So You Want To Be An Anime Music Video Editor? [split]

Amelia Antipatica · Post by **Amelia Antipatica** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 12:37 pm

Oh, thank you! I PMed somebody on Youtube with the same questions, and I have yet to get an answer from them.

I've just switched from PC, and that thing was such a brat. It crashed with EVERYTHING. So now I'm all cautious and that kind of thing.

Alright, I'm going to go look at more reviews on Ripper and Diva for Leopard. Or should I just wait for a new version to come out? I'd rather be safe the sorry.

Also, it will be one, two, three with getting my iTunes music to iMovie, right?

Haha, thank you.

YouTube · Post by **Kionon** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 1:48 pm

Kionon’s Guide to Anime Music Video Production on Apple’s Macintosh

So, you want to be an anime music video editor, and you own an Apple Macintosh with OS X.

Okay, you’ve been watching AMVs for a while now, and you’ve decided it’s time for you to do one yourself. You’ve read the guides, you’ve got your music, and you’ve bought that way too expensive boxed set of your favorite anime. Where do you go now? Good question. Welcome to an elite group (or perhaps just insane group) of editors that think… differently when it comes to anime music video production. You are a Mac user, and you can do everything a PC user can. And often your process will look prettier too!

Step 1. Get Your Programs

There are a number of programs you are going to need in order to be successful. A complaint about Macs is that the software just isn’t available like it is in windows. That’s true; we have less software… but with lower quantity comes higher quality. You don’t have to go through five gazillion bad programs to find one good one. The programs you will need are:

MacTheRipper
DiVA
D-Volution

And of course:

Final Cut Pro or iMovie

The first three can be found inside of my MacAMVapp. It can be found here. MacTheRipper will rip the VOB files from your DVDs. DiVA will allow you to convert them into QuickTime files that Final Cut Pro or iMovie can understand. D-Volution will allow you to convert the exported DV files from Final Cut Pro or iMovie into more common formats like XviD or h264 MP4.

Okay, now you have your audio, your source, your programs. You are ready to rock and roll.

Step 2. Rip your DVDs

Go to Finder and click on Applications. Scroll down until you find MacTheRipper. It looks like a DVD being stabbed. Double click on it:

You should already have your DVD in your DVD-ROM drive. When you open MacTheRipper it will scan the DVD and then look like this:

I have chosen to re-master my Airbats video for this guide, so I have the first disk of the Airbats anime series in. Do not mess with any of the options you can see here. They are already set to be most effective. Go up to File - > Save to… and choose where you wish to save to VOB files. As you can see my “Save Location” is Projects. Make sure your mode is in “Full Disc Extraction” although it should be by default. Then press GO!

A status bar will indicate when you are done copying. Repeat for all the DVDs you plan to use for your project. When you are done ripping a DVD you should get a successful Bomberman mascot warning you not to copy DVDs you do not own. But you do own these DVDs. Right? Bomberman looks like this:

Step 3. Convert your VOB files

Now it’s time to convert your VOB files into files that Final Cut Pro and iMovie can understand. You will do this by using DiVA. When you open DiVA, you will need to “Select Source” which and then select the VOB file you want to convert. Then you choose “Target File” and choose the name of the file you are going to save as. In my case, I have chosen to save my first converted file as “Airbats-01.mov” and will save all other converted files with subsequent numbers.

Next you will choose “Video Compression,” and this is by far the most important part, although you may wish to explore other options, I highly recommend you choose DV/DVCPRO – NTSC, quality set to best, scan mode set to progressive, aspect ratio set to the aspect ratio of your source. In my case it is 4:3. When you leave the “Video Compression” screen, choose the scale width and height that you wish in the upper right hand corner. I have chosen 640x480. If you know how your video looks, you may want to crop, and you can adjust cropping also by clicking on “Image and Credits.” Also remember to click “de-interlace.” Make sure you adjust everything so that your final scale is divisible by 16! For the purposes of this guide I have chosen to click “Preview Every Frame.” Click Start.

Step 4. Edit your video

You should now be able to import your converted vob files into either Final Cut Pro or iMovie, and hack away. You should be able to use your music files as well.

Step 5. Convert your exported file

You can open up you DV file (do NOT use Sorensen, old format is oooooold) and then choose your video/audio formats, as well as post-process. You can choose between XviD/MP3 and h.264/MP4 which are the standards at use here on the org.

Good Luck!

Amelia Antipatica · Post by **Amelia Antipatica** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:41 pm

Oh man, thank you so much. <33

I have one more question: the downloading. I had a lot of trouble with my last download. What if these don't work out?

YouTube · Post by **Kionon** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 4:11 pm

Amelia Antipatica wrote:Oh man, thank you so much. <33

I have one more question: the downloading. I had a lot of trouble with my last download. What if these don't work out?

I'm not sure I understand. Describe "trouble."

And Shazzy uses different programs than I do, so if mine don't work for you, then perhaps you should ask her, but I'll try me best to be as helpful as I can.

Also, got back from the Apple store. Leopard is still OS X. MaAMVApp's programs should work the same.

Amelia Antipatica · Post by **Amelia Antipatica** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 4:14 pm

By trouble I mean the program would freeze and wouldn't fully download. That happened with Firefox. It was such a pain, I had to uninstall it.

And thank you so much for finding that all out.

I'm at work right now, but I'll have my laptop at a friend's later. So I'll try them out there. I can't thank you enough, you've been such a great help.

bobbias · Post by **bobbias** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 12:59 am

I'll second Kionon comments about you. It's nice to see people who admit that they don't know much, but are willing to learn, and seem to get things pretty quickly. (There are some people who are pretty much hopeless). I will suggest that you learn as much technical stuff as you can, because a lot of the things that make the great AMVs so great is that the people who make them understand a lot of the technical stuff. Personally, everything I know about making AMVs has been learned from a-m-v.org related articles, or learning about video formats, and the different programs involved with working with video.

Amelia Antipatica · Post by **Amelia Antipatica** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 6:48 am

Ha ha, I just want to be able to edit the way I want spur of the moment. I've been asking around the Y T word, but I haven't been getting very straight answers. So, I found you guys through homework, and figured why not here?

Okay, you're going to hate me by the time I'm done here, but MORE questions. xD

I have a video I'd like to rip that has English subtitles/Chinese subs/RAW Japanese footage. How will that factor into the ripping/editing process? And on your link, what's the two Fire Fox downloads? I'm sorry, I'm only using Safari at the moment. AND, is there any quick way to check what AMVs haven't been created already? Like a quick list?

YouTube · Post by **Kionon** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 6:58 am

Amelia Antipatica wrote:Ha ha, I just want to be able to edit the way I want spur of the moment. I've been asking around the Y T word, but I haven't been getting very straight answers.

Asking for editing tips on boochsack is like asking for gymnastic tips on an elementary school playground. You won't get straight answers; they haven't any.

I have a video I'd like to rip that has English subtitles/Chinese subs/RAW Japanese footage. How will that factor into the ripping/editing process?

It shouldn't, unless you're telling me you want to keep the subtitles. Subs are not kept in the same container as the mpeg2 video, so when you rip your vobs, they will not contain the subs.

And on your link, what's the two Fire Fox downloads? I'm sorry, I'm only using Safari at the moment.

My link was a rar. It is not browser specific. You should be able to download it with safari just fine. You'll need a program that can open rar files, but that's not hard to locate.

AND, is there any quick way to check what AMVs haven't been created already? Like a quick list?

No quicker than the general search, and you'll open a can of worms by suggesting you're limited by what others have done. I personally believe that one should respect combinations that have already been created, however, that view is controversial, and I would say most people disagree with me. I find it ethical, but ethics are subjective, especially in an area where we regularly have to come up with fair use arguments to justify what others see as blatant copyright infringement.

prYzm · Post by **prYzm** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 6:58 am

i work with a PC and not a MAC but generally when ripping any dvd you have the option to include the subtitles or not. how to choose you would have to ask kionon cause its a diff ripping program than what ive got sry =D, or just look around on it. if its off a dvd it will have what is called 'soft subs' this means they are a separate encode which can be turned on/off.
if you are using downloaded footage, for the sake of compression they almost always use 'hard subs' which is where the subtitles are encoded straight onto the video (just as if it were text on the screen) and cannot be removed. since u say u are ripping, you should have no problems provided you can find the right spot (i believe the default is ripping without subs anyways, or at least it is with the program i use, you must CHOOSE to have them on)

as to your question about quick link to check what is downloaded. look up the top of the screen where it has the amv banner with a bunch of links ot the right of it (not on ur toolbars but just below the searchbar) one of them will be to the 'site home page' or 'member main page' click either of them for this purpose

once in that page, if you look on the left hand side you should have a whole bunch of menu's to choose from. the orange ones are usually related to your profile or for uploading videos etc. in the blue ones there is a 'search for amv's if you click on that you have the option of quick searches or an advanced search. in the advanced search you can search for specific editors, specific songs or artists, specific animes etc. the quick search will just match as many things it can to what you type.

doesn't quite answer all your question but hope that helps =D. ill reiterate what the other 2 say tho and mention that you are one of the people we prefer helping, because of the way you go about it =D

prYzm · Post by **prYzm** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 7:03 am

gg me