Nanatsu no Taizai AMV - This is War.

[Dacastus]

This is my very first AMV! Its about the anime Nanatsu no Taizai and i would love some feedback/comments so I can improve I had a ton of fun making this and I plan on making a bunch more!

[Ileia]

Things you did great:

Introducing your characters. You started out with showing us who the video is about. This is always a good way to begin your video so that your audience can follow along more easily.

Lyric sync. For the most part, the audio dialog matched what we were viewing on screen which helped with a bit of "story" for the video. The "lifting hands" bit was a little on the nose (maybe because it was repeated?), but other than that it was pretty good!

Pacing/Mood sync. This is like one of my biggest pet peeves in AMVs where they don't know when to slow down and speed up. However, your pacing and the scenes you chose matched the mood or feel of the song as the video progressed, which also helps tell a story in its own way. So good job on that!


Things to avoid/Things to improve:

Generally, you want to try to use footage that doesn't have the watermark in the corner or titles on the screen. These are distracting. The way you used the subtitles in the beginning was fine because it was a set up for the intro. I also noticed a couple orphan frames (random frames at the beginning or end of a clip) that you want to make sure to remove.

Your beat sync was decent (especially for a first video) but there's room for improvement and tightening that up to more accurately match the beat/music. That's something that you get more attuned to with time and practice.


Overall, though you can improve on a bit here or there, you've got a pretty good grasp on what constitutes a good video so I look forward to seeing your next project!

[Dacastus]

Thank you so much for a detailed critique! I will make sure to improve for the next one!

[aesling]

Hmmmm, I think Ileia covered a lot of what I was going to say. I think the most glaring issue was the footage with the credit text all over it. Not to beat a dead horse, but that is pretty frowned on. I think it was good that you had a strong concept going in. You developed characters and I knew exactly what the theme was, and this really helped you make strong scene selections. I did find the hard cuts to be a little too frequent in some places; they became a bit jarring. Greater use of internal sync would help you in this area. Overall, not a bad rookie effort. I definitely think your positive attitude and willingness to learn will take you places. Cheers.

[Dacastus]

Thank you! I'm honestly really glad my friend sent me to this site this type of criticism is what I wanted because I am brand new at this. All of this will be noted (and hopefully fixed) Thank u all so much!

[Kireblue]

definitely a great start into AMV editing. I would advise you to not have anime scenes before your AMVs though. I remember when I used to do that, and I thought it was a good idea at the time. But you should really try to express those interactions and background story through your editing instead of relying on dialogue and uncut scenes from the show. This is most certainly harder to do, but its a lot more interesting when you do it successfully. Another tip that I'll give you is to try to truly feel the emotion that the singer is trying to express with each lyric of the song. Then try to express that anger, sadness, and energy through the actions and expressions of the characters at each specific part/ lyric. Overall, you matched the mood pretty well, but I don't feel that you captured it a specific moments and on specific lyrics. But like I said earlier, this was a awesome start. Keep editing and improving

[Dacastus]

Thank you! Im unworthy of the kind words and thank you for the tips! I feel almost ashamed like a sponge soaking in everyones helpful advice undeserving. I will do much much better! I must do better

[CrackTheSky]

I would advise you to not have anime scenes before your AMVs though. I remember when I used to do that, and I thought it was a good idea at the time. But you should really try to express those interactions and background story through your editing instead of relying on dialogue and uncut scenes from the show.

I disagree with this as a general rule. There are plenty of videos out there that use this technique to great effect (Tainted Donuts is the first one that comes to my mind, although I know there are others). The way you set this up was fine, I think. I wouldn't use this technique as a crutch to tell your story, though in certain circumstances it's appropriate, and it worked in this video.

My other general thoughts on the video have been pretty well covered already. There are a lot of technical issues with the video (video quality, credits, watermarks, etc.), but my bigger complaints have to do with the editing, which was fine for a first video, but lacking overall. Would have loved to see more internal sync (i.e. using motion within the scenes to sync to the music, rather than cuts, fades, or effects), and a more developed story. I more or less get what it was about, but I didn't feel like the story was really well conveyed...there wasn't a lot of emotional investment for me to make. Someone who has seen the anime and knows what's going on might disagree with me here, however.

I also wanted to comment on the lyric sync...eeeehhhhh. I thought it was too much in some places, specifically what Ileia mentioned with the "lifting hands" bit, but elsewhere as well. Lyric sync is really tricky, it can be tempting to do it all the time but in certain contexts it can look really cheesy or forced, and I felt that way more often than not with this video. I would have loved to have seen a tighter focus on telling a coherent story and paying more attention to the emotions of the song, rather than lyric matching. In this song specifically, I definitely think the emotional component is more important than the lyrics; not to say ignore them completely, but be more selective with the lyric sync. This is really just something that takes practice and beta testing and watching a lot of AMVs to get a good feel for.

But yeah, you're off to a good start, I think, and it's always great to see new editors actively seeking feedback rather than just praise, so props for that. Look forward to future videos from you

[Dacastus]

My other general thoughts on the video have been pretty well covered already. There are a lot of technical issues with the video (video quality, credits, watermarks, etc.), but my bigger complaints have to do with the editing, which was fine for a first video, but lacking overall. Would have loved to see more internal sync (i.e. using motion within the scenes to sync to the music, rather than cuts, fades, or effects), and a more developed story. I more or less get what it was about, but I didn't feel like the story was really well conveyed...there wasn't a lot of emotional investment for me to make. Someone who has seen the anime and knows what's going on might disagree with me here, however.

Thank you for your reply!Sorry for the ignorance but could you go into a little more depth on the "internal sync (i.e. using motion within the scenes to sync to the music, rather than cuts, fades, or effects)" part I'm too new at this and i think i know what you mean but would love a concrete example. Thanks in advance!

[CrackTheSky]

Thank you for your reply!Sorry for the ignorance but could you go into a little more depth on the "internal sync (i.e. using motion within the scenes to sync to the music, rather than cuts, fades, or effects)" part I'm too new at this and i think i know what you mean but would love a concrete example. Thanks in advance!

No problem. I'm a visual person, so let's pretend what you see below is the video/audio tracks in your editing program.

So let's say you have a drum beat in the song (represented by the ^, pretend the dashes and the ^ are the audio waveform) and you want to sync something to that drum beat:

Video track: [__clip 1__]
Audio track: -------^----

You could cut clip 1 and put clip 2 right next to it so that there's a "cut" right where the beat happens, i.e.:

Video track: [__1__][__2__]
Audio track: --------^-------

You could also take clip 1 and clip 2 and do a quick "crossfade", where the two tracks blend into one another, and center the fade right over the drum beat, i.e.:

Video track: [__1__[~]__2__]
Audio track: ---------^--------

You can also take clip 1 and put an effect on it, and sync the beginning of the effect to right where the drum beat is. All these methods are what's known as "external sync"; in other words, you're modifying the existing clip in some way to match with the audio.

The other way to do beat sync is what's called "internal sync". As an example, for this drum beat instead of doing any of the above, you can take something that happens within the animation in the clip (let's say character A punches character B) and time it so that it syncs up with the drum beat (in the example given, character A's punch connects with character B at the exact moment the drum beat occurs). Internal sync is a powerful skill to learn, because it allows you to be creative with difficult sync scenarios. Often there will be a complex drum pattern within the song where syncing to every drum beat would be difficult and tedious; in these situations, creative internal sync can be just as effective, if not moreso.

Generally speaking, internal sync makes for a smoother video, and I personally tend to prefer it over external sync in many cases. Good editors use a balance of both in their videos; again, this is something you need to experiment with and get a feel for. Hope this helped...if you need me to clarify anything, I can!