Want to make AMV's

Physics · Post by **Physics** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:01 pm

Hello. I want to make AMV's but I don't know much about it. I read some of the tutorilas but they seemed a little confusing to me. I was able to rip a dvd but I didnt know what to do with it after I had it indexed.

I'm just a little lost and would like some guidance. I am really interesting in making the amvs but I feel that I lack a teacher or mentor.

If anyone is willing to take a pupil and teach me, send me a private msg, I would be greatful.

Thanks for your time.

Jasta85 · Post by **Jasta85** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:28 pm

hmm, dont know if this is the right forum, but then i dont see any others which might obviously fit this topic so i'll just answer here

anyway, personally, i didnt look at the guides on the org until like after i had already made my 3rd amv, that was probably both a good and a bad thing.
at first glance, yes the guides can be intimidating, especially the indepth ones that get into how to pump out high quality amvs, on the other hand, they can give you some pointers and advice which can save you a lot of pain and suffering later on.

but if you are just starting with amvs and want to start simple then i suggest just starting with Windows Movie Maker 2.0. it comes free with windows so you dont have to pay any cash and it's really, really simple to use, just open it up and there are some instructions which can get you started, just go to the help menue or something. It took me less than a half hour to grasp just about everything there was to know about WMM and i didnt have a manual or instructions or anything.

I should note that windows movie maker is very picky about the video file types you can use, check it's help section to see exactly what it can import. And once you open it, just play around with the time line till you get used to it and then try making a quick amv. The biggest challenge (at least in my opinion) is to get a good concept and all the neccessary video clips neccessary to make your amv, the actual creation of it is pretty fun

Physics · Post by **Physics** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:43 pm

Cool, thanks for the reply. I'm saving up to get Sony Vegas but atm I only have windows movie maker. Making AMV's is something I've wanted to do for years now and I just started researching it.

Hopefully I can figure things out, and hopefully I'm not over complicating things. It does seem rather daunting when I see good videos and I wonder if I'll ever be able to make something like that. But I guess we all have to start somewhere and this is my somewhere.

Thanks again for the help, it means a lot.

Jasta85 · Post by **Jasta85** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 11:28 pm

WMM let's you get a taste for what amv making is like, and don't listen to people who say all amvs made by it are bad, there's quite a few famous ones made with windows movie maker, in fact, both my highest scoring amv, and the amv of mine with the most hits are both made with windows movie maker, although i hope to change that with my next one

vegas is a good choice btw, personally i went adobe primiere pro 2.0 but vegas was the alternative i was considering

SQ · Post by SQ » Wed Feb 14, 2007 3:09 am

Eh, I've been working with Premiere Pro 2 for a while and I don't think it's a good choice for AMVs.

Normal movies that you make yourself, and live action fan-movies, maybe. But not AMVs.

I don't know if it's because the version I have is buggy, Pro 2 itself is buggy, or if it just wasn't made for this, but I have been having tons of trouble even exporting from it. Pro 2.0(from my biased expierence) is not something you want to work with when what you're working with is going to maintain a digital format completely.

Go with Premiere 6 or 6.5, or Vegas, or maybe Magix, if you're interested in buying something.

But honestly, If I were you I'd stick with WMM unless you you're really convinced you need it to make something AMAZING. Even then, you can get near-After Effects renders through it with some of the stuff they have on http://windowsmoviemakers.net

Keep your eyes on it, it's a messy site but had worthwhile content on it.

Otherwise, try out the http://animemusicvideos.org/guides/ User Tips n' Tricks(miniguides) section. Has some interesting, perspective things in there.

Jasta85 · Post by **Jasta85** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 6:16 am

i havnt had a real problem with 2.0, or maybe some things i take for granted are stuff you say is a problem. can you be specific with what you think is wrong with 2.0? i agree that its exports need shrinking and cleaning up with amvsynth and the program itself is really slow on my comp but overall i really like it, but then i upgraded straight to it from WMM so it wasnt too hard to impress me

Autraya · Post by **Autraya** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 6:35 am

Physics,
If you are going to use WMM your next step after indexing your file is to load the AVIsynth script DGIindex created into virtualdub make a file (probably avi) to edit with. Read <a href=http://www.a-m-v.org/guides/avtech31/>ErMaC & AbsoluteDestiny's Friendly AMV Guides</a> shows you how to do this.
You should try to encode with huffyuv, as it has better visual quality and wmm doesn't like lagarith.
There's an avisyth forum to help you if you get stuck.

SQ - I've got Premiere pro as well and it doesn't really have many problems... other than no bait and switch (unless I'm just dumb), buuut I got used to wmm's failings so nearly anything is better.

Autraya · Post by **Autraya** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 6:38 am

crappy double post... I said the the wrong forum... should have said encoding,riping

Physics · Post by **Physics** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 6:54 am

Thanks for the help

SQ · Post by SQ » Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:42 pm

The problems I've had with Premiere 2.0:

Longass rendering times. More rendering time than should be allowed (I have a dual core processor, 2.2GHz for each, and 2gb of ram, 1gb in each channel) and the render times were worse for a basic dissolve than they ever were in 6.0. Also, I can't export to anything except uncompressed and have it look decent, or do it without freezing.

I know there is a program out there that allows me to use VirtualDub to export from Premiere for me(and I keep forgetting what it's called) but Premiere is a several hundred dollar program and it's ridiculous that I'd have to add on extensions just to use it correctly.

The avs support for it also sucks, and just in general, Premiere was made for wedding videos and prosumers and home video stuff, not taking something digital, re-editing it, and then keeping it digital.

But like I said, my opinion is biased and it could just be the version I have... I'm not denying it might be corrupted. >_>