How would I go about doing all of this?

[DisturbingFrequency]

This is going to be a lot.. Sorry. Okay..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz1wLvS-oIw From around 0:28 to 0:30.
I want to know how to do those transitions. Do you just combine multiple masked layers on top of one another, and add a transition or something?

Also, how do you animate the font at 0:08? And how would you go about doing the entire animation at 0:36 (moving the clip up and animating the text to appear like that)? And how can you get fancy fonts (and shapes around them) like the ones at 0:42 and 1:00 to 1:03? Would you have to download those from somewhere? And how would you do 1:11 to 1:15? It looks really cool.. Would it be really complicated?

Finally, how do you do those circles and rectangles like in this AMV? http://youtu.be/AWVUQ5q1NgY Oh yeah, and how do you flip the video like they did at 0:33 to 0:35?


Oh, yes and I only have Sony Vegas Pro 12, so would I be able to do these on Vegas? Or would they require After Effects? Sorry for all the questions. I've wanted to know how to do those things for the longest time (I've been making AMVs for almost 6 years now, but I still can't do more than basics.. I am horrible at masking too, so everything is all boring and flat and I only use basic transitions (crossfade, crossblure, fade, flash) because all the others look silly. I'd appreciate any tips in addition. Thanks.

[CrackTheSky]

I'll answer what I know, as best I can:

From around 0:28 to 0:30.
I want to know how to do those transitions. Do you just combine multiple masked layers on top of one another, and add a transition or something?

This is pretty simple, and can all be done in Vegas. I'll just walk through one portion. So with the scene where Alphonse, Edward, and Alex are standing together, what you'd do is take two copies of that scene from the anime, and layer them one on top of the other in Vegas. With the one on top, you'd mask out the three characters. With the bottom layer, all you need to do is drag the left side of the clip to the right so that the clips look like this on your timeline:

[          ]
        [  ]

Now, up to the point where the bottom clip starts, use the Pan/Crop tool to zoom the top layer out (i.e. start zoomed-in on the first frame, and then move the scrubber to the point where the bottom clip begins, and zoom the clip back to it's default zoom level). Fade in the bottom clip, and that should do it. Looks like the editor also did some color/brightness/contrast alteration, and s/he also made use of a vignette, but that should all be pretty easy to figure out.

And how would you go about doing the entire animation at 0:36 (moving the clip up and animating the text to appear like that)?

You probably wouldn't be able to do this too easily in Vegas, and in this video it was almost certainly done in After Effects. It's a simple enough technique to emulate using AE, but it would take some work with Vegas. I can explain how to fake it in Vegas but it'll take some working knowledge of Photoshop or similar programs (i.e. Paint.NET or The Gimp). Do you know how to use one of these? If not, I won't bother

And how can you get fancy fonts (and shapes around them) like the ones at 0:42 and 1:00 to 1:03?

This is all pretty straightforward, but the way I would do it would, again, involve the use of Photoshop, so I'll explain if you know how to use it.

Finally, how do you do those circles and rectangles like in this AMV? http://youtu.be/AWVUQ5q1NgY Oh yeah, and how do you flip the video like they did at 0:33 to 0:35?

The circles and rectangles are probably a product of Photoshop or another image editing program, imported into After Effects and animated there. They could also potentially be masked solids, which you can do in Vegas, but probably less accurately than if you just used PS. As for the flip, that was done in AE using 3D layers.

I've wanted to know how to do those things for the longest time (I've been making AMVs for almost 6 years now, but I still can't do more than basics.. I am horrible at masking too, so everything is all boring and flat and I only use basic transitions (crossfade, crossblure, fade, flash) because all the others look silly. I'd appreciate any tips in addition. Thanks.

Effects are overrated and the two videos you linked, in my opinion, use them in a really boring, cliche way. This is a style that has become popular in recent years, especially on YouTube, and in almost all cases, it looks dumb. Effects go in and out of style like anything else, and there are few effects orgy videos that actually hold up over the years. Look at the cookie cutter effect trend that happened in the mid-2000s; it looks tacky and ridiculous 10 years later, yet at the time it was everywhere. This, too, will pass.

If you want my opinion, learn to make a good video without using complex effects, and then move on to using effects tastefully in support of a concept. If you want to make a video like the ones you linked to, well...okay, but it's going to be completely buried and lost in the sea of similar videos that are all over YouTube.

[Ardamaeus]

Look at the cookie cutter effect trend that happened in the mid-2000s; it looks tacky and ridiculous 10 years later, yet at the time it was everywhere. This, too, will pass.

*sobs quietly in a corner*

[CrackTheSky]

Look at the cookie cutter effect trend that happened in the mid-2000s; it looks tacky and ridiculous 10 years later, yet at the time it was everywhere. This, too, will pass.

*sobs quietly in a corner*

I pick on that effect but there are others that are just as bad or worse. Conversely, that effect can work really well (even though Euphoria is the quintessential video that popularized this trend, along with Naruto's Technique Beat, I think that effect was used in a tasteful and constructive way in those videos). It's all about context, and in that time frame I mentioned there were just tons of videos that used it without any context.

The idea behind the effect in your video was fine, it just wasn't the best way you could have expressed it, IMO.

[Ardamaeus]

I pick on that effect but there are others that are just as bad or worse. Conversely, that effect can work really well (even though Euphoria is the quintessential video that popularized this trend, along with Naruto's Technique Beat, I think that effect was used in a tasteful and constructive way in those videos). It's all about context, and in that time frame I mentioned there were just tons of videos that used it without any context.

The idea behind the effect in your video was fine, it just wasn't the best way you could have expressed it, IMO.

Hehe, I think I'm still stuck in the mid-2000's to be honest ^^. I wanted to make AMVs back then, but was limited by my resources XP. I guess I have to modernize my thinking a bit with AMV-making @.@;; I'll probably remaster this AMV some day when I get a lot better at editing XP.