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Eureka?
2012-07-01 14:04:17
Somewhat pathetic, but very true, is/was my perpetual mystification about how to make an action AMV, or really any AMV with a high level of slick sync. I get it, but at the same time I really don't get it if I can't do it, right? Today while driving around I was mentally complaining about my first stab at the end of the AMV I'm currently working on. It's got and needs action, so I synced it accordingly and, even if I don't think it will stick, I realized something in mid-complaint:
Oh. That's how you make an action video. You sync stuff. Like I did with the end of my AMV.
*makes aggravated noise* This is a pretty "duh" kind of realization, and certainly a very loose generalization of the matter, but I was coming at it from a point of view I'd never taken before. Kind of sucks the mystery out of it, though. :( Plus, now I "get" it...but still can't do it. LOL
My AMVing actually has been put on hold lately, because there's something wrong with a tendon in my right wrist (caused by too much computer work, of course). I can hold my wrist ok in most positions, but attempting to go from palm up to palm down in one motion is difficult and painful and involves a loud snap. Makes it hard to drive, too, and my regime at the gym has been undermined because I just can't do the required motions.
So I've been doing my ambimoustrous thing (mousing with my left hand) as much as possible, but I have a really hard time working in graphic programs like that because of how precise you have to be, not to mention all the shortcut keys that just don't work or require contortion to use with the right hand. Consequently, I've avoided editing, since it's certainly not something I NEED to be doing (like spending 40 hours a week at work constantly using my right hand just so I can get my projects done). -
Back to the drawing board
2012-06-24 19:33:14
In the Key of D
Edit: 24 hours
Post-Production/Special Effects: 0
Percent Completion: 0%
I've spent a good bit of time on just the intro and ending at this point, and have nothing that I'm really excited or even satisfied with. I am learning a lot about editing, though, or at least, I think I am. I tend to learn the most when I'm struggling with a challenge, and this is definitely a huge challenge. I'm totally out of my element (if indeed I even have an element).
Heh, I tend to keep my exports as I go along so that I can look back over my experimentation and better identify what works and what doesn't. Last night I looked at one of my original exports of the intro (which I'd moved entirely off the timeline and dumped into a sequence in Premiere entitled ""FAIL" a few weeks back) and found it seemed to be achieving my goals better than anything I'd made since. *SIGH* My first instincts tend to be good ones, but I'm great at going off on fruitless tangents.
Underlying all this is the plain truth that this is not and will never be a really good AMV. I spent about an hour the other day watching a lot of highly ranked VHD AMVs, though, and was rather appalled by the mediocrity and downright rubbish I found. Made me view mine in a little better light...until I remembered that this is 2012 and my old-school editing style just isn't going to cut it. -
Gee whiz I'm bad at this.
2012-06-17 22:16:38
In the Key of D
Edit: 22 hours
Post-Production/Special Effects: 0
Percent Completion: 0%
The Good: I am learning a lot about VHD: Bloodlust. It's one of my favorite anime, but I've never picked it apart like this before. I find it to be quite fascinating, actually, how well crafted a lot of the scenes are. There are all these details that I never noticed before, too, like this candelabra in the foreground of one scene where you're supposed to be watching Charlotte and Meier - the candelabra isn't just some generic goth-looking ornate thing, it's got skeletal hands sculpted in and around what I guess are supposed to be wilting flower petals. It's incredible!
The Bad: It's also a crying shame how poorly they treated this film. There may be some great artwork behind there, but it's so badly animated at times - it jerks, it changes color, it's grainy, it's washed out, it's a MESS. The characters go off-model quite a bit, too, to the point where I'm not sure which one is "on" model. I should keep a running tab of how many different noses and chins D has. This poor treatment of the animation is actually getting in my way. I might have to try and reanimate some of it, redrawing things by hand. Talk about a slippery slope, though! I do that to one scene, and I'm inevitably going to want to do it to others.
The Ugly: So yeap, 22 hours into this thing and still nothing on the timeline that I feel confident enough in to leave there permanently. The best part that IS on the timeline and hasn't changed is the part I haphazardly tossed there a week or two ago. Apparently I edit better by accident than I do when I try really hard. I've spent the majority of my AMV editing career toiling away at stuff that never sees the light of day, though, so this technically isn't anything new. Difference is I'm actually enjoying myself for a change. Not sure what that's all about. -
Well, I learn something new with every AMV!
2012-06-15 20:50:05
In the Key of D
Edit: 16 hours
Post-Production/Special Effects: 0
Percent Completion: 0%
What I learned: I am a slave to technical precision, but that stuff doesn't count for much when the only way to make an AMV is kind of just to wing it and have stuff appear on screen when it "feels" right. This is not how I edit, though, which is probably the reason I've never really felt very comfortable with the whole editing process. I don't go by feel, I go by cold, calculating plots and schemes, throttling my footage with an iron grip until it gives in to the inevitable. Or I give in. Things are about even on that score.
:|
I'm an abusive editor. No wonder my footage has always fought back.
What is particularly interesting about this development is that I started making this AMV literally by dumping favored clips onto the timeline where I "felt" they should fall, was kind of pleased with the results, and have spent 16 hours since then ruining everything by forcing things (or trying to force things) to conform technically to the music. But it just isn't working and I've gotten absolutely nowhere, LESS than nowhere, because now I don't have what I started with and can't remember what that was like.
Well, I suppose it's hard to overcome a challenge if you don't know what the challenge is. Now I know what it is, or think I do, so hopefully things will get along a little better. Not counting on it, but hey, I gotta keep chugging along. At least I want to make this, unlike XII which I was (and am) so enamored of, but got horribly depressed trying to create. -
I'm just in it for the hurt, now.
2012-06-09 20:09:13
In the Key of D
Edit: 12 hours
Post-Production/Special Effects: 0
Percent Completion: 0%
I added a new category today to demonstrate how doggedly I must force myself to pursue AMVing. Twelve hours of editing and I've got nada, zip, zero permanently on the timeline. In fact, today I ripped apart everything I'd already done at least four times, and things are in such a bad state that I don't know that I could even put them back if I wanted to. I supposed I also should mention that this 12 hours has been solely focused on about 10 seconds of AMV. With no effects.
This is am exemplary case of why I don't make many AMVs, I just can't do it unless everything in the cosmos is in alignment. At what point will I call it quits? Stay tuned!
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
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