Question...

[Shadow Phoenix]

I have a lot of ideas for vids that have been bouncing around in my head for a while. I haven't sat down to storyboard anything officially, but I have song::source matches for about 10 concepts with plenty of scenes that flash through my head whenever I listen to the songs.

Through my father's connections at the college he works at, I could probably get some programs for free. I don't really have time to edit, but I'd like to try.

Or if anyone is looking for an idea, I'd be happy to provide a few.

But I guess my question is: where do I start? What is your process and what tech do you use/would you recommend?

Thanks ^_^

[Sephiroth X]

i'm only responding to this to say that I JUST SAW YOUR GODDAMN AVATAR

[ZaCloud]

Well, video editing from simple beginnings can be just as much luck as skill. For instance, when I first started on my slow connection, I used AMVs as my source (trying to stick to ones with long cuts rather than steal cuts or effects, so I could make my own cuts freely), and back then most of them worked for me. But nowadays, most use quite different codecs to compress video, and lots of them are non-editable. Most anime episodes ya get online can't be directly edited with. I still haven't worked with .vob (dvd rips) just yet so I dunno how accessible that is for most editors.

So you might have to convert clips to editable formats, which is complex as heck for noobs, and annoying as heck for those who can do it. But if you're very lucky, some programs handle more codec types than others... so best bet is to just see what it can import and hope it's enough.

Technical aside though, you're in a good place to start; visualizing to the music is how I made nearly all my AMVs, and how I continue to get more ideas. I usually sketch out a storyboard (really simple, just with bare enough details to remember what you wanted to do where), not always complete cuz sometimes you just have to see things in motion to come up with new ideas, or see if the ones you have really work.

Movie Maker which comes with Windows PCs is fine for beginners, but save save save. Save a lot. Save copies. Save after every edit. Cuz it will crash crash crash. Crash a lot. Sometimes after every edit.

It does seem to tolerate a few variants of xvid/divx encoded footage surprisingly, though it's about 50/50 in that regard. Heavily depends.

There's also online editors like VideoSpin one can give a go. Premiere or Vegas are the top used and recommended, but consequently are more complicated.

Blargh, sorry for getting so technical already, but it's that aspect that's currently keeping me from editing myself. @_@ It's an inevitable hurdle. If you can get past it though, then you can finally let your imagination take over. I'd recommend taking notes during anime episodes so you can know when useful scenes are in each episode. Example:

05:34 - intense expression, gritted teeth
05:47-6:21 - fast-paced fight
07:02 - cute sleeping girl aww
08:22-8:31 - looking up at sky, wistful

Just think about the scenes in terms of visual dynamics, mood, etc. That way you don't have to spend too much time jumping around or re-watching over and over to find what you want.

Ergh, disjointed, I hibernated, will help with more specifics if you have any, and hopefully some holes can be filled in by the others.

Good luck! I'd love to see anything you end up making!

[AltruisticCrono]

Heh ZC... I think these are some loaded questions that we could easily fill the space of these 60,000 character limit posts... but here's my response.

We tend to plug the "READFAGLOLZ!" guide at A-M-V.org, but it can easily overwhelm the rest of us with its sage advice and pageless wisdom, let alone someone who is just starting for some fun. However, the one thing you definitely need from there is the AMVapp with all its goodies. From DVD ripping to VirtualDub codec compression for web distribution, it gives the tech tools behind the AMV.

As for video editing suites, I'm still using the rusty/trusty Adobe Premiere 6.5 and After Effects 7 for my uses, but AE in particular is the tougher program to learn (its all about the Special FX, d00d!). I'll probably upgrade past these versions if my WinXP goes moot, I get a new computer, or if they can't do what I want anymore. Until then, these are working stable with plenty of customized filters and plugins that'd have to be re-setup.

Windows Movie Maker is seriously a good place to learn if you take the effort to consider your AMV visions. It's both a good and bad thing that anybody can use it to create videos (I'm looking at you... 'tube). Any popular non-linear editing software will do just fine - Sony Vegas (great for audio, too!), Magix, etc.

Seems like a small thing... but just be sure to have the same frames per second on your editing timeline and footage. If they get out of sync, its not a happy thing if you want timings a certain way.

It's up to you to decide on how much pre-planning you want to do before you sit at the computer and make the AMV scenes. I've done ultra-super planning with my recent videos, but I've also gone with what looks pretty at the moment too. Match scenes to what you envisioned when listening to the song and you'll be satisfied with the result. This hobby is very hard to make everybody happy.


Save. Save. Save often. Save on DVD. Save on multiple computers. Move a clip? Save copies! (And this is even when I -don't- have a crash happy AMV.)