-
someday you will find
2002-08-07 08:54:51
Well, I wasn't able to get anything done on #47 that I really needed to last night, because I was still trying to get a clean build on video #46. I'm starting to think that the playback issues with the 6Mbps version are a problem with my hardware, but I'm not going to send it off to any cons until I get a confirm on this (not likely) or get a lower-quality version done as a fallback. Tonight I'll clip first, THEN try to get a build in, THEN do zip transfers. I really need a bigger drive, or less stuff on my current ones.
Incase you're feeling threatened for some reason by the ruinous pace of Shin Hatsubai, don't worry too much, as it may slow down significantly in the near future. Sure, when I'm making videos, I'll be able to go just as fast, but it's kind of hard to edit video when you're on-site in Taiwan, battling jetlag and trying to figure out why the damn machine won't run. It's what I want to do, though, so I just have to accept the costs of the job; junior engineers in the implanter business are the ones that get sent overseas. Hopefully, I'll get to go over and work with SEN sometime -- it's not often that you can get PAID to go to Japan.
Current video: *** ***'* *****, "*** ********** ****" (edit) to Kanon. Progress Check: 13% complete. Expected catalog number: #47. I'm beginning to have more confidence in this video, but I want to keep it from being too story-oriented (as I'm seeing it has the possibility to be) and more gestalt. I watched Sentenced's official "Nepenthe" video again last night with my brothers, and got a lot out of it. This is generally recognized by metalheads as one of the best music videos ever made, and it uses precisely two effects: a split-frame gear-spin (used twice) and the ubiquitous cross-fade. The video is carried solely by its directorial concept, filmography, color balance, and scene choice. Something to bear in mind when people start talking about "signature effects". When it comes down to it, your video is what you make of your source, not what you do to it.
And now that I've alienated some of the most well-known and respected creators on this site, I'll get back to work.
--Kai out
yourself
trapped in a corner -
the sound of perseverance......
2002-08-06 08:20:18
....goes "kousatsu sonno san". ^_^
Video #46 is finally complete; the entry will be up momentarily. That it only took 56 hours is surprising, considering how many builds the final version took, and how many effects had to go in. The mixdown version was made from build gamma-2, which doesn't even count all the bad builds I got Saturday and Sunday. There are still a few problems with the audio track in the HQ version; if I can't get them straightened out, or confirm that it's just a problem with my hardware, I'll see about getting some hosting for this one. I have a site in mind, but they may or may not accept it.
Current video: *** ***'* *****, "*** ********** ****" (edit) to Kanon. Progress Check: 11% complete. Expected catalog number: #47. Work on this video is proceeding, but my clipping pace may be slowed down now that my mom has finished the first season of Fushigi Yuugi. I either need to get her the Seiryu box (in VHS, we don't have a family DVD player), or take an hour out of my schedule every night to show .rm fansubs on my workstation.
Now offering Azumanga Daioh 1-3, 720x480, 1500kbps DivX 5.0, no sound, to anyone in need of such source. It's subbed, same as the grayscaled Hellsing, but if you can't cut around subs....
--Kai out
-
teach me the tongue of fire
2002-08-05 10:14:20
...that I may set the world ablaze...
I want video #46 to be done, really I do. I'm going to reprocess all the audio tonight and try to lay the clips in again and see if that solves any of the problems. Joining audio, or finished files, is a perpetual Achilles' heel of MovieStar; even before my install started going south this was always an issue. If it still doesn't work, I'll backburner the damn thing and get on with my life. Clipping on Kanon has to start soon, and I still have a bunch of work to do on demo 3 to get it ready to be shown that I wasn't able to do over the weekend.
If someone else has already doen a video using only Virtual Dub, I'd like to hear of it. I'm still going to go through with the video, but I won't put a 'proof-of-concept' title card in front of it. Of course, the process isn't going to be easy or convenient, but the final video will in all likelihood be nearly indistinguishable from something made with any other editor. Careful attention (and lq-divx mixdowns) takes care of sync, most of Shin Hatsubai Jitsu still applies, many effects are available, and the final product is still going to be hi-fi.
I got the idea for this while doing frame-by-frame composition for video #46; it was tiresome and space-expensive, but not difficult or time consuming, to make a frame spin 360 degrees, make another swing like a clock pendulum, set up a ~100ms inversion strobe, and rebuild static subbed footage frame by frame. I wouldn't choose to build a whole video
frame-by-frame, but the possibilities opened up in terms of direction are pretty cool. There are definitely videos on the slate that could stand to benefit from strobing, something I can't do in my normal editor without a HELL of a lot of tanging.
Current videos: Sinergy, "Gallowmere" (remix edit) to Azumanga Daioh. Progress check: 99% complete. Expected catalog number: #46. *** ***'* *****, "*** ********** ****" (edit) to Kanon. Progress Check: 9% complete. Expected catalog number: #47. Kanon looks damn weird in 720x480, because the original character designs have very wide, short, facial features, and they're under under lateral distortion now to boot. I'm not going to remix the song for this edit video like I did for #46; the original is simply too cool; the best bridge-solo-riff section recorded in the last seven years. I'm still working on finalizing that closing title card for #45, which I thinks sets a record for hits out of the gate for a normal (non-demo) Shin Hats video.
--Kai out -
everything is nothing to me
2002-08-04 15:32:36
After 13 hours of post-production and final assembly, video #46 still isn't done. Why is it so damn hard to concatenate 10 MPEG2 files into one MPEG2 file? I'll keep plugging, but there's other stuff to do.
Such as the ultimate proof of concept. I am on the record in a tutorial I distributed around a while back that it was possible, in theory, to make a competition-level video using only Virtual Dub and TMPEG. Technically, this is true, but I've never tried to do it becaue I value my sanity. However, for video #48 or #49 (exact scheduling is still up in the air), it would be eminently possible to attempt. Since the source is a movie (Sen to Chihiro), Virtual Dub won't barf over joining clips from multiple files, and since the song ("Polska after Tallria" by Luftstrak) is only about 2:15, 100% overage in uncompressed RGB won't completely destroy my hard drives.
All in all, this was a mixed-bag weekend. I pretty much finished #46 and got some cool ideas, but I couldn't get the final video to build and I didn't get to see Arch Enemy and Nile. FUCK.
By the way, you might want to check out www.onewaydown.net and download some of the band's livevideos. These guys are absolutely awesome, but their demos so far don't show it; like _Leprosy_/_Spiritual Healing_-era Death, with bits of _Symbolic_ thrown in. I can't believe I went to high school with some of these guys.
Current videos: Sinergy, "Gallowmere" (remix edit) to Azumanga Daioh. Progress check: 99% complete. Expected catalog number: #46. *** ***'* *****, "*** ********** ****" (edit) to Kanon. Progress Check: 3% complete. Expected catalog number: #47. Video #47 is currently prerendering; a lot of time for a little effort on my part, and thus the low percentage counts.
--Kai out -
cannot be condoned
2002-08-02 15:53:01
Well, that was about the last thing I needed to encounter today. I read other people's journals out of boredom, and saw that some Spacefille na hito is planning on making a video setting Orgy's "Fiction (dreams in digital)" to Lain. I was going to write her telling her to save her effort, as I knew that I had already done this video a year ago, but I didn't have a quicklink to the vid in question. So I search under both anime and artist for this combo, and lo-and-behold there are six videos using both Orgy and Lain, and THEY ALL USE THE SAME DAMN SONG. Predictable patterns of deviation, from predictably patterned deviants. This would normally not be that big a deal, but one of them won Best Technical at last year's Sugoi-con. Not wise for me to compete with my take at NDK this year as scheduled.
I don't have to send off my con entries with September deadlines for two weeks, so I'll be able to finish #46 at least, and probably #47, by the time I have to get another video to accompany #33 to NDK. Currently, #46 is headed for Ohayocon, and it's likely to stay pointed there. In terms of spread and contrast #47 might work well, but I'd have to get it done for sure by the time I need to mail stuff off.
I really shouldn't complain. It's what I get for ignoring the .org for a year and letting my old profile just die. It's also what anybody gets for using mainstream music. How do you think the first guy who did a Linkinball Z vid feels? Back to the underground! Four straight videos with bands not having American record deals, coming up!
Con news: My entries for AWA Pro are in and A-OK. Please look forward to #32 and #28, on tape and in your mailbox, if you are also competing in this event. If you're going to be at AFO, look for #32, #29, and #20 in competition, and a whole swack of other ones in the 24-hour screening room. Eight days until Shin Hatsubai's official pro debut at MTAC -- look for SH video #28 if you're there.
--Kai out
JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)
Current server time: Mar 28, 2026 08:10:04