JOURNAL: Zeonic Freak (Dustin Kopplin)

  • A Blessed Year… 2026-01-02 13:29:32 This is just a journal entry for me just kind of reflecting this past year of 2025 as I head into the new year. I’ve been thinking about writing something about my past year regarding what’s been going on for me personally that I feel like sharing. I’m not usually one to boast or brag about my personal life online, which makes writing this kinda hypocritical of me, but I feel also at the same time to write something because I just feel lead too.

    I understand that this past year has been hard on some people, and I get that. I’ve gone years feeling like nothing has changed for me, and things either get worse or just stay the same. Maybe I need to write what I want to say because it might be inspiring to someone out there that in due time, something good can come to some of you, because it happened to me.

    2025 has been one of the most blessed years of my life personally. Other than having one of the best years in terms of winning AMV contests, I was able to meet the love of my life and get married just shy of turning 40. I got married back in October, and I’ve quite literally waited my entire life to be with someone to share the rest of my life with. This was something I got to the point with God where I'll be patient and wait on that person, and felt that it was going to happen to me and not ever give up hope on that. I met my wife early in 2025 and we instantly hit it off. I felt that I needed to be two things for her and stayed with that; that was to love her and be committed to her. Those two actions, or should I say commands, have grown us closer together, and have shown me what an amazing person she is, while also bettering myself. It’s also shown me that she is the most valuable person to me on this entire planet, and nothing out there can replace her. I feel that with true honesty in my heart, enough to say “I do” to her at the altar in front of everyone. God didn’t give me someone I asked for, but gave me someone better for my life. I came to that realization months before we got married.

    To add the cherry to the top of the 2025 AMV contest ice cream of achievements, I won Masters at Anime Weekend Atlanta. That contest and Otakon were two contests that have meant the most to me when making videos, especially trailers. I started on my Masters entry “The Angel” back in the late summer of 2024, and focused on making that my main video I wanted to be proud of. It paid off, and my wife and I were both there to enjoy my moment in the sun. I feel like if there was anything to prove that I’m a talented editor, it was shown right then and there. There is a video of me lifting VicBond off the ground because I was that excited. Don’t worry, I don’t think I hurt him doing that haha. I urge others to enter Masters because I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with. Make that a goal for you if you're an editor that loves making videos, it can be done.

    Speaking of Otakon, I made “Top Gundam” for Otakon 2025, as I always set a goal for myself to see if I could eventually win Best Trailer for their contest. With the recent wake of VicBond forcibly being stepped down from his position as leading the AMV contest for that con, there’s no point in submitting anything to that con in the future if they decide to revamp their AMV contest. There’s a lot of editors that have stated they will not support that con going forward because of that, and it’s for good reason. That’s where I stand as well. But making finals for Trailer in a stacked category this past year I can live with that, and getting the feedback I’ve gotten from that video means a lot to me.

    With my new chapter in my life going into 2026, I’m focused on my marriage and becoming a good husband and family man. I’m not retired, but my energy and drive to make videos to prove something isn’t as strong. I’d rather take that energy towards working on my major blessing God has put in my life, that matters the most. I’ve still got projects I’ll work on for AWA Accolades since I enjoy doing them, and being more involved with judging for contests if the opportunity arises for me. I did my own AMV Trailer contest on the Org this past summer and want to keep continuing to do that, that was a lot of fun for me to do.

    I don’t know what 2026 has in store, but I'll cherish what I've been blessed with for as long as I'm breathing. Whatever comes your way this year that is good for you and too you, be thankful. Thank you to those who read this and hope it helps you out, take care till the next time
     
  • Coming up 20 Years being on this website... 2025-07-22 15:27:55 Hello AMV world, not sure who is going to see this or use their time to read it, maybe I'm talking in the void, but writing what I'm writing now while at work in my office, I decided to do my first ever journal entry.


    Spending parts of my day going through this website looking for new videos to check out (meaning seeing older videos of things I never seen before or want to watch again), I realized that I joined this site on July 25th of 2005. This instantly hit me hard knowing that watching and being around AMV's since the early 2000's have been part of my life without me really thinking about it.


    My backstory on AMV's goes back to probably the end of 2002 when I was using the family Compaq irresponsibly downloading anime from file sharing programs like Kazaa and would come across AMV's that way. To this day in, somewhere in my garage of my crap, I still have a majority of those videos on data CDs that probably still work to this day (that I wound up backing up a few years back on external HD's). These ranged from stuff from editors like MetalWolf, Mexican Junior, Maboroshi, and countless others that got me to eventually trying out video editing on my own with my first video on my 17th birthday in January 2003 on Windows Movie Maker.


    While getting into amv editing and making my own videos, it never dawned on me that there was a community for this stuff till I signed up in July of 2005. Granted, I would be at a friend's house and my buddy showed me stuff from Doki Doki (The "Right Now" video I think just came out, but I didn't know who Doki Doki was until many years later). The only people who watched my videos and gave me any criticism or praise were my friends in high school, they were my only audience at the time. I do know that in high school because I was making AMV’s, it’s always been in my to be visually creative and having some kind of outlet to share that with people was with me long before I ever touched a computer or editing program. I was making up AMV’s in my brain listening to 96 Rock outta Raleigh, NC with Kid Rock, Green Day and Limp Bizkit hitting the airwaves with scenes of Dragonball Z and other material in my brain with the lyrics.


    I honestly don't even remember what brought me here to the org when I signed up, but I did try and catalog one of my Initial D videos I made, but couldn't figure out how to properly put the thing on this site, so then I didn't log in for nearly 15 years give or take after that. I didn't bother to see who the other editors were, let alone care about what they were making, I just wanted to make my stuff and enjoy it. By 2006 I had a youtube account and was putting my stuff up on there.


    Fast forward to 2009 and I check out the AMV contest at Animazement, and I'm blown away at what I'm seeing. I remember seeing an amazing Cowboy Bebop AMV to Guns n’ Roses “Live and Let Die” (sadly I cannot find that online but I know I watched it in the past few years) and getting introduced to l33tmeatwad “Shinji (Not) the Boss" video (again, before knowing who he was, until we met in person years later and now were AMV buds). So 2010 rolls around and I send in my BGC Forever video, which seemed to be shown on the overflow panel room on a Sunday afternoon before the con ended and people cheered for it, and also thinking the SFX I added to the video would’ve blown out the speakers and made someone deaf. I of course was in the back laughing my butt off seeing all this go down and the tech crew frantically trying to figure out what the problem was, oh good times. After that, I didn’t make anything for nearly 9 years, at least anything that I would make to send to a con that wasn’t Animazement. I was never aware that anime cons had AMV contests, and had I known this information when I was making videos in the beginning, I could’ve sent my earlier crap to these cons in the early and mid-2000’s.


    What got me back into making AMV’s as a hobby involved a few factors that cultivated over the years: I actually made a video for the AnimEigo Otaku no Video Kickstarter when I asked Robert Woodhead in person at Animazement 2015 about doing work for him on future projects, and making a few demo reel videos as bonuses on that Kickstarter Blu-ray were one of my first jobs in the anime industry. At the time, it didn’t dawn on me to make more, and if anything, I really didn’t have an interest in tackling AMV’s like I did nearly a decade earlier. The main couple of factors were that I was in college for my B.A. in Communication in Digital Media, so throughout my time in school between tech and university, I was well versed in digital design through Adobe programs. I was getting skills towards what I do without really considering that this was what I was going to use them for when I got out of school. I was aiming for a digital media job making bookoo money, and after a couple of years of trying to get into the digital media job world, nothing could ever stick for me.


    The major factor was that I was getting over a near 3 year relationship/engagement that put me in the worst point in my life, my absolute lowest, and that took me nearly 5 or so years to get over her and figure out what God wanted for me in my life. During this time at Anime Weekend Atlanta 2018, going by the VAT room with a friend and seeing someone’s im guessing editors spotlight, and seeing what this person had on the screen, the feeling of spite came over me that “Wait a minute, I can run circles in make a much better video than this person could, is this the best the AMV community can do? Is this an absolute joke?” And that’s when I decided to not let my skills I learned in design and video in college not go to waste and started to work on my “Straight Outta Bebop” video, which took me 9 or so months to work on during my spare time. I will say that being a labor of love, I enjoyed it. That video got me through a tough time, and it got me to where I'm at in the AMV community and the people I've connected with.


    Now fast forward from early 2020 and today, here I am still going to conventions, doing AMV related panels, meeting other editors, getting better at my craft, winning at AMV contests domestically and globally, and being in another relationship with someone that really cares about me. Me 20 years ago, when I first started this account, I would've never thought I'd be back here, let alone writing a journal entry on a whim one afternoon in July 20 years later. I’m not in any media related field (I'm a property manager for an apartment community, a job I would’ve never wanted to ever do, but it’s what I got and can’t really complain), but doing this as a hobby has been more fruitful for me than if I were to work some media job and probably be miserable. I am truly blessed on what God has put in my life, where I'm at, and where I'll be going. Life for me is playing the hand I'm dealt, and felt that I've played that hand the best I could. Every video win for me I give thanks to God, because for me to do what has been gifted to me and not being wasted brings me joy, and the fact that other people can enjoy my work and my silly and serious videos means a lot to me. That right there is worth giving God praise over.

    There’s a lot more I'm sure I can say, but I think leaving up what I have is good for right now. I don’t know if I'll ever do another entry, but for now putting up my backstory on how AMV’s have had a huge influence on me is what I feel right about sharing with whoever is reading this. I really didn’t have any structure to this other than just sharing what's in my heart and off my brain. So thank you whoever you are who read everything I wrote, much appreciated! Enjoy my work while your at it!
     
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