The Great Debate: Effects and Presets

[Bauzi]

It´s a matter of originality! Hey people, don´t you think that the same old trapcode shine effect is getting boring even if it looks pretty? I do think so. I must roll my eyes so often when I see the same effect over and over again in every day life.

using the default settings on and plug-ins or pregenerated textures and mattes to also be presets

Yes that´s my definition of presets.

riot gear presets

Some things you have to take as they are like the paint splatter. I doubt that you´ll add big changes on it. However... There are project files (i think so) with already finished styles. Some people just take them and just edit the text in it. That´s pretty lame. You should learn of those projects and not just edit text in them =/

By presets, I think more along the lines of preset light rays, fractal noise, grunge textures, etc.

To grunge textures: Mhm. Hard to judge here. I mean you find tons of textures in the internet and often the just look similar. Also the amount of different blending modes in AE is limited. Maybe I just don´t have enough experience for that.
For me: Grunge textures "can´t" really be presets unless you don´t take them 1:1 from tutorials.

Programs like AE and such can alter footage so dramatically that it's very lazy and unoriginal to use FX packages out of the can without thinking outside the box.

Yeah. I mean if you use a grundge texture you already do some changes on it anyway like a zoom in or colour addjust.

lens flare

Oh I like lens flares if they´re used in a proper way. Sad that I never really got a chance to use them right. I think there was a nice tutorial on creative cow for lensflare. It´s a great effect for atmosphere.

Presets are ok if you use them in a proper way and not too much and of course not in a shameless way. Or: until the end of time.
Did you know that you can say a lot of time which editing software the editor used, just by looking at the effects?

[JaddziaDax]

to me the effects don't matter as long as the video is good...

[inthesto]

I think this article sums up my thoughts pretty neatly.

All metaphorically, of course.

[JudgeHolden]

I used a lens-flare in my last video, nobody noticed nor complained ... yet ...

I was trying to think of why you all care, and why it matters so much to people. Then I saw Inglow's post and he hit it right on the button.

[CodeZTM]

Wow. Really deep thinking here. :O

Let me give my two cents in here.

1st Cent: Effects are only good if they are meant to enhance the concept or overall feel of a video.

- Videos like Sugardansen(Chii)/Attack of the Otaku(Chii)/Restless(Scintilla)/BodyRockHigh(JudgeHolden)/Accidentally In Love(VicBond007)/Shining Collection(Vicbond007) all use effects to enhance their concept. Chii used effects to make the fun aspect of the videos come out and make us all want to dance. Scintilla used basic effects in Restless to help give the romance a better sense, as well as VicBond007's use of manga footage to do the same thing. And JudgehHolden and VicBond007 did a perfect job of encorporating a tired effect (lens flare) in their respective videos, and did a good job of it.

2nd Cent: Effects-Only videos are usually doomed to fail

- I'll admit that Spoil isn't my favorite video, but I don't hate it either. It made an attempt at a concept, which just kind of came off as insignifigant:

It's about Ryuk who's chosen Light to be his next victim. Ryuk tries to gain control over Light's confused soul, tries to supress the will of the victim. What's more important - Light doesn't know if Ryuk is real or it's just his sick imagination, as a result of mind chaos and soul crack...

- I actually think Magic Pad deserves to be in this category as well. Magic Pad was gorgeous visually, but still failed to make a valid concept or story that the audience can agree with.

Concerning video footage, I must say that I barely know or don't know about a half of it. I simply saw nice pictures that I imported in Premiere. The idea was to give a specific style by playing on colors and atmosphere to make something special.
This is random editing with link attempts when I had the opportunity.
I used a lot of OP/ED because this is where you find the best footage with dynamic cameras.

For some reason, this really disturbs me. But then again, I always like a nice concept in video that isn't just totally random.

And again, I say that I personally like both Spoil and Magic Pad. I just don't appriciate the over-effect-whoriness of them, or the lack of a cohesive, central plot.

____________________

And again, I say to you all what is obvious: Judging/Critiquing videos is very hard.

EAch of us has our own unique way of saying/doing things. We believe differently, have different religions and different ideas of what is "good" and what is "bad".

Effects juding is just an extention of that.

Mah 3 cents, acutally.

*done*

[DriftRoot]

Nailing an AMV to the cross for being eye candy overload is not the same thing as nailing it to the cross for being a preset bonanza, which is where some people might get confused on this issue because to them it’s all eye candy, there is no good/better/best candy - as long as its sickeningly sweet and gives them a sugar high, it’s great.

More sophisticated palates react to preset effects like someone being handed a Nestle bar when they ask for chocolate. They don’t want Nestle/presets, they want Lindt/custom effects! That’s “real” chocolate/effects and it’s quite wearying to them to hear the Nestle folks go on about how their chocolate is just as good as the gourmet stuff, because it's just not, even if it's all chocolate. If you can’t stomach cheap chocolate, then it doesn’t matter how much work went into making it – it still leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

That said, just like with everything else, there is a place for presets. I think we should give more credit to original effects than to canned ones, but there’s nothing wrong with using the great tools that are available in some programs to do things that would otherwise be time consuming, difficult or even impossible.

For instance: it’s kind of silly to spend hours making all kinds of fancy custom gradient wipes when a collection of dozens and dozens of Sapphire wipes are sitting on your computer. JUST because it’s a preset doesn’t mean you have to avoid it like the plague – if it gets the job done, then go for it. The only thing I’d ask is that you be honest about where all your effects came from and be understanding of the fact that when some people run around saying how fantastic they are, it’s going to annoy the heck out of other people who know better. The USE of presets can be impressive, but the effects themselves aren't necessarily praiseworthy - they're just tools.

I'm not going to sit there and whip my fudge by hand if I can grab my electric mixer and get the same results with less time and effort. I will admit, though, when people comment on how great the fudge is, that 99% of the ingredients came out of a box and I just threw in some nutmeg to give it that something special.

I don't make fudge, btw, that was just an analogy. I have no idea what adding nutmeg would do. @_@

[dreamawake]

lol I love how people consider riot gear a preset, that just fucking rediculous, as if its hard to go into photoshop and whip up a grungey texture.

I don't know about alot of people here, but the way my pc runs, I'd rather just throw a riot gear grunge in than waste the cpu on opening photoshop to do something so fucking rediculously easy.

Just had to throw that in there \:

Figured that'd apply here too |:

[Koopiskeva]

lol I love how people consider riot gear a preset, that just fucking rediculous, as if its hard to go into photoshop and whip up a grungey texture.

I don't know about alot of people here, but the way my pc runs, I'd rather just throw a riot gear grunge in than waste the cpu on opening photoshop to do something so fucking rediculously easy.

Just had to throw that in there \:

Figured that'd apply here too |:

I disagree with you on all counts. A duel is in the cards.

[DayWalker B.]

I agree with Ingow, I think the use of effects in general is bound to be influenced by trends and other standards in a community like this. Therefore it seems kind of hard to determine which effects really are considered presets and how to rate them in conjunction with their use in AMVs.
As AtomX said, the response to the use of presets in videos can vary a lot among the viewers, quite obviously. Partly because of one's experience with effects and/or expectations one has towards a certain AMV.
Thus, I've come to the conclusion that it's impossible for me to state a general opinion here, instead I think it would be better to judge this within the respective video's own context. Until now, I did tend though to primarily judge the use of effects from what I could see and not so much from how it was accomplished by the editor. I probably still do so.

[dreamawake]

lol I love how people consider riot gear a preset, that just fucking rediculous, as if its hard to go into photoshop and whip up a grungey texture.

I don't know about alot of people here, but the way my pc runs, I'd rather just throw a riot gear grunge in than waste the cpu on opening photoshop to do something so fucking rediculously easy.

Just had to throw that in there \:

Figured that'd apply here too |:

I disagree with you on all counts. A duel is in the cards.