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The light at the end is in sight...
2005-06-04 14:07:08
I've been editing pretty much all day, except for some FFT playing around noon. I've gotten a lot done. I am now pushing very hard at the boundaries of what Premiere can do when it comes to masking. I'm definitely going to learn to use After Effects before my next project. I've had to resort to pretty ugly tricks and pure luck (!) to get everything like I want it, but so far, I've gotten everything just right (except the one thing written about in the last journal entry).
The "ending" is progressing nicely. The line "And you jerk it out, oh baby don't you know you really gotta jerk it out" is sung three times during the ending, over two bars each. The effects I'm using there are the most challenging to make in the whole video. I'm done with the first and second part, with only the last one to go. After that, there's only one single bar left, and the video is done... Then there's a lot of small tune-ups to be made throughout the vid, but nothing major.
I can't wait to be finished with this project. For one thing, I'd like my life back. But mostly, I'm (of course) excited about what people are going to think about it. I've worked so hard on it for so long that if people just go "meh, nothing special", I feel like I'll probably kill myself, of someone else. I guess it's a bit sad that praise means so much to me, but it does. Besides the gratification of seeing the completion of a great idea you had a few months back, the feedback from others is the only reward you get for this. Unless you live in a country where AMV contests are held at conventions every other weekend, which I don't...
Anyway, back to real life for a while now... -
Heavy masking
2005-06-03 20:07:43
Did some really heavy editing on the vid today. Finally got started on the last part of the video, the one I've put off doing for so long. I'm doing some really interesting and quite advanced transparencies. Four of the video tracks in the heaviest part all have the exact same clip, only with different effects and tranparency.
This is the most techincally challenging part of the video yet. What I want to do is have a mask of a face (with glasses) move slowly in the foreground, with one clip in the background, and another clip showing through the glasses of the mask. It's no problem if the mask is not moving; then I can make masks to fit that exact position and make the clips transparent in those exact areas by using "image matte" transparency. But when you move a clip with that kind of transparency, the image matte stays still while the clip moves, so I haven't figures out a way to make the foreground mask move and still have everything around it look right. For now, I'm content with having the mask stay in one place. It still looks pretty cool...
If anyone who happens to read this knows a way to do this in Adobe Premiere, please let me know. I know it can be done easily in AE, but I don't have that. I'm seriously thinking about getting it, but for two reasons, I'm not going to use it for this video. Firstly, it would take to much time and work to learn enough about AE to do it, because I've never worked with it before; secondly, the video is quite advanced technically, and it'd nice to be able to say that I only used Premiere to do all the effects. the first reason is of course the best one; I'm so close to finishing the vid that I'm not about to add another couple of weeks to this project just to find the time to learn AE for one single effect.
Also, I made a banner to put in my signature once the video is finished. Turned out nice. Me like Paint Shop Pro. -
Technical rant
2005-06-01 18:55:47
Wow... I just read my last journal entry, and boy, I must have been tired when I wrote that... Anyway...
Did some dirty work on the vid today. A lot of touching up of almost-finished effects to make them a little closer to perfect. The most interesting thing I did was this; I managed to make haruko's mouth closed all through a clip where her mouth is moving. I cut out her closed mouth from a full-quality still and put it on a track just above the clip, then made it transparent with the alpha channel setting. Then I added motion to the mask and managed to get it timed perfectly; you can't tell at all that it's edited.
Here's the real interesting part; there are two different ways to make a mask. One of them left an outline around the cut-out part when I made it alpha channel transparent, and the other one didn't. The first way I tried was to select the closed mouth and promote it to its own layer, and then deleting the old layer. This way I got one single layer with only the cut-out part. This mask left an outline when added to the clip. The other way I tried was to leave the image intact, but save an alpha channel in it made from the selection around the mouth. This mask didn't leave any outline at all. I'm using Paint Shop Pro and saving the masks in Photoshop format. Not sure how or if that affects anything.
Also, I had a neat idea about what to do with the second bar after the end of the climax, which has been bugging me for a while. After I've done that, the rest of the vid should be creatively easier (but it may be a bit tricky technically ).
Wow, my journal entries are getting more and more technical. And boring. It's just couse this project has dragged on for so long that I can hardly think of anything else... It'll be a relief to get it done. And it will rock so hard... -
Daily video rant
2005-05-26 16:40:28
Got a bit more done on the vid today. Nothing special, just recording it in the journal to keep myself motivated. Touched up a few effects early in the vid, and almost finished the all-important climax of the song. Everything after the climax has been almost completely blank up until now, but today I finally got started on the first couple of bars of that section. I haven't thought that part through yet, so I'm basically making it up as I go along. It's quite fun, but I'd be more comfortable if I had a storyline to work after. The thing is, the last part of the video (except the very end) isn't supposed to tell a story; it's just supposed to be a jumble of flcl madness to match the way the music goes chaotic. But it can't just be any old madness; randomly throwing clips on the timeline never works, not even (or especially not) when you're going for a chaotic feel. So I'm going to need to sit down and work out what kind of chaos I'm looking to create.
The reason I've put off doing this part of the vid for so long is that I really don't know how to get that chaotic feel. I'm just too controlled; I always want every scene to play a part in the whole of the video, so this is going to be a big challenge. I'm going for a general impression of chaos, and of Naota losing control and getting thrown around. But you can't get a 'general' feel to a scene by just selecting clips one by one and sticking them together. You need to know what it is in individual clips that creates that particular general feel you're trying to achieve.
In short; if someone just watches the video once, I want them to think (of that particular scene, at least), "Wow, that was some crazy flcl rock n' roll." But when someone watches it for the nth time, or just has a trained eye for how amv's are put together, I want them to think, "Hmm... If this be madness, there's method in't." -
Going slightly mad...
2005-05-23 14:11:01
I think this project might have gone on for longer than it should... I'm in the middle of exam week, but I don't have any energy to study. All I seem to have energy for is the project. It sort of keeps me going right now, I guess. Just hoping I'll be able to pass the exams and everything.
On the good side, the video is going very well. I got a lot done today. From the beginning to the 2:06 line, there are only two sections of two bars each that are not finished; one is completely blank and the other is half done.
I finished a couple of sections today that I've put off doing for a long time, and they turned out great! The vid gets better and better as a whole for every bar I finish right now. Even though there are times when I doubt it, I do believe this project will be worth the trouble.
I guess I ought to go and get some food or something now. I haven't eaten in a while. Yeah, I should definitely do that. I'm just gonna do one more mask first...
JOURNAL: LenWidleheyt (Linus Lindholm)
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