at me every now and then. Nonlinear environments are a trap. Sure, it's nice to be able to dial in on the hard parts and get those good and edited before going to just fill in the blanks on the rest of the video, but it encourages, even if only subconsciously, people to think like that, rather than like their viewers, who have to watch the video in a strictly linear fashion. There are some videos in this contest with noticeably inconsistent levels of editing application between sections. The assumption is that the editor ran out of time and had to fill up the timelines catch-as-catch-can. With my process, those videos would not have been made in time for the contest, and while there would be fewer videos in Pro, the videos that came out suboptimal in this field would have turned out better. Even in a nonlinear environment, it's possible to start at the front and work to the back, making sure that the video flows, visually and conceptually, smoothly from one cut to the next. You don't have to, but just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you necessarily SHOULD.
That's it for today; just got to clip those Excel eps, talk to Meg, and maybe work a little more on the book; I got about 10 pages in over the weekend, which brings me to like the halfway mark of the eighth chapter (of 18). Since I already have the last chapter written, I'm halfway done once I finish this chapter, and I've got most of the material ahead plotted out. There's still a few points that I have to work out, stuff I need to do up more precisely, characters I need to work more development in on, but I might actually finish by the end of the semester.
I will also be working on the ops I owe people this week. You are not forgotten.
--Kai out
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kneel down for the ricochet
2003-09-08 09:34:35
Today's allegedly my day off, so I'm up on North Campus right now doing some bookkeeping on the .org that I'm completely out of date with. Both #80 ('Under Control') and #81 ('lost in days of blood') are now up on the Donut. I was cutting it pretty close with #81; the limit was 100MB and said video comes in at 96. Given such requirements I may actually put up #31 ('Revolt') sometime.
At any rate, I'm now under the gun to do my final Pro judging, as soon as I dig out the sheets with my un/pass. It would really suck if I couldn't find those; this was a good contest this year. I've got one imminent deadline and another release to ship, but I should be able to get out another contest release in addition to those by the end of the year. I just need to find somewhere to buy DVD shellcases at in case I run out.
Current video: Hypocrisy, "Evil Invaders" to Excel Saga. Progress check: 9%. Expected catalog number: #82. This project should probably keep me occupied through the end of the month. I've got the first DVD capped, and will clip up as many of those 5 eps as I can get through tonight. It shouldn't be too tough; the thing about 26-ep series is that you are never tight for source. If I get 15 seconds per episode, I can do this video with overage. If I get 30 seconds per episode, I can to another video I've got on the drawing board for this anime (the idea's a little shakier, so it's not listed yet) with 100% overage on both. Average eps run about a minute of source, so this is going to be pretty easy -- as long as I stay dialed in.
-- begin AWA 9 Pro logpage --
video XX: lipsynch a little messy; good mix of new and 'natural' fx. a little long, but it doesn't wear a whole lot. wahr gut
video XX: TIGHT ls, good cutting, hilarious concept. 10s!
video XX: weirdly missynched -- does <anime title deeted> just do this naturally? nice fx use, but... end cut real well, but starts slack
video XX: good cutting, but just a little disjointed. hi 2nd tier
video XX: cool if short. middlin.
video XX: nice originals, but almost too sharp. concept is inconsistent. very good, low 1st
video XX: some jawflap, but excellent overall
video XX: almost slideshow pace, but this rocks. this is why I love <technique deleted>. <effect specification deleted> rock flat. cool & subtle bg movements also neat. fuckin rocks
video XX: a few missed cuts, but very good otherwise. probably top <category deleted>
-- end AWA 9 Pro logpage --
This page brings up something that just nags at me every now and then. Nonlinear environments are a trap. Sure, it's nice to be able to dial in on the hard parts and get those good and edited before going to just fill in the blanks on the rest of the video, but it encourages, even if only subconsciously, people to think like that, rather than like their viewers, who have to watch the video in a strictly linear fashion. There are some videos in this contest with noticeably inconsistent levels of editing application between sections. The assumption is that the editor ran out of time and had to fill up the timelines catch-as-catch-can. With my process, those videos would not have been made in time for the contest, and while there would be fewer videos in Pro, the videos that came out suboptimal in this field would have turned out better. Even in a nonlinear environment, it's possible to start at the front and work to the back, making sure that the video flows, visually and conceptually, smoothly from one cut to the next. You don't have to, but just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you necessarily SHOULD.
That's it for today; just got to clip those Excel eps, talk to Meg, and maybe work a little more on the book; I got about 10 pages in over the weekend, which brings me to like the halfway mark of the eighth chapter (of 18). Since I already have the last chapter written, I'm halfway done once I finish this chapter, and I've got most of the material ahead plotted out. There's still a few points that I have to work out, stuff I need to do up more precisely, characters I need to work more development in on, but I might actually finish by the end of the semester.
I will also be working on the ops I owe people this week. You are not forgotten.
--Kai out
JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)
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