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Information

• Member: ExSphere
• Title: Oneiric Filter
• Premiered: 2018-12-12
• Categories:
  • Action
  • Drama
  • Other
  • Fun
  • Serious
  • Sentimental
• Song:
  • Soulcrate Music Sleep Awake
• Anime:
  • Fullmetal Alchemist (TV)
• Comments: !!!!-NOTICE-!!!!
  
  High Quality download link:
  Currently down due to technical difficulties. I am working on uploading it to a new server within the month.
  If you need a direct HQ download link, send me a message and I will send it your way.
  
  
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  Oh hey, I made another video about dreams.
  
  If you are looking for meaning behind this video, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. The song is about lucid dreaming, take that and let your imagination do it's thing.
  
  I put my focus on two things in this video.
  Transitions and atmosphere
  
  Transitions in this video are like a buzz saw. If the clip ends on an up, it will continue that and follow with a down. This is editing 101, but I took it to a different level compared to my other videos. Most of the transitions are laced with rotoscoped objects/particles (usually only for 3 or 4 frames) but it helps blend the two clips together in a way that is subtle and effective. If I ever replaced one clip, I would have to go to the clip before it and change how it ends, and go the clip after and change how it begins. Sometimes you can't force the clip before or after to flow so you have to replace that clip as well, leading to a vicious cycle. It's a tedious process, but I enjoyed it none the less.
  
  I hate saying the word atmosphere, because by itself it doesn't really mean anything. I can say that the atmosphere is "dark, dreamy, hopeful, lucid, etc" And you can imagine many different scenarios. The only real way to understand the atmosphere of any video is to watch it. The reason I bring up atmosphere isn't because it captures a certain tone, but because it's dynamic.
  
  My work ethic with editing has changed drastically since 2005. When I start working on an AMV I have to make cut's in my real life endeavors. This wasn't a big issue as a teenager, but as an adult I find it difficult to justify my time splicing up anime to music I enjoy. This in conjunction with me always wanting to "one-up" myself, makes each following amv more time consuming than the last. This video in particular is "the most time-consuming AMV I've made, and the last one I'll ever make."
  
  Production:
  I started working on this project in June of 2018. I didn't want to feel limited by how much source footage I had, so I ended up using all 51 episodes. After ripping all the blu-rays and preparing the footage, my source folder racked up to 785GB. That's after shortening each episode by removing the intro/outro.
  
  
  When working on the "dream" effect, I used a sequence of light leaks created in After Effects, and custom RGB splits. These effects in conjunction with one another only appear when the chorus is playing. The usage of unique effects in repeating segments is a standard practice, but this method is overt in creating a dreamy tone.
  
  
  I ended up using photoshop for a good chunk of this video, most of which was used to clean plate clips.
  This is a technique I've done before in After effects, but it ends up looking poor and is held up by 100+ layers. This technique in Photoshop is much more hands on, and the final product looks incredible. This turned into a deep rabbit hole for my imagination and I started using this effect very liberaly. There were many shots that look normal, but are stitched together like a Frankenstein puppet. Most of them are very subtle ( before after ) and didn't take much time, while others made me question my existence. ( before after )
  
  
  I really enjoyed making the motion from transitions blend together. This became obsessive at one point and I started doing some nonsense that I can only describe as "multi-track motion/stabilization"
  Here is an example
  You have two clips that transition together A into B, each clip has a camera motion (native to the source footage) with two different static speeds x(character speed) and y(background speed). I wanted the speed of A(x) & B(x) to be the same, and the speed of A(y) & B(y) to be the same. First pick which speed pair you want A(x,y) or B(x,y). Let's say you chose B as your speed pair, you then need to motion stabilize A(x) & A(y), and motion track B(x) & B(y). Before you do anything else make sure you frame by frame rotoscope A(x), and clean plate A(y) so the character is not in the background. Parent the motion from B(x,y) to A(x,y) accordingly and your finished. This process was simple at times, and extremely difficult at other times. If the motion in A(y) background is very animated you have to make multiple clean plates and play god with what the animation will look like. I would usually try to find a background that is bland, or has repetitive patterns to avoid this types of scenarios.
  
  There will be a breakdown video on youtube showing the project file in depth.
  
  Time spent: 450 hours in 6 months
  
  Software Used: Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Photoshop
  
  
  Special Thanks:
  Reda, Niotex, LittleAtari, NS, Silk_SK
  Without them this video would not have been possible.