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MMm, endorphins
2003-06-09 08:11:53
I love the hour or so after getting to work, as long as I can make it through without falling asleep or being asked to do any real work :p
Video progress meter (TM):
NES: 80%
AWA: 4%
I actually got a -lot- of work done this weekend on the NES Project video, somewhat to my surprise. I basically just have 15-20 seconds left to do plus tweaking and any final flashy effects I want to put in to make it fit more with the 'dance' type theme it in theory is supposed to have. I may just say 'screw it' on that though... I mean, I'm not worrying about timing or anything, why should I worry about making it dance-ish. Heck- dance effects and a lack of timing are rather incompatible anyways. BTW, if you're reading this Fluxy- I'm at least mostly kidding about the timing thing...
I'd like to think that I'll have it done by the end of the night tonight... but given that the roughly 10 seconds or so I was working on last night took me like 4 hours, I don't think that's going to happen. It's kind of funny... this last section will take more work than the whole rest of the video, all told- and it's what I'm looking forward to the most. If it weren't for the whole concept behind this section, I likely would have thrown up my hands and dropped the video. But, I'll admit it, I live for a few particular crowd reactions, and the one this video should generate is by far the most fun. I could be wrong about how long it will take though- given I spent last night getting the hang of what I'm doing, I should be able to get what I still have left done a bit more quickly.
And especially since I don't have to screw with one particular scene's screens any more. This really pissed me off last night. I think all animators should be forced to use 3D software when they do things like draw computer screens in perspective so they get the darned proportions right. I spent - literally - like half an hour last night trying to get this stupid image oriented right in 3D space so it matched up with a screen in one of the scenes, and I just couldn't do it. I finally came to the conclusion that it wasn't physically possible. The animators apparently just didn't draw the monitor in true perspective, and I can't perfectly map the new screen contents onto it without being able to skew the image- which I can't seem to figure out how to do, if you can at all, in After Effects. I could dump the whole thing out to individual frames and do it in Photoshop... but even with throwing together a quick macro to do it, it would take more time than I'm willing to devote at this point.
Those paying close attention may notice that the AWA video count actually went down a bit (I think). I was my old airheaded self this morning and forgot to bring the next disc I need to watch of the show with me so I'm behind where I should be on it. Instead, I watched some of the random AMVs on the laptop on the ride in. I would have liked to have fired up the SNES emulator and played a bit of SoM, but I don't have the gamepad with me and I don't feel like reconfiguring the program to run from the keyboard. I'm just too damn lazy sometimes... -
Incoherent babbling
2003-06-06 14:46:20
For those few who might actually pay attention to these things...
Video Progress:
NES: ~30%
AWA: ~5% (DVDs ripped and converted)
Secret of Mana: ~40% (OK, this isn't a video... it's what's keeping me from working on my videos the most...)
Still waiting anxiously to find out when and where the NYC Otakon prescreening will be. I'l really looking forward to it. Woohoo! Meeting other editors nearby!
In the last two days, I thought of 2 songs that don't appear to have ever been used in a video (at least according to the database) but I think would make excellent videos. One I actually have the localized flood yesterday (see my LJ for details) for, as I came across the single tape for it when clearing out the basement. The other popped into my head as a result of a /. article. I get inspiration from the weirdest places....
It's really nice outside. I envy my wife, she got the day off (paid) and can enjoy the nice weather. At least I can ride my bike back in the nice weather, though it's pushing the point at which it gets hot enough for doing so to be uncomfortable. I want a swimming pool waiting for me to jump into when I get home... -
Random Weird NES
2003-05-29 08:51:06
After many (many) months of not actually doing anything on it besides kicking ideas around in my head, I finally got officially started on my NES project video a few days ago. And was very quickly reminded of why I'd procrasinated at it for so long: I pretty much unequivocably SUCK at Metroid. This makes going through and capturing the scenes I need/want for the video less than easy. People will likey be laughing more at my crappy playing than at the video itself. But, I soldier on in the game, and hope to have all the footage I need in a few days. I've been sort of torn between two a couple of ways to approach the video, but I finally solidly decided to go with my original idea. Strangely enough, the only actual video I have laid up in Premiere so far is the last 15 seconds or so.
Yesterday whilst very bored at work and poking randomly around the side, I happened to actually look at the "Top 10% Review" scale- and much to my surprise found that my "Samurai Windu" was tied for 10th. I had been rather pleasantly surprised when I out of the blue had gotten several reviews of WLtFO and Samurai Windu a few days back (in general, up until now I've mainly just gotten reviews from opinion exchanges or friends I chat with a fair bit), but hadn't thought about the fact that SW now had enough reviews to qualify for the scale, and that they were that good. I realize that the position it's in won't last long (it's already down several spots now), and that (especially with only 3 reviews) the ratings are very subjective- but it's still a nice warm, fuzzy feeling seeing it up there. If nothing else, hopefully more people will download it and enjoy it. That's probably the hardest thing to do in AMV editing and such- getting exposure so more people will download and watch your video. -
2003-05-28 08:12:26
I'm just not very good at these journal things, either here or on LJ. I'm far too wont to write a short novel, and given I tend to be doing these from work, that's just not generally a wise thing.
I'm being lazy AMV wise right now, which is probably a very bad thing. I'm slowly getting everything together for my NES Project video. If I have any brains at all, I'll kick myself into gear and try and get it done by the end of the weekend. I'm going to reaaaaaaaly be pushing it to be able to get my AWA video done on time now. Two months of actually working on something is the longest anything will have taken me to date, but then the video I have in mind is going to be pushing just about every skill I have beyond where it is now and necessitate picking up a few new ones along the way, so I really wish I had even -more- time for it. I'm gonna be pissed at myself if I can't finish it up in time due to procrastinating on getting to work on it these last few weeks.
But.... I have to admit. I've been enjoying the break. And I more than ever thing that I'll likely take a sabbatical from editing after the AWA video is done. I need to spend less time in front of my computer and more time doing, well, just about anything else. This should get even easier to do if we end up moving into the city like we're kicking around (fairly seriously this time) doing. Ironically... if we do move, I will almost have more easy time to edit, though it would have to be done on my laptop on the train to and from work.
But irrelevant, I think I will start trying to plan out what I'm going to do and make a bit further ahead instead of having to rush through them at the last minute. Pushing back my initial Otakon video idea for later is more and more looking to have been one of the wiser things I've done- all the groundwork for it is already in place for when I decide to start working on stuff again after finishing the AWA vid. It should be a good one to work on at a leisurely pace for Katsucon next year.
Not much will really be going on with me outside of just trying to get these videos done... this is the longest break between cons I"ll have for a while, with Otakon over 2 months away (waiting to see if Who Let the 'Fros Out makes the contest is going to be somewhat agonizing- I already know it's gonna lose, though... :p ).
Minor rant ahead: I'm increasingly just amazed by the star scale ratings. Overall, I think I agree with the ratings that most videos seem to end up with. However, in some cases I find myself just staring at them and going "What the smeg are people thinking???" Other than wondering how several videos I thought pretty much unequivocably _sucked_ are rated so high even with a decent number of opinions (well, OK, I have my theories on this, but...), I also have a hard time that my two videos that are fairly high up on the scale are rated better than some videos. For example- I think it's a travesty that turboneko's "Let's Get Down" isn't up in the top 100, if not the top 50 or 25. The same goes for akimbo's "Fathers and Sons" and MeriC's "Alone in the World". But then, I know my views and opinions only count as one person's (as they should). And I am quite glad people seem to enjoy my videos so much. Even if I do think there are some better videos rated lower than mine- I am very grateful that people think highly enough of my skills to rate them as such.
One last thing- Sarah, I think a large number of us would quite happily greet you if we ran into you (and knew it) at a con, as we would with any of our peers. It doesn't have anything to do with charity- it's being able to think of a face instead of an avatar when we're chatting with someone or reading something they've posted and making a more real connection than just a TCP/IP packet with people. And I don't know where the idea that we think all female editors "all look like supermodels and are scintillating and brilliant" came from. That certainly isn't the case with us male editors, so there's no reason I at least would assume the female editors to be much different. - Short and sweet 2003-05-23 12:40:47 As I'm not feeling in the mood to do any real editing (Sorry Fluxy! I swear I'll get started on the NES vid eventually!) I should be putting Dai-Osaka Rap up on the local server shortly after getting home this afternoon. I've got a fun, quick, and appropriate bumper idea for it. I swear, at this rate I won't need to worry about archiving my bumpers, because I'll never use the same one twice.
JOURNAL: Ashyukun (Robert Babcock)
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