Otakon 2008 AMV Contest Rules: THEY'RE HERE

dji · Post by **dji** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:09 pm

dwchang wrote:
dji wrote:
dwchang wrote:Maybe Dad can help you.
Dad? I thought Vlad was more like our grand father... no wait.. thats Jim K. never mind.
If only I had the picture of Vlad with his arm around his children from Otakon 2004...*sigh*.

And yes Vic is in it ;P.

Well Vic always calls Vlad, "Dad"... usually is goes... *vlad approaches; vic turns and says* "Hi Dad" *vlad responds* [insert some witty thing vlad would say] [then insert lecture from vlad to vic]

...man we need more AWAs during the year! =D

jasper-isis · Post by **jasper-isis** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 5:46 pm

VicBond007 wrote:Unfortunately, most people rip their videos and expand their black and white levels to 0 luma and 255 luma respectively. This looks fine on a PC, but when you output that to a TV, it'll wash out the whites and the blacks. The easy fix is that after you render your video, start a new project, drop your completed video on the timeline, and apply Adobe's "TV Colors" filter to the whole thing. This will scale back your luma levels to 16-235 instead of 0-255 so that your video displays properly on a TV without any clamping (The video will look "duller" on a PC monitor. This is normal. It will look fine on a TV).

Ooooh so THAT's what happened. Thanks for the tip!

Miracle_Falcon · Post by **Miracle_Falcon** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:15 pm

I recently finished a video that is intended for submission to otakon, and I, not being a very technical person, have found that when I save the video to a DVD for use in a DVD player on a television screen, it looks a lot better. This is the case even when played on a computer. Is it acceptable to send in a DVD like that, rather than a DVD that just contains the video file in a folder?

Sorry if this is a dumb question, I'm... a n00b on these forums... ^^;;

Org Profile · Post by **VicBond007** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:22 pm

The rules (they are still pending, but we are supposed to get them back VERY soon) advise against authoring a DVD, however if that's the best way that you know how to encode your video, then I will accept it in that format. The reason for this is because a lot of times when you convert a video with a non-standard framerate and/or resolution to DVD spec video, it could do more harm than good, and you'd be surprised how few submitters watch the encode that they send in.

If it's good enough for you, then it's good enough for me. Just don't send me an authored Blu-Ray or HD-DVD disc, as my PC lacks such a drive ^^

Miracle_Falcon · Post by **Miracle_Falcon** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:32 pm

Thanks for the quick response, Vic. I have two questions about it, though.

First: When you say that very few people watch the encode that they send in, do you mean that very few people don't watch what they put on the disc, or is there something else meant by "encode" here?

Now I'm not sure if it's cheating to ask, but I figure I probably should: Will it being on an authored DVD be hassle at all for the people who compile the contest, in such a way that would decrease the likelihood of the video getting in?

I tried to submit a video to Otakon last year, but didn't get into the contest. Later, that same AMV did make it into another AMV contest, at AUSA, so I became rather acutely aware of just how much better the Otakon AMV contest submissions must be... But I understand if you aren't allowed to help individual people in such a way as to answer that second question I asked, and apologize for the waste of time if that's the case.

dragonsong12 · Post by **dragonsong12** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:34 pm

Hooray for news!

I've been checking the otakon site pretty much every day! (Today I thought "hm, I wonder if anything's been mentioned at the org?")

Good to hear things are in motion!

I've got a vid I've been working on for months specifically for this con. THIS IS IT! This is the year I make the Otakon contest!

...okay, maybe not, but damn, I'm gonna try! XD

Thanks for the update!

Org Profile · Post by **VicBond007** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:39 pm

Funny how I'm managing both Otakon and AUSA now

Answer to question #1:
Very few people watch what they send in. A lot of times when a convention suggests that someone send in an mpeg, the submitter will mpeg their master copy, but never watch it to make sure that it came out ok before sending it in! Then it becomes "our fault" when their video doesn't play right :-/

Answer to question #2:
This past AUSA I received a video encoded in Quicktime, using a non-standard codec that was unavailable for the PC. The video used a resolution where neither side was a multiple of 8, the framerate was 59.94FPS, and to top it off, the footage was interlaced. Yes, that's an unintentional 120 FIELDS PER SECOND. The audio also started 2 seconds late. Total time to re-engineer this video so that it can be presented: 16 hours and change.

That being said, an authored DVD is the least of my worries. At least I know that it was encoded with some degree of compliance!

dragonsong12 · Post by **dragonsong12** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:12 pm

VicBond007 wrote:Funny how I'm managing both Otakon and AUSA now

Funny AND awesome!

Seriously, Otakon's the big goal for me, but the contest I ENJOY entering the most is AUSA's. I just like the way it's run all around. Having you on board at Otakon only makes it better in my estimation.

...wow...that's some pretty shameless flattery I typed just there...it was the first thing that came to mind though. Feel free to ridicule me. Whoo!

Miracle_Falcon · Post by **Miracle_Falcon** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:14 pm

Alright, thanks so much for your help.

...Btw, I'm curious. Did that AMV that you received in quicktime make it into the contest?

Org Profile · Post by **VicBond007** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:33 pm

It did not make finals at AUSA, but I'm PRETTY SURE that it made the contest at Ohayocon, so it had nothing to do with the headaches involved in processing it. The competition at AUSA was just a little tougher, I guess.