TheAX AMV Contest 2009 Finalists are...

[XStylus]

Hmmm! I wonder what part the jagged lines were at. *Scratches head* Do you mind if I send you an early encode of my video so you can point out where it possibly was? That way, I can fix it if needed (You don't have to by all means, it's mostly because I am very curious!). I checked the resized HuffYUV file that I sent to AX. It was resized from 848x480 to letterboxed 720x480 to be put in a 4:3 display. There is a scene with slight aliasing in the resized HuffYUV version, but I'm not sure if that is the part that you are talking about. It does not show up on the MPEG I sent or original HuffYUV though. Maybe it has something to do with the resize method I chose. I'm going to test out different methods this week.

Resized? That can tend to give nasty results if not done just right. By resizing did you mean you shrank it, or did you crop it? It is highly noticeable when anamorphic (832x480) is squished to 720x480 because everybody looks anorexic! That'd obviously be even moreso with footage resized from 848. Improper anamorphic sizing is another factor that judges may knock tech points for. Resizing without an antialiasing filter can definitely cause jaggies, too.

For anamorphic footage, the best thing to do is to either resize it while maintaining aspect ratio (which means you'll be letterboxing it), or crop the left and right sides so that it fits within 720, but sometimes that's not a good opinion if most action in the scene is on the far sides of either.

I'll be glad to look at an encode of your vid, just not in HuffYUV please. I'd be downloading it until AX2010.

[Sephiroth]

Hope you guys didn't doc me too much for using the lain PS1 game Even decompressing it still made it look a bit jaggy. And never mind the thing i had to do in order to get it off the blasted disk.

For some reason they decided to use they're own codec which no other PlayStation game used and encode it in such a different way that it's only been recently that some people cracked it. Looks like the work to get it payed off though. I think i even remember you saying that it was a rule that you couldn't make a comedy video using lain when you were talking about a complete waste of 6min 35 sec.

For anamorphic footage, the best thing to do is to either resize it while maintaining aspect ratio (which means you'll be letterboxing it), or crop the left and right sides so that it fits within 720, but sometimes that's not a good opinion if most action in the scene is on the far sides of either.

I'll be glad to look at an encode of your vid, just not in HuffYUV please. I'd be downloading it until AX2010.

[XStylus]

Hope you guys didn't doc me too much for using the lain PS1 game Even decompressing it still made it look a bit jaggy. And never mind the thing i had to do in order to get it off the blasted disk.

If you had jaggy footage, I didn't notice it so it didn't bother me.

I'm sure there were lots of vids that I didn't scrutinize very closely that used less than stellar footage but got a decent tech score from me. And y'know what? Those videos still earned such scores. Why? Because if you can take crap footage and make its crappyness less noticeable, then that's worthy of a good tech score. However, if a video has mostly pristine footage yet has a few moments of jaggy, incorrectly sized footage, those brief clips will stand out and they're impossible not to notice, so it affects tech score. It also distracts, too. If it distracts too much (like subs, logos, or heavy macroblocking), it affects the ability to enjoy the video, thus affecting the "Fun" score. (...So don't use subbed/logo'd footage. Ever. EVER. EVAAAAR.)

You want to use footage as pristine as possible, and you also want to make sure that you keep consistent. Don't mix aspect ratios, and if you have a clip of footage that's less than perfect, then do what you can to recapture it or talk to the pros on here to see what can be done to correct what's wrong.


On a side note, I dunno if it was mentioned yet, but videos are rated on a five point scale in three criteria: Fun, Concept, and Tech. An arbitrary bonus point may be added if the video "made you interested in the original show". AMTV vids are rated on the same criteria, but on a 10 point scale. Nostromo's Magic Pad is cited as an example of (Michael's idea of) what a perfect score AMTV vid should look like, but judges are free to formulate their own criteria.

[Melichan923]

Resized? That can tend to give nasty results if not done just right. By resizing did you mean you shrank it, or did you crop it? It is highly noticeable when anamorphic (832x480) is squished to 720x480 because everybody looks anorexic! That'd obviously be even moreso with footage resized from 848. Improper anamorphic sizing is another factor that judges may knock tech points for. Resizing without an antialiasing filter can definitely cause jaggies, too.

For anamorphic footage, the best thing to do is to either resize it while maintaining aspect ratio (which means you'll be letterboxing it), or crop the left and right sides so that it fits within 720, but sometimes that's not a good opinion if most action in the scene is on the far sides of either.

Oh, sorry about that. I meant I letterboxed it before I resized it to 720x480. Most cons require or prefer that the footage be resized to 720x480 before sending. And it seems most cons play back videos in a 4:3 aspect ratio.

My video exported from my editing program is at 16:9, square pixels, 848x480. I sent 2 versions to AX. With both my MPEG and HUffYUV I resized with this:

Code: Select all

AviSource("pathfilename.avi")
Lanczos4Resize(720,352)
AddBorders(0,64,0,64)

From there, I encoded the MPEG and flagged the MPEG to play back correctly at a 4:3 aspect ratio. For the HuffYUV though, I left it letterboxed at 720x480 knowing it would look wrong being played back on a computer. I have no idea how the videos are played back during judging though. Was that the wrong way of going about it?: If it's a requirement to resize to 720x480 whether or not the contest/judging is played back at 4:3 should I have asked to send a correctly resized (for the computer) anamorphic version as well (for my lossless copy)? Like 848x480?

If that confuses you don't worry, it's confused me too reading it back. Hehe, I think/worry too much sometimes. :3

I'll be glad to look at an encode of your vid, just not in HuffYUV please. I'd be downloading it until AX2010.

Oh, no worries there, I wasn't planning on sending you such a large file, lol. I'll encode a high quality mpeg or mp4 and get it to you when I can. Thanks very much! ^_^

I'm sorry that I am bothering you so much with all this, xstylus. If I see any opportunity to improve my AMVs whether it evolves encoding or editing, I jump right on it, lol. All of your advice will come in handy for my next year's submission. You are awesome!

[DigitalPanther]

AMTV vids are rated on the same criteria, but on a 10 point scale. Nostromo's Magic Pad is cited as an example of (Michael's idea of) what a perfect score AMTV vid should look like, but judges are free to formulate their own criteria.

As a minor point of correction, I never said it was an example of a perfect video. Just that it was an example of an extremely well done one.

Regarding the lain psx footage. I thought it was a neat touch though it was kinda obvious what was from the video game as she is drawn differently and has differen't colored hair. However I don't think it had any negative impact on the video. the scores would indicate that it didn't.

also to clarify the bonus point. The way I explained it to the judges was "If the video makes you want to see the anime or play the game, or rewatch /replay it if you have already done so, give it a bonus point." The reason Anneke and I came up with the bonus point is that in our mind, part of the purpose of an AMV, aside from entertaining, is to get the viewer interested in the subject matter being used.

my .02 I will stop hijacking X's podium time now.
-Michael

[XStylus]

my .02 I will stop hijacking X's podium time now.
-Michael

It's your show. Feel free to steal the podium any time.

Besides, I'm just repeating the same stuff over and over by this point. Don't use subs, divx blows, yadda. Probably preaching to the converted here though.

[XStylus]

Oh, sorry about that. I meant I letterboxed it before I resized it to 720x480. Most cons require or prefer that the footage be resized to 720x480 before sending. And it seems most cons play back videos in a 4:3 aspect ratio.

Can't go wrong there, in my opinion. 720x480 @ 4:3 is easy on the guys making the master presentation DVDs. I remember making the presentation discs for AX2003's AMV competition and there were a few submissions sent in 16:9. I manually resized them to 4:3 letterboxed because it was easier than having to worry about what videos needed flags set and such.

My video exported from my editing program is at 16:9, square pixels, 848x480. I sent 2 versions to AX. With both my MPEG and HUffYUV I resized with this:

Code: Select all

AviSource("pathfilename.avi")
Lanczos4Resize(720,352)
AddBorders(0,64,0,64)

[snip]
From there, I encoded the MPEG and flagged the MPEG to play back correctly at a 4:3 aspect ratio. For the HuffYUV though, I left it letterboxed at 720x480 knowing it would look wrong being played back on a computer.

Ehh? I'm confused now. Your AVIsynth script indicates the MPEG and HuffYUV were encoded as 720x480 letterboxed, yet I don't know what you mean in the bolded sentence above. Did you de-letterbox your MPEG, making it 720x352? If so, that's wrong. They should both be the same resolution. 720x480 letterbox.

I kinda want to examine that MPEG file now...

As for playback equipment, the videos were played from Michael's PC hooked up via VGA connection to a 46" Samsung LCD screen and piped into a Bose sound system. Michael anonymously played each AMV directly from a creator's submitted file; no transcoding or re-rendering was done. I don't recall the program he used for video playback though, but it wasn't VLC or any other program I was familiar with. There were one or two submissions where some of us wondered whether the creator bothered to do any sort of quality check though.

I'm sorry that I am bothering you so much with all this, xstylus. If I see any opportunity to improve my AMVs whether it evolves encoding or editing, I jump right on it, lol. All of your advice will come in handy for my next year's submission. You are awesome!

The AX AMV thread is pretty much the only place on these forums that I ever post in. I'm still here and I'm here to help, so it's obviously no bother. Just wish I wasn't the only judge here. Anyway, you're doing fine and it sounds like you may simply have ran afoul of a rendering hiccup.

[Kratza]

Speaking of video game footage, my submitted AMV showcased a JARPG known stateside as The World Ends With You.

This was my first time making a Anime Video Game Music Video, so I did some research by watching other AMVs based on video games that have been critically successful and won awards, not to mention trudge through a good portion of Video Game AMVs posted on Youtube to see the quick (and sloppy) approaches used by most.

At this time, there's one more AMV based on a video game that I want to make, and I hope my second attempt can breach the barrier separating entrant and finalist. All I really want to accomplish is to get people interested in these games, as a good AMV has the potential to do for an anime series/OVA/movie. The thing is, for this second AMV project based on a game, I'm strongly considering using in-game footage...I know that in last year's AX AMV Contest Finalists Thread, it was mentioned that a Kingdom Hearts AMV tackled this approach and maybe didn't resonate as well with the judges because it resembled a GameTrailers Video Review a little too much.

My question is, should I stay the course with FMV/cut-scene footage only (making it feel more like an anime than a game), or is my perceived audience turn-off to the use of game-play footage just in my head?

[s0matic]

I can't speak in terms of the current AMV/VGMV-editing meta-mindset (is that a word) or any of the current AX AMV judges, but if I'm not mistaken a very good AMV by Castor Troy won AX AMTV in 2005 I believe, using RE4 gameplay footage.



So if I could take a stab at your question I think it'd probably be safe to bet that it doesn't matter much whether you use strictly FMV footage, or incorporate gameplay into them, but rather, how well you use said footage, FMV or not.

Oh and I almost forgot, one of pulsr's AMVs used both anime and fighting-game gameplay footage as well, and got into the action category showing in 2006.

Speaking of video game footage, my submitted AMV showcased a JARPG known stateside as The World Ends With You.

This was my first time making a Anime Video Game Music Video, so I did some research by watching other AMVs based on video games that have been critically successful and won awards, not to mention trudge through a good portion of Video Game AMVs posted on <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/forum/v ... ochsack</a> to see the quick (and sloppy) approaches used by most.

At this time, there's one more AMV based on a video game that I want to make, and I hope my second attempt can breach the barrier separating entrant and finalist. All I really want to accomplish is to get people interested in these games, as a good AMV has the potential to do for an anime series/OVA/movie. The thing is, for this second AMV project based on a game, I'm strongly considering using in-game footage...I know that in last year's AX AMV Contest Finalists Thread, it was mentioned that a Kingdom Hearts AMV tackled this approach and maybe didn't resonate as well with the judges because it resembled a GameTrailers Video Review a little too much.

My question is, should I stay the course with FMV/cut-scene footage only (making it feel more like an anime than a game), or is my perceived audience turn-off to the use of game-play footage just in my head?

[DigitalPanther]

My question is, should I stay the course with FMV/cut-scene footage only (making it feel more like an anime than a game), or is my perceived audience turn-off to the use of game-play footage just in my head?

You should follow your muse. Do what feels right to you. Seriously. If you feel the story you want to tell or the point you want to get across can be done with ingame footage then use it.

Die Another Day used RE 4 in engine footage in it and worked really well. I think it actually added to the impact

Fully rendered cut scenes are usually very beautiful but if the part you need isn't in a cut scene FMV then grab it where you can at the best quality you can and go with it. There were several videos who did well that used in engine footage.

I remember your video II was very impressed by it. 1, I was impressed that you managed to make that footage look as good and crisp as it did, and 2, that you used footage from a handheld in the first place was, imho, a very bold move. Most importantly, it worked. Sure it didn't make the finals but that doesn't mean is wasn't a good video.

-Michael