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aaaaaannnnnnddddd I'M DONE, except for the credits.
2012-02-26 13:06:39
Thank you again to Bashar and Scintilla for a little help here towards the end! It's nice to know people are watching out for each other. :) If anyone ever has any Photoshop questions, bring 'em on and I'll be happy to see if I can help!
The Kingdom of L.F.S.
Pre-edit: 3 hours
Edit: 77 hours
Post-Production/Special Effects: 144 hours
Told myself only twice today that making more modifications to this AMV is a waste of time, that what's done is done and no one is ever going to care whether the ambient lighting should really be set at 40 instead of 50. Plus, there's a lot worse things I'm sure people will criticize. Now it's time to make the credits, which also means it's time to party, because now I can cut loose and screw around as much or as little as I want.
One consequence of this type of record keeping is that I didn't really stop to think whether all that labor (221 hours+) was really worth it at the time. If someone told me in advance I'd have to spend seven months and more than 200 hours on this AMV, I don't know that I would have even attempted it. Granted, I thought I'd finish by Christmas, but in retrospect, I really don't know what the heck I was thinking. :|
New target release date: March 31.
New focus: Hoping fervently that L.F.S. passes the muster of the judges at Anime Boston so that I can see this thing on the big screen. Aside from the obvious fun of that, I really want to know how the audience responds to Sephiroth when he does something he has never done before and possibly will never do again. IF the effect is noticed at all. :| Damn me and my penchant for quarter-second effects! -
@ Bashar & Scintilla
2012-02-26 08:06:53
Thank you so much for trying to help!! I seem to constantly come back with the same problems year after year... :(
I had all those settings correct, Scintilla. I think the culprit was a malfunctioning MPEG2 codec, this morning - after making two test encodes - TMPGEnc informed me that I didn't have the capability to play back MPEG2 files, then my computer seized up every time I attempted to play one. Uninstalled stuff and reinstalled stuff, and now everything's good. -_-
As for why I'm making two encodes:
1. MPEG2, 29.97/3:2 pulldown NTSC is the recommended entry format for several cons. They'll accept h.264, however they also say they'll then convert the video again to MPEG2. Since I don't quite know my way around this encoding stuff, I prefer to try and give cons what they ask for in the best way I know how (MPEG2) and avoid going through multiple compressions. Unless someone can explain why my entry will be better served by being compressed twice. :| And how to convert my 23.976 AMV to 29.97/3:2 pulldown in Zarx.
2. The MPEG2 encode sounds better than my h.264, which made the audio extremely tinny. I'm not sure what ZarxGUI is doing, but it's making it very clear I downloaded the audio off the Internet (which I had no choice about, however this is the first time I've noticed a lot of unpleasant/unwanted noises.) Sort of like when you have a cold and everything is stuffed up, then suddenly your sinus passages clear and everything is shockingly crisp. My AMV's sinuses have cleared, but in a bad way.
This is the new 2.0 version of Zarx, the older versions didn't produce this tinniness, so I'm going to experiment a little with the settings and maybe revert to an older beta and see what happens. -
Grrr
2012-02-25 21:10:36
It's got something to do with either the AVS filters I'm using or my video file.
It's so nice to be able to hate my hobby again. I've missed this feeling. -
@Bashar
2012-02-25 21:00:06
Open zarxgui -> drag and drop video -> default settings for everything but quantizer (set that to 10) -> preset of placebo -> hit encode button.
That should handle most things. If it doesn't, explain what's wrong.
h.264 went fine, looks absolutely wonderful, it's the MPEG-2 that's screwing me over...as usual.
I made a test MPEG2 last weekend with ZERO problems, yet today every video I make comes out with nasty, nasty interlacing, even though I'm using the exact same scripts and settings. These are also the same scripts and settings I've used for years to make MPEGs which produce ZERO interlacing (though other problems no one can figure out do occur. Amusingly enough, those other bizarre problems are no no longer occurring). I can play MPEG2 files I've made in the past without any interlacing problems, but these new ones I'm making today are complete trash.
AVISource("C:...LFS.avi")
ConvertToYV12()
temporalcleaner()
msharpen(threshold=50,strength=50,highq=true)
LanczosResize(720,352)
AddBorders(0,64,0,64)
SSRC(48000)
ConvertToRGB24()
TMPGEnc hates me. That's the only irrational explanation. -
What
2012-02-25 11:47:47
amvorg: Love watching AMVs but you're better with a real pen than a pen tool? Check out our banner contest!
Why would you use a real pen to make a banner? Being good with the pen tool could really help make a better banner, in fact I know it does. What the heck does a real pen have to do being better at digital art??? I...don't get it. I mean, maybe if I thought about it I would, but I don't want to think about simple statements that hard. <---please note ironic tone.
Oh yeah, and my censoring of L.F.S. took about an hour or so, but I think it came out pretty good AND pretty funny, or at least, more slapstick funny, than the non-censored version. Now for some finishing touches and...then...ugh, wait, encoding... :|
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
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