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Maybe?
2008-07-11 12:04:21
I think I may have found a quick, effective way to rotoscope Advent Children. I’m going to test it out this weekend and, while it’s possible the quality of the end result isn’t up to the stellar standards people expect from masking around here, this IS AC we’re talking about. There are very few crisp, clear edges to find in the first place. It’s going to look a little weird no matter what you do.
So what’s up? There’s a program call Vertus Fluid Mask which I’ve used before for work. They currently have a free demo out of the latest version (3) which I picked up in hopes of convincing my current employer it’s worth purchasing. The program is $243, which isn’t all that bad in the grand scheme of things. Being the inquisitive sort, I decided to see how it would handle anime, particularly Advent Children since that gives people a lot of trouble. So far it’s working quite well. I can mask a single frame nicely in about one minute – if I wanted to get really perfect, maybe 3 minutes.
Anyways, we’ll see. My big, grand experiments have a habit of blowing up in my face. I’m not quite sure that VFM would be appropriate for regular anime, where slick bezier curves are usually the name of the game. That is not where VFM excels, that is not why people buy it. I’m also not sure it could accommodate the black outlines on most anime – it would be difficult to tell how each frame is matching up to the others, whereas in something like After Effects you’re seeing the animated results right in front of you.
Advent Children is so haphazard anyways that small discrepancies and vague edges are going to be the norm no matter what you do. Big drawback with AC is that it has an unfortunately dull color palette made worse by the fact that if you’ve got a scene with black/gray foreground on black/gray background it’s hard to even SEE where one ends and the other begins, nevermind expect a program to understand it. Fortunately VFM can work in tandem with Photoshop, so depending on how perfect you wanted to make a mask, you could always create part of it in the former and the rest of it in the latter.
I have to say, I’m quite excited about experimenting with this. IF it works then that’s just solved one huge obstacle to an AC AMV I had in mind which depended heavily on masking – something I can certainly do by hand, but didn’t really want to because it would be such a labor-intensive endeavor. Further, since it seems to perform really well for fast work, it might be valuable simply as way to quickly generate masks to be used in experimenting – one thing I’ve always dreaded is masking a ton of footage just for test purposes.
Oh yes, and...
Takeout:
Pre-edit: 12
Edit: 28
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I just had the urge to type "YATA!"
2008-07-09 15:20:48
I think I found a way to safely upload betas which doesn't require me to drive hundreds of mile to access broadband Internet. This would be Vimeo, that's http://www.vimeo.com/ , which seems to let me not only upload videos from work (where the broadband is) but employ privacy controls to keep a tight rein on who's watching my stuff. I haven't tested it yet, but if it works I'm going to be a REALLY happy camper.
Also, logo...got three done. I might stop here, because I need to cease procrastinating on AMV projects. This sounds bad, but I'm actually kind of hoping I'll spend 30-40 hours on XII and decide it's unworkable, because I know that if I do that much and decide it IS workable then I'm in for another 100-200 hours of blood, sweat and tears. Fortunately, I've (tentatively) decided to severely slash the music, because 4-minutes is pushing it, particularly when I'm so bereft of footage. One would think a 26-episode series would provide ample AMV fodder, but that's not necessarily the case.
And this is where I get very frustrated, because even if I want to sink a lot of time into a project, I can't. It's very difficult for me to work for any length of time at my computer at home without my back killing me, my carpal tunnel going bonkers (it's in both wrists thanks to my ambimousing, so I'm screwed) and my neck twanging out. This is the #1 reason I don't make faster progress on AMVs, I just can't physically DO it. No doubt it'd be different if I wasn't already sitting in front of a computer 40 hours a week. To come home from work and do the same thing is quite an unpleasant experience. I associate video editing with physical pain, and that is not stretching the truth one bit. -
*puts feet up on desk*
2008-07-06 16:20:14
So I'm back from vacation - which was a really great vacation, very relaxing, very good. Except for the minor case of food poisoning - turns out THAT'S why I felt sick the night of AX's AMV screening, and why I haven't felt too great since. -_- I still don't know what I ate that did it, though.
Among other things, I got my AMV stuff sorted out. I want to give XII another shot, for two big reasons: first, as with 'Bustin, I know this can be an awesome AMV, second, giving up on an AMV before I've sunk at least 30-40 hours into it is just not my style.
Takeout also got a mild boost. I came home and rewatched what I've got so far and realized it's not as horrible as I'd thought it was. It's not great, but it's not hideous, either. Worth pursuing, I think, particularly since the AMV revolves entirely around the last two seconds, so if I can get THERE then all the rest doesn't really matter too much anyways. At least, not to me. What I've got to keep in mind is that I'm making a two-minute joke whose punch line is, theoretically, going to make up for other shortcomings. Theoretically. -
Someone finally said it.
2008-07-05 11:35:49
What'd I mention back a few months ago, about people drawing incorrect conclusions about the inspiration for my AMV, given that there's one on the 'Tube which resembles it in a small way and was released before mine? Uh huh:
" Someone used this exact idea at the 2008 Anime Expo AMV contest in Los Angeles on July 3rd 08. "
Not sure if they're implying I swiped someone else's idea or not, but it could certainly be interpreted that way. Fortunately, I didn't. And I never WOULD. I mean, does anyone really think I'm that incapable of coming up with outlandish AMV concepts all on my own?
No.
I didn't think so!!
What they thought you were incapable of is coming up with an outlandish WORKABLE AMV concept.
Guess I debunked that theory. :|
Yes...but was it a one-shot deal? Can you do workable and NOT outlandish?
Um...
That's kind of odd, you can only make weird AMVs?
What's wrong with that? No one thinks it odd if you can only make action AMVs.
-_-
Check back in 12 months and hopefully that question will be answered. And they're not weird, they're...unique! -
Wwwoowww
2008-07-04 22:55:12
'Bustin = AX 2008 Staff Favorite & Judges Favorite
Now I've got to figure out what the awards are, exactly...rather ignorant of me, I suppose, but this knowledge doesn't just manifest itself in one's brain when one enters an AMV competition. @_@
Bleh, I'm so fried right now...
oh yes, Happy Fourth of July!! :D
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
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