- The saga continues 2003-09-12 08:06:04 Earlier problems with ripping my footage have resolved into the brutal truth that my DVD is, apparently, either damaged or not very well made. I have not been able to successfully rip the last 30 minutes or so of the movie. Stymied at every turn, I swear. Now I have to go out and try to find another source...
-
Premiere is clinically insane
2003-09-07 13:01:41
It's rather appropriate that, as I write this, a site banner about programs deciding to crash all the time is featured.
You know what I really hate? A couple of things, but right now I'm referring to Premiere's habit of deciding when and WHAT to save, regardless of what it's SUPPOSED to be doing. Autosave... what a joke. I've now spent SIX HOURS total redoing the same clip footage FOUR TIMES because either autosave hasn't been autosaving and Premiere crashes or because autosave has worked, but only for selected things and in no particular order.
My record so far: Three straight hours of Premiere without a crash. woo hoo! I actually got some work done!! And it's still there, too!
In other news: I stepped on a nest of yellowjackets today while hiking with my dog. Three of the little bastards stung me (to their demise) and now my left leg is all red and swollen. My biggest relief: that nothing happened that would impair my ability to type.
I suppose I'm supposed to be keeping track of this, but I really don't know how many hours I've spent AMVing thus far. Suffice to say three weeks of variable progress has been made. -
Phase I cont.
2003-09-03 10:50:30
Ok, so in my ignorance I once again jumped the gun. So let's try this again, shall we?
Yay me! I ripped a very nice quality movie following READFAG (not the outdated steps found at another site). After A LOT of trouble, I've finally got the process for taking VOBs and actually converting them to something useful down. Despite Premiere crashing on me at first every five minutes, I've managed to begin the process of clip collection with a decent amount of success. And yes, the conversion from AVI to AVS works.
I currently anticipate this AMV is going to take me months and months to make, assuming I don't get fed up with it far sooner. I have a good enough background in graphics etc. to be more familiar than a rank beginner would be with Premiere, but even so, making what's in my head come out on the screen is extremely difficult b/c, for the most part, I'm learning as I go.
Proudest moment so far: Taking two of my clips and making them do something cool (even if I didn't intend it to happen). It's just a dissolve transition effect but hey, I am allowed my moments in the sun, right? -
AMV Phase I completed
2003-08-27 12:59:10
Stats:
Computer time: Approx. 12-16 hours
Think time: Unknown
Hurrah, after much fussing I have successfully gotten my anime into my computer. The DVD player I originally had did not want to install properly and my PA lent me his, which did work (thank god). After some minor problems with software installation, bad sectors and codecs, the ripping process was completed. The results aren't bad, the avi file is of much higher quality than anything to be downloaded, but is plagued by occasional jerkiness, dark tones and persistent lines on the video. None of these are enough to deter me, however.
As I enter Phase II (collecting my clips) I am puzzled by what software should be used. I have Premiere, I have VirtualDub, plus a few other things. The guide I have been following thus far expects that I will use VD to gather clips, saving them as AVI files, but I find it hard to believe this is really what I should be doing.
-
Wow, that WAS a stupid entry.
2003-08-15 07:19:08
I have progressed beyond useless yelling at Premiere to simply shutting it down when it ticks me off. My way of saying, "You can try to screw me over as much as you want, but I don't have to save my work!"
Yeah. Hmm, let's see... my current angst with this whole AMV process is making my DVD player cooperate so that I actually have footage to work with. My computer thinks it's a CD player, and therefore thinks it cannot recognize the file type... ugh... why is it always the little, stupid things that stand in our way?
In any case, my AMV is coming together, idea-wise, into some sort of coherent whole. Having listened to the song a gazillion times, I have a good sense of what I need to find, in terms of clips, from the movie. Moreover, I still feel the song and VHD fit well together, so I'm not shooting myself in the foot.
While stomping at the treadmill last night, though, I suddenly had an entirely new angle on my AMV theme: to pair up Charlotte and Meier, Leila and D, and run the AMV with both. Part of me wants to cheer, because it all fits so perfectly. Another part of me is depressed that it's all been done before. And another part says the heck with that, it makes far more sense to encapsulate the entire movie, rather than just one segment.
Yet another demands to know if Leila's story will come through clearly, if the two lovebirds are getting in her way. One reason I wanted to do this AMV was BECAUSE Leila's story is, in its own way, as big a theme in the movie as C&M's but hasn't been given the same press-time, so to speak (newspaper lingo sneaking in, have to address this soon). I am concerned about how to present the kidnapping-bounty hunter story without taking away from the main theme of the AMV but... I'll have to deal with that as it comes, I guess.
In any event, the more I struggle to make this AMV, the more determined I become, so I suppose that's a good thing.
On a side note: my soon-to-be-at-hand production assistant has the Perfect Sessions of Cowboy Bebop at his disposal (courtesy of my Christmas gift-giving) and I'm trying to encourage him to tamper with their dog-pal. We'll see how this goes. I'd rather try to finish my VHD AMV before embarking on something else.
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
Current server time: Feb 06, 2023 16:02:26