Kionon wrote:Okay, listen up. This is going to be a quick and dirty guide.
So You Want To Be An Anime Music Video Editor?
All right, so you've been watching these "AMV" things for a couple of years, and you'd like to try your hand at making one. The process can be easy to follow, but it is in your best interest to take your time. Rushing, even though you're understandably excited, will only make what you produce worth much less than you have the potential to make it. I can not stress this enough.
Let's go over the questions you should be asking yourself:
Do I have a concept?
Your concept is your video. Yes, I realize you have no footage, and you may not even have the song at this point. You cannot just wake up and say "I'm going to make any old thing as long as it's an AMV." You will either give up, or you will produce something that shows your lack of effort.
I usually get concepts by hearing a song and unwillingly, my mind will simply attach scenes from an anime to the song. It is then my job to make what I see in my head match reality. For other people, it is that they see a theme of the anime and need to find a song that matches. My Card Captor Sakura video is the only video where I started out with a theme (in this case, the love for Sakura that Tomoyo holds), and listened to song after song until I found the one that matched exactly.
Okay, so you have your concept. You know what you want to say with the combination of audio and video. What now?
Do I have source material?
In order for you to combine anime and song, you need the anime and the song.
I believe you are probably smart enough (and the technology is now mainstream enough) to know how to procure your song. If you still have not found your song, this is the step where you would need to listen to songs you think fit your theme and try to find the one that works the best.
For video, you have a couple of options. You can download your footage, you can capture your footage, or you can rip your footage.
Downloading is seen as easiest for someone who just getting into this, but I do not recommend it. First off there is the issue of finding it, especially if you are using a popular, and licensed anime. Then there is the issue of quality. You may well now have better quality than a capture card could produce, but often you have to contend with subtitles or logos, etc. I do not recommend this option unless you have no other choice. If this is your only choice, do your best to find the highest quality you can. Raws are preferable for unreleased material. If you must use fansubs, then at least crop out the subs.
Capturing your footage is another option. I used this option for parts of my first video, and all of my second, third, fourth, and fifth videos. This of course was back in the early 2000s, and although DVD ripping was around, it was much harder for me to accomplish, and we did not have DVD Decryptor. I can't recall the program I had, but it did not produce very good results. So I had a TV Capture card, and I captured footage. This had the effect of producing quality that was equal to a VHS tape. Better than downloaded footage at the time, but nothing compared the quality of MPEG-2 (DVD Video). My second video, for instance, was made entirely of Japanese VHS raws of Kare Kano, and it clearly shows, due to distortions around the edges, etc. However, since that was the only way I could get the source, that was the only way I could edit from it. Now, you should rarely have to do so, with Region 2 DVDs being easier to procure. As much as I hate to say it, if you can get your hands on Raws from the net, they are now guaranteed to be better than VHS. Of course, capturing from DVD works too, especially if you capture as losslessly as possible (that is, without losing too much of the picture details, that is of course way oversimplified).
Ripping is your best option hands down. You should plan on using DVDs, so use this option.
Get the latest build AMVApp. This will contain most, if not all, programs you will need for making your DVD source usable. I edit with AVS files, because I'm crazy like that, but a good method to follow is 1) rip VOBs to hard drive 2) index them using DGIndex 3) take the subsequent AVS file and add filters to get rid of interlacing and temporally smooth the source, and all sorts of other fun stuff. We can help you with what commands you will need. 4) drop the avs file into VirtualDubMod and spit out lossless files. I suggest Lagarith as your lossless codec, but some people like HuffYUV. I have used both. 5) Place in your editor and start cutting!
Do I have an editing suite?
Back in the dark ages when I started, the answer would have been likely "no." However, we have come a long way since the late nineties, and now every computer user practically has windows movie maker or imovie. I own a mac and a pc, so I have both. I don't use either, and I don't know how to use either, because I started making amvs as a consequence of my radio/tv broadcasting training. However, I can tell you guides exist for both Windows Movie Maker and iMovie. Both are free options that when used correctly yield decent to good results.
I am partial to Final Cut Pro, and even more so to Adobe Premiere 6.0. I learned on these software titles, and so as an old fogy, I am loathe to switch to something new. Both of these programs however, are prohibitively expensive. Both of mine are legal, again because of my training, but it is unusual. I do not recommend illegal procurement of these software titles, but the net is what it is. Others swear by a program called Vegas.
What all of these programs, especially the latter three, have in common is that they are time line based. The latter three far more so than the previous pair. This allows you to lay down your music on one track, and on another higher track, lay your video, and you can have physical representation of how long each clip you have cut lasts. This allows you to line up cuts, as well as action within the clips, to the audio. Again, for more particulars, we can help.
Okay, so you dropped your footage in, you've cut and hacked, now you're ready to export!
Have I chosen a format?
Your clips as they are now are in a lossless codec, if you followed my directions. These are not only HUEG LIKE XBOX files, they are also hard for many computers today to play, simply because they are so large. So you will need to encode them in a lossy codec, usually an mp4 derivative like DivX, XviD, 3ivX, etc. Do not export your file as one of these. Export as a lossless copy, again Lagarith or HuffYUV, and then drop into VirtualDubMod just like you did with your avs file. Now, recompress the file into one of the standards I mentioned. XviD is my preference. Play around with the settings to make sure you have what you consider the best combination of quality and low file size.
Viola! You have a final copy of your AMV. But other people still haven't seen it?
Do I Have hosting?
Most likely you will not have hosting. Luckily, the org does. So when you go through the process of adding your video to the database, you will also be able to upload it to LOCAL. After following the directions, you can test the link by downloading it yourself. If it works, make a post in the Announcements section, and we will all watch it.
This has been an activation of the Emergency Newbie System. If this were a test there would have been much less information, and a lot more coke with lime drinking.
Good Luck!
