2.1 Need Evaluation for my Mega Man X WIP AMV "Burndown"

[EMrain]

Hey it's Retro-Megabyte again,

As the thread title states, I am requesting honest evaluation/opinions on my AMV concept work.

Also stated in the thread title, lists the title of my first ever AMV WIP, "Burndown". It is a Mega Man X AMV whose song is "Burn It Down" by Linkin Park.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: The following partial render will abruptly end at 1 minute, 2 seconds, and 19 frames, which is where I am currently after approximately 5 nights of editing work. https://www.dropbox.com/s/9c9w82q2ujqf0 ... 0.mp4?dl=0

The target video length I am going for is 3 minutes, 49 seconds, and 28 frames. The video plays at 29.97frames per second.

I hope you experienced AMV producers enjoy my current progress on my AMV concept!

*EDIT* There is a defect in the dropbox upload at approx. 26 seconds, which is not present in the original file on my computer. I am aware of the situation, in case anyone noticed it.

[Tigrin]

I didn't know there was a Mega Man anime, that's neat. I like the feeling of this AMV so far, I'm interested to see where it goes.

The two biggest issues with your WIP right now are sync and lip flap. A lot of your hard cuts are happening late. Listen very closely to what's happening in the music. Around :09 there's definitely a change in the music as the electric sounds kick in, but the cut happens late. The internal sync often is not sufficiently supporting what's going on with the music to avoid doing another cut to keep up with the pace of the beats. Often you miss acknowledging changes in the beat or lyrics... for example at :51, you continue to linger on a slow-moving explosion after the lyrics have already moved on to "all that I needed". Some sequences ARE working well... for instance the few shots between :26 and :28 are using internal sync well to follow the music. The rest of the video needs to be more like that.

The other issue is lip flap... it looks kind of sloppy if the characters' mouths are moving when a) there's no lyrics, b) the movements don't fit the lyrics. There are a number of shots in this where characters are standing perfectly still with their mouths moving. Either avoid using these shots, or use a bit of them when the mouths aren't moving and cut to a different shot. If you want to get fancy with it you can try and mask it out (since the characters aren't moving anyway) but that might be a tedious waste of time if there are better shots to use that you're overlooking.

Anyway, I hope that helps, keep at it!

[EMrain]

I didn't know there was a Mega Man anime, that's neat. I like the feeling of this AMV so far, I'm interested to see where it goes.

The two biggest issues with your WIP right now are sync and lip flap. A lot of your hard cuts are happening late. Listen very closely to what's happening in the music. Around :09 there's definitely a change in the music as the electric sounds kick in, but the cut happens late. The internal sync often is not sufficiently supporting what's going on with the music to avoid doing another cut to keep up with the pace of the beats. Often you miss acknowledging changes in the beat or lyrics... for example at :51, you continue to linger on a slow-moving explosion after the lyrics have already moved on to "all that I needed". Some sequences ARE working well... for instance the few shots between :26 and :28 are using internal sync well to follow the music. The rest of the video needs to be more like that.

The other issue is lip flap... it looks kind of sloppy if the characters' mouths are moving when a) there's no lyrics, b) the movements don't fit the lyrics. There are a number of shots in this where characters are standing perfectly still with their mouths moving. Either avoid using these shots, or use a bit of them when the mouths aren't moving and cut to a different shot. If you want to get fancy with it you can try and mask it out (since the characters aren't moving anyway) but that might be a tedious waste of time if there are better shots to use that you're overlooking.

Anyway, I hope that helps, keep at it!

Yeah, I knew I would get things wrong somewhere, I was especially concerned while editing, the cut from the aircraft (2nd) to the first shot of X happened almost a full second late in the editor preview window, which I'm pretty sure its just program buffer trying to keep up with the scrolling pointer in the editor. As for the lip syncing problem, again, my editing skills have rusted a bit, I definitely should have more time tweaking than editing more of my AMV. It's my first AMV I will ever have made by the time its finished, but because of my video editing experience, that rust is no excuse. I suck atm...

*Fun Fact: the Mega Man X anime featured in my technically garbage AMV is actually from an unlockable OVA called Maverick Hunter X: Day of Sigma on Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X for the PSP, which you can unlock by completing the game with X. Also, X is Mega Man's name in the X series of Mega Man games. I am actually a Mega Man game speedrunner which I go by the same alias as my AMV dot org account, and I came from a video game background. I've been gaming for over 12 years, and now I'm just digging into some raw anime.(Code Geass looks like it could be right up my alley!) I also have almost 5 full years of video editing experience, been making videos since I was 13 (not AMVs, I actually made things like Super Mario 64 bloopers, game reviews, etc.)

I really appreciate your feedback, but I'm also upset at myself for my faults, maybe I should'nt have posted this thread for evaluation...

[Tigrin]

I really appreciate your feedback, but I'm also upset at myself for my faults, maybe I should'nt have posted this thread for evaluation...

Don't be upset! It's your first AMV, music videos are kind of a different beast from just average video editing... there is so much you need to consider between timing, pacing, storytelling, etc. it's a lot to handle, and it takes a lot of practice. Your first AMV isn't going to be your best one. Take the mistakes you make as a learning opportunity to help you improve. Mistakes are something to be excited about because they give you something to build off of. I didn't have anyone helping me when I first started making AMVs... when people help you, you learn way faster, I think. If you're afraid to reach out and get honest feedback, it'll take that much longer to improve. I just learned about the lip flap thing recently. ._. But that was because I was open to receiving critique, and I'm glad I did.

Anyway, don't feel discouraged, just keep trying!

[EMrain]

I didn't know there was a Mega Man anime, that's neat. I like the feeling of this AMV so far, I'm interested to see where it goes.

The two biggest issues with your WIP right now are sync and lip flap. A lot of your hard cuts are happening late. Listen very closely to what's happening in the music. Around :09 there's definitely a change in the music as the electric sounds kick in, but the cut happens late. The internal sync often is not sufficiently supporting what's going on with the music to avoid doing another cut to keep up with the pace of the beats. Often you miss acknowledging changes in the beat or lyrics... for example at :51, you continue to linger on a slow-moving explosion after the lyrics have already moved on to "all that I needed". Some sequences ARE working well... for instance the few shots between :26 and :28 are using internal sync well to follow the music. The rest of the video needs to be more like that.

The other issue is lip flap... it looks kind of sloppy if the characters' mouths are moving when a) there's no lyrics, b) the movements don't fit the lyrics. There are a number of shots in this where characters are standing perfectly still with their mouths moving. Either avoid using these shots, or use a bit of them when the mouths aren't moving and cut to a different shot. If you want to get fancy with it you can try and mask it out (since the characters aren't moving anyway) but that might be a tedious waste of time if there are better shots to use that you're overlooking.

Anyway, I hope that helps, keep at it!

One thing I was attempting to do at first was sync some of the cuts per measure, not always per beat. I was aiming to have varying intervals of cut sequencing, not always switching every beat, but sometimes every 2 beats or cut syncing in between beats in time with the electronic/melody synths and/or vocals. I forgot to mention earlier that I was also experimenting with different but evenly spaced cut timings.

[Tigrin]

One thing I was attempting to do at first was sync some of the cuts per measure, not always per beat. I was aiming to have varying intervals of cut sequencing, not always switching every beat, but sometimes every 2 beats or cut syncing in between beats in time with the electronic/melody synths and/or vocals. I forgot to mention earlier that I was also experimenting with different but evenly spaced cut timings.

Hmm, okay... well, it's not working, whatever you're trying to accomplish there. I think varying things is good to keep the sync from getting too predictable, but I think with most songs, there are certain things you have to hit, or it will feel like the sync is off, or that a cut is unmotivated, if you vary it too much. I think the very basic things you need to hit are certain changes in the song (such as the once I mentioned at the very beginning when the keyboard kicks in), or changes in the lyrics (like from one line of lyrics to another). There's not really any sort of hard and fast rule, though... in general I tend to favor hitting lyrics over hitting the underlying beats of the song; often lyrics will sync up with the song anyway, and usually if I'm trying to tell a story I consider the lyrics more important than whatever's going on with the music. I usually try to get variety in timing out of internal sync (a person nodding, their foot hitting the ground, a gun shot going off, etc.) to avoid cutting too regularly... depends on the source material though... some anime has super limited animation, so not much opportunity for internal sync. Um, I'm not very good at explaining things... I actually don't know anything about musical timing, I just go with my gut when listening to music. The Sync section of this guide is pretty good: http://www.animemusicvideos.org/forum/v ... =2&t=92942

[EMrain]

I didn't know there was a Mega Man anime, that's neat. I like the feeling of this AMV so far, I'm interested to see where it goes.

The two biggest issues with your WIP right now are sync and lip flap. A lot of your hard cuts are happening late. Listen very closely to what's happening in the music. Around :09 there's definitely a change in the music as the electric sounds kick in, but the cut happens late. The internal sync often is not sufficiently supporting what's going on with the music to avoid doing another cut to keep up with the pace of the beats. Often you miss acknowledging changes in the beat or lyrics... for example at :51, you continue to linger on a slow-moving explosion after the lyrics have already moved on to "all that I needed". Some sequences ARE working well... for instance the few shots between :26 and :28 are using internal sync well to follow the music. The rest of the video needs to be more like that.

The other issue is lip flap... it looks kind of sloppy if the characters' mouths are moving when a) there's no lyrics, b) the movements don't fit the lyrics. There are a number of shots in this where characters are standing perfectly still with their mouths moving. Either avoid using these shots, or use a bit of them when the mouths aren't moving and cut to a different shot. If you want to get fancy with it you can try and mask it out (since the characters aren't moving anyway) but that might be a tedious waste of time if there are better shots to use that you're overlooking.

Anyway, I hope that helps, keep at it!

One thing I was attempting to do at first was sync some of the cuts per measure, not always per beat. I was aiming to have varying intervals of cut sequencing, not always switching every beat, but sometimes every 2 beats or cut syncing in between beats in time with the electronic/melody synths and/or vocals. I forgot to mention earlier that I was also experimenting with different but evenly spaced cut timings.

Although I chose the Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X OVA for my first AMV + Anime game intro snippets, I primarily am a video game enthusiast with a gradually increasing interest in anime, and I have more good ideas for what are called 'VGMVs' its the video game equivalent of an AMV, as it's short for 'Video Game Music Video', just like AMV is short for 'Animation Music Video'. (Don't correct me for not calling it an 'Anime' music video, because that's animation, though Anime is usually specific to most Japanese animations or Japanese style inspired animations; you get the point lol ) But, I willingly joined the AMV forums because I will certainly make AMVs for Anime's I discover and enjoy. Speaking of Anime Expo, which is what I'm aiming to submit my MHX AMV to, they should have another category for VGMVs too.