Post by SqiKy kLeen on Apr 7, 2009 23:46:52 GMT -5
The Road
Awarded BEST IN SHOW at Anime Detour 2009!
Road to Development:
When I first started wanting to dive into videos again, it was actually becoming more of a hunger than a goal. I had given up video making for a long time, and for a lot of personal reasons that I'm not going to bore you with here. (one reason wast that I was constantly being mocked and berated for my AMV hobby by my roommates at that time) But I realized after taking a long hiatus to reflect on just about everything, I realized that giving up AMVs for those reasons was just dumb, and I was pretty much just giving into what they were trying to do me.
So I wanted to do something really different with this video. Before this vid was made, my previous videos were either dark and disturbing, or just not reflecting what my skills can really do. I wanted to give this video a life and even a genre of its own, something what was epic in a ton of ways, and something that definitely qualified for a personal "D.I.N.O." entry. I wanted it to have romance, humor, action, and a deep story, and I think I came through on all those fronts in one way or another.
Inspiration:
Believe it or not, the first pieces of the video fell in when I was looking for songs to practice for the Daishcon Rock Band tournament. I found the movie clip of "Master Exploder" by Tenacous D on youtube, and liked it so much that I rented the movie, and shortly afterwards, bought both of Tenacious D's albums. (I was bored on lunch during work, and needed some new tunes for my car).
After listening to the albums I thought, 'damn, some of those might be good for AMVs'. I wondered then, what kind of Anime would feature a lot of guitar playing and general instrument playing, as I knew these would be the keys to my video.
Enter Dark Crono.
AC is on my Special Thanks list for several reasons. One, he provided me with nessecery utilities and workspace for setting up my computer for a fresh reformat, ready for editing. And Two, he basically provided the mental launchpad for my video by suggesting "Beck" as the Anime to watch. It wasnt long after that I ordered the boxed set, and after watching all the way through, I must say that it now ranks as one of my top five favorite Anime series ever. It wasn't hard to find lots and lots of useful footage either, it was like the anime just fell into my hands for this one.
I should also note that the song underwent several changes before I dedcided on Tribute. I knew I was going to use a song by The D, but the trouble was which one. There were many I liked including "Beelzeboss", "The History of Tenacious D" and "The Metal". Problem was, one factor in this video I wanted is that any audience could enjoy it, meaning no foul language. In the end, "Tribute" won out here, for being an incredible song, and being easily censorable.
Adding Ryuk:
This video really needed a demon in order to be complete for two reasons. One, so that there could be the visual element of the demon in the storyline, and two, because it nods to the official video of Tenacious D's Tribute. Right off the bat, I was already thinking of Ryuk as the character to fill this role. His unique look and popularity in Anime fandom were perfect.
This is where Zacloud makes her appearance in my list of Special Thanks. She contributed by essentially using her pre-existing knowledge of Deathnote to help me scan for usable scenes, saving me lots of time in watching hours of anime. She also sent me pics, and was online for the majority of the time I was editing with Yahoo open. She was able to provide constant feedback and ideas too. And while I may have spoiled some of the later episodes for myself, I was glad it happened, as those later episodes had the scenes I needed for the "Ryuk rock".
Ryuk Rock:
At first, this idea was only that, just an idea; thrown about when I was discussing my next video that fateful day at AC's house. But as I looked at more scenes, I realized this would be possible with some time and dedication. Once I found the proper scenes, there was nothing that was gonna stop me! *volcano erupts behind me*
First, I had to find a good frame of Ryuk with all of his arm segments visible. I knew this was going to involve splitting him into several layers and moving them all over and over again.
Then I had to shoop it quite a bit to get looking how I wanted it, including color changes, flipping, cropping, splitting body parts into layers and adding duplicate layers for easy animating. For the guitar, I had to replicate the image 30 times, at different levels of zoom and center them all on a focal point. (I think I chose the 12th fret inlay, most guitars that dont have fret inlays on the standard notes, usually have just one inlay on the 12th fret, which is fairly centered)
As far as the animation, the most tedious thing about it was to make sure that all my frames and arm movements matched up nicely to the previous frame. I inserted a lot of bad frames at first, which would unfortunately be followed by several other "moot" frames, because I would have to go in and delete them all anyway, yet I needed them to 'see' how smooth an animation was. The one saving factor about this scene though was that I had a pretty good musical backdrop to animate on.
I wanted to make his movements realistic, and I wanted him to actually be playing the correct notes. For this, I utilized my guitar, my mirror, and also my Googling skills to come up with the correct "taberature" (or guitar sheet music) for this part of the song. I actually didn't even find a 'tab' that sounded like this part of the song, so I had to essentially came up with my own that sounded appropriate. But there's also another layer to this puzzle; there's usually many different ways you can play the same note or chord on a guitar, and in some cases a note can even be played and sound the exact same way across three different strings. So I had to choose a 'tab' that would be easy to animate with Ryuk, yet still look good.
Thankfully, once I had the exact notes pinned down, everything else fell into place, because at least in terms of guitar playing, there only so many parts of the body that need to be animated to achieve the desired look. Since he's playing notes most of the time in the scene, I only had to find ways to fill the gaps at the beginning and end. The ending was fit for a string vibrato (with a little head tilt for feeling), and for the beginning I decided to throw a few more nods to the official video which Ill mention later. But even with all that in place, it still wasn't easy; and yes, it involved taking notations of exact frame counts throughout the entire 9 seconds that the scene lasts. For anyone who attempts custom animation like this in the future, take note of exact frame counts, you'll be glad you did.
Easter eggs and similarities for this scene:
-The rocking of the Demon on the guitar, the teleportation of the guitar, and the color of the lightning are all similarities to be found in Tenacious D's official video to Tribute
-The pick used by Ryuk is the Pick of Destiny from Tenacious D's 2006 movie "The Pick of Destiny"
-The guitar Ryuk is playing on is a Devil Custom by Schecter Guitar Research www.schecterguitars.com/
-This was NOT my first use of Premiere generated lightning. Only 100% Genuine Force Lightning was used in the making of this video.
Bonus Information:
-I attempted a lot of lip synching in this video, and went all out on the editing path most of the time. Instead of looking for sequences of frames to remove from the Anime, I instead just located 3 or 4 frames in a particular talking scene, and extracted them for copy-pasting (over and over). I also wanted scenes to match to what was being said as well, so I tacked on additional movement to the front and back of animation sequences when I could (good examples of this are "or Ill eat your souls" and when he goes "yeaaauuuaauuhhh, NO!")
-This was the first video I have ever done in which I had an abundance of footage right off the bat, and never ran out through the entire editing process. Below is a screenshot featuring my video at about 60% done; the entire top two video tracks are just invisible and filled with clips to be used at a later time:
-There is a scene (it'll be in the avatar for this video on the videos page) which features an overlay of Jimi Hendrix and a burning guitar. It's my own personal 'tribute' to a rock legend, and it also bears significance to me as my guitar is essentially a Fender Strat.
-The final scene features what I believe to be some of the must uncanny resemblances to some of the actual members of DZX in Anime form that I have ever seen. Representing a large portion of our senior membership here in just this one epic photograph, it was something that I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to add:
I think thats it. I hope you learned something about this video, I packed it to the brim with Easter eggs and other eye candy. Enjoy!
Awarded BEST IN SHOW at Anime Detour 2009!
Road to Development:
When I first started wanting to dive into videos again, it was actually becoming more of a hunger than a goal. I had given up video making for a long time, and for a lot of personal reasons that I'm not going to bore you with here. (one reason wast that I was constantly being mocked and berated for my AMV hobby by my roommates at that time) But I realized after taking a long hiatus to reflect on just about everything, I realized that giving up AMVs for those reasons was just dumb, and I was pretty much just giving into what they were trying to do me.
So I wanted to do something really different with this video. Before this vid was made, my previous videos were either dark and disturbing, or just not reflecting what my skills can really do. I wanted to give this video a life and even a genre of its own, something what was epic in a ton of ways, and something that definitely qualified for a personal "D.I.N.O." entry. I wanted it to have romance, humor, action, and a deep story, and I think I came through on all those fronts in one way or another.
Inspiration:
Believe it or not, the first pieces of the video fell in when I was looking for songs to practice for the Daishcon Rock Band tournament. I found the movie clip of "Master Exploder" by Tenacous D on youtube, and liked it so much that I rented the movie, and shortly afterwards, bought both of Tenacious D's albums. (I was bored on lunch during work, and needed some new tunes for my car).
After listening to the albums I thought, 'damn, some of those might be good for AMVs'. I wondered then, what kind of Anime would feature a lot of guitar playing and general instrument playing, as I knew these would be the keys to my video.
Enter Dark Crono.
AC is on my Special Thanks list for several reasons. One, he provided me with nessecery utilities and workspace for setting up my computer for a fresh reformat, ready for editing. And Two, he basically provided the mental launchpad for my video by suggesting "Beck" as the Anime to watch. It wasnt long after that I ordered the boxed set, and after watching all the way through, I must say that it now ranks as one of my top five favorite Anime series ever. It wasn't hard to find lots and lots of useful footage either, it was like the anime just fell into my hands for this one.
I should also note that the song underwent several changes before I dedcided on Tribute. I knew I was going to use a song by The D, but the trouble was which one. There were many I liked including "Beelzeboss", "The History of Tenacious D" and "The Metal". Problem was, one factor in this video I wanted is that any audience could enjoy it, meaning no foul language. In the end, "Tribute" won out here, for being an incredible song, and being easily censorable.
Adding Ryuk:
This video really needed a demon in order to be complete for two reasons. One, so that there could be the visual element of the demon in the storyline, and two, because it nods to the official video of Tenacious D's Tribute. Right off the bat, I was already thinking of Ryuk as the character to fill this role. His unique look and popularity in Anime fandom were perfect.
This is where Zacloud makes her appearance in my list of Special Thanks. She contributed by essentially using her pre-existing knowledge of Deathnote to help me scan for usable scenes, saving me lots of time in watching hours of anime. She also sent me pics, and was online for the majority of the time I was editing with Yahoo open. She was able to provide constant feedback and ideas too. And while I may have spoiled some of the later episodes for myself, I was glad it happened, as those later episodes had the scenes I needed for the "Ryuk rock".
Ryuk Rock:
At first, this idea was only that, just an idea; thrown about when I was discussing my next video that fateful day at AC's house. But as I looked at more scenes, I realized this would be possible with some time and dedication. Once I found the proper scenes, there was nothing that was gonna stop me! *volcano erupts behind me*
First, I had to find a good frame of Ryuk with all of his arm segments visible. I knew this was going to involve splitting him into several layers and moving them all over and over again.
Then I had to shoop it quite a bit to get looking how I wanted it, including color changes, flipping, cropping, splitting body parts into layers and adding duplicate layers for easy animating. For the guitar, I had to replicate the image 30 times, at different levels of zoom and center them all on a focal point. (I think I chose the 12th fret inlay, most guitars that dont have fret inlays on the standard notes, usually have just one inlay on the 12th fret, which is fairly centered)
As far as the animation, the most tedious thing about it was to make sure that all my frames and arm movements matched up nicely to the previous frame. I inserted a lot of bad frames at first, which would unfortunately be followed by several other "moot" frames, because I would have to go in and delete them all anyway, yet I needed them to 'see' how smooth an animation was. The one saving factor about this scene though was that I had a pretty good musical backdrop to animate on.
I wanted to make his movements realistic, and I wanted him to actually be playing the correct notes. For this, I utilized my guitar, my mirror, and also my Googling skills to come up with the correct "taberature" (or guitar sheet music) for this part of the song. I actually didn't even find a 'tab' that sounded like this part of the song, so I had to essentially came up with my own that sounded appropriate. But there's also another layer to this puzzle; there's usually many different ways you can play the same note or chord on a guitar, and in some cases a note can even be played and sound the exact same way across three different strings. So I had to choose a 'tab' that would be easy to animate with Ryuk, yet still look good.
Thankfully, once I had the exact notes pinned down, everything else fell into place, because at least in terms of guitar playing, there only so many parts of the body that need to be animated to achieve the desired look. Since he's playing notes most of the time in the scene, I only had to find ways to fill the gaps at the beginning and end. The ending was fit for a string vibrato (with a little head tilt for feeling), and for the beginning I decided to throw a few more nods to the official video which Ill mention later. But even with all that in place, it still wasn't easy; and yes, it involved taking notations of exact frame counts throughout the entire 9 seconds that the scene lasts. For anyone who attempts custom animation like this in the future, take note of exact frame counts, you'll be glad you did.
Easter eggs and similarities for this scene:
-The rocking of the Demon on the guitar, the teleportation of the guitar, and the color of the lightning are all similarities to be found in Tenacious D's official video to Tribute
-The pick used by Ryuk is the Pick of Destiny from Tenacious D's 2006 movie "The Pick of Destiny"
-The guitar Ryuk is playing on is a Devil Custom by Schecter Guitar Research www.schecterguitars.com/
-This was NOT my first use of Premiere generated lightning. Only 100% Genuine Force Lightning was used in the making of this video.
Bonus Information:
-I attempted a lot of lip synching in this video, and went all out on the editing path most of the time. Instead of looking for sequences of frames to remove from the Anime, I instead just located 3 or 4 frames in a particular talking scene, and extracted them for copy-pasting (over and over). I also wanted scenes to match to what was being said as well, so I tacked on additional movement to the front and back of animation sequences when I could (good examples of this are "or Ill eat your souls" and when he goes "yeaaauuuaauuhhh, NO!")
-This was the first video I have ever done in which I had an abundance of footage right off the bat, and never ran out through the entire editing process. Below is a screenshot featuring my video at about 60% done; the entire top two video tracks are just invisible and filled with clips to be used at a later time:
-There is a scene (it'll be in the avatar for this video on the videos page) which features an overlay of Jimi Hendrix and a burning guitar. It's my own personal 'tribute' to a rock legend, and it also bears significance to me as my guitar is essentially a Fender Strat.
-The final scene features what I believe to be some of the must uncanny resemblances to some of the actual members of DZX in Anime form that I have ever seen. Representing a large portion of our senior membership here in just this one epic photograph, it was something that I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to add:
I think thats it. I hope you learned something about this video, I packed it to the brim with Easter eggs and other eye candy. Enjoy!
