#it was the first one i made with davinci resolve and the amv that really got me into editing amvs for real

[marshmallowgoop]

no thoughts just Heiji Hattori (HD)

[magicalgirltwirl]

This is the first AMV I ever made! It was a Claymore one to "Rise" by Origa (one of the OPs for the Ghost in the Shell anime). It's bad so you shouldn't watch it, but I wanted to ramble a bit about my journey making AMVs and how I got started. (and also Claymore in the reblog)

I made this for my college anime club in 2011. The club said they were going to have an AMV contest and we could make ours over break. Then when I got back from break nobody but me had made one and I just dropped it. I didn't mind though, because I wanted to get started making AMVs anyway, I'd watched a bunch and wanted to for a while. Like a lot of people, I was always creating AMVs in my head when I listened to songs.

The summary I published this with is preserved in the metadata and it is so unintentionally funny

Done for an AMV contest at the anime club. I haven't finished either the anime or manga of Claymore yet- so no spoilers- but I am already completely in love with both. [summary stuff]

Anyone know how to get rid of the box on the sides of the picture?

As is very obvious in this video, at first I approached AMVs kind of like I was making my own summary of my favorite parts of the anime rather than really intergrating the music. I used subbed footage in this (and in a few AMVS after) because 1. I could only find subbed footage and 2. because at the time I was always confused why people didn't use subs for anime, because sometimes they matched the music or they could tell someone what the show was about! But of course this is because you can rarely make an AMV that actually works with the music with subbed footage.

You have to leave time for people to read the subs and the characters to talk and part of the fun of AMVs is conveying things nonverbally and syncing it to the lyrics of the beat, it makes for a boring viewing experience if it's just a clipshow where you might has well have just left the audio on and made an ad for the anime.

So this is slow and bad, but I have a fondness for it. You can see that I really wanted to show people Clare and Teresa's story and why I thought it was cool. I think I made three subbed AMVs after this (the second one being the "We Believe You" Sailor Jupiter one, and the next two being other Sailor Moon ones that are lost forever now) but as I got better, I ditched them. The road to improvement was slow and long, but I improved a lot.

I don't think I'll ever make AMVs again- the last time I attempted one was a Patreon request, and I realized Windows Movie Maker was way too buggy to work with and as an adult, AMVs were way too time consuming to make for only $50- now I know how to use Davinci Resolve which is way better and not buggy, but yeah, still too time consuming! Even editing my old ones like I've been doing has been more time consuming and horribly addictive than I imagined. I can waste entire days just editing an AMV, hours on just getting one bit of timing right, and now that I have all these responsibilities I can't do that anymore. But I really look back on all my AMVs fondly, even the bad ones. I'm glad I can revisit most of them on this blog now.

[zeldahime]

#good omens #amv #is it still amv if its not anime? #i have GOT to learn how to do these (@spookydazechaos)

I still call them AMVs but I have been told that they're now called "fanvids," so you can call 'em whatever you want! 😂

It's honestly not that hard, really. I figured out the absolute basics of how to do them in a few days last summer and made a meme vid for CQL (warning for canon-typical violence) that looks reasonable. A bit amateur, but it was literally my first one ever.

I use DaVinci Resolve, which is a bit like using Photoshop to make memes in terms of astounding software capability vs amount of that capability actually used (very little), but it is free and has nearly infinite level-up ability once you've got the basics and a bazillion tutorials out there to learn it and discover tricks.

I only talk to God when I need a favor / and I only pray when I ain't got a prayer.

Set to "Need a Favor" by Jelly Roll.

AO3 | Squidge

[marlborodean]

hi there! I love ur amvs!! have you ever talked about what programs u use or tips & tricks u have or something? I know some creators have posts like that but I wasn’t able to find any on ur blog. and no worries if u don’t have anything like that, either way, lovely stuff uve made<3<3

hii thank you so much!!!! i've never posted anything about it, but i'm happy to share! :) below the cut, since it's long, is a list of what i use to edit, and some tips&tricks. everything i use is free and accessible (and linked below) & if u want further explanation on anything lemme know <3

what i use:

i screen record off netflix using a combination of the mac screen record thing, which captures just video, and the app screenflick, which also records audio. however the free version has a huge watermark on it so that's why i have to use both. (otherwise it's one payment of $35, so i'm considering it and doing away with mac screen record.) if i make a video from just one episode i'll try to find a torrent for it but that usually doesn't go well. i haven't checked out this resource yet but i think you can download spn episodes here.

i edit on davinci resolve which is the closest thing i can get to adobe premiere (i used to use adobe for school so i like it).

i recently started using the website moises for when there's background noise or music in a scene with good dialogue i want to use. it's free for 5 tracks a month, 4 minute limit each. however it's only $3.33 a month for unlimited uploads with a 20 minute limit, so personally i'm willing to pay for that since i use it so much. (if anyone can't pay for it and wants some background noise removed, send me what you want and i can do it for you)

other great resources are things like spn wiki, or even gifsets, to track down like, the perfect shot of dean eating a hamburger or a good long shot to include scenery.

tips & tricks/process:

color code your clips and use markers. it helps to visualize my project as a whole and stay organized. i color code based on lots of things: episodes, themes, if there are people in the shot, if there are weapons in the shot, etc. i use markers to mark where sections of the song begin, or where in the timeline of the show this part of the song should lead up to, etc. 

utilize the beat AND lyrics of the song. an easy way to make an amv feel more cohesive and put together is to time it to the beat or rhythm of the lyrics of the song. making clips mirror what the lyrics say is also really effective, even though it's passe in the music video industry.

color correct. even as little as adjusting the temperature or brightness/contrast. also good to sharpen clips, but not by much. more intensive color correction for me involves creating color palettes based on the feeling of the song, and blending them onto the video layer (soft light, multiply, overlay, etc). i also duplicate the layer and color pick from the shot and desaturate everything, blend that down as well

organize/plan ahead. once i decide on a song, i'll listen to it for awhile and read the lyrics as i brainstorm and think abt the concept to help associate images and think of a story. usually i add clips to the lyrics of the song first and then fill in the empty space.

don't be afraid to edit the song itself. don't feel like you have to do the song in its entirety. you can always make it shorter, one verse or chorus if you want, or just cutting a bridge of the song out. one of my early drafts of this involved duplicating one of the memoria's to add five seconds but by the end i cut that and also cut an additional five seconds from the solo

add sound bites. if you can have dialogue peppered throughout or even at the beginning of the video, it feels higher quality. also utilizing sound effects in the show (gunshots, keys turning in locks, etc) is fun, but make sure they don't have background music

the rest is tiny finicky adjustments to both the visuals and the audio, and it takes me 3-4 drafts before i'm fully satisfied with the video lmao!

bonus: if i'm not directly inspired by a song, i look at my playlist of songs i think would make good videos, but if nothing there inspires me i'll just find a song in my playlist for that character or relationship

if u want more detail on anything i mentioned, or something else i haven't, feel free to ask! hope this was helpful! & i super appreciate the love <3

[cerenemuxse]

MEP stands for "multi-editor project," and is what it sounds like!

Many editors get together to make a collaboration edit. They pick a song, and its spliced up into multiple parts. Though that part is usually done by the host. A deadline and rules is set, parts are picked ("first come first serve" sort of manner), and the MEP is worked on.

Sometimes, there's groups, usually called "studios," that are dedicated to just that! So there can be a different host for every MEP. BUT these MEPs are usually private and within the studio. Only members of the of that studio can participate but they can host public MEPs from time to time. MEP studios and MEPS in general used to be SUPER popular 2016 - 2018. They're still made today, and in a similar quantity as before, but they don't receive as much attention as they used to. Many studios from that time closed down at that time or entering the 2020s.

But im getting ahead of myself as thats not what this MEP is. This is a public MEP i'm hosting. I wont be doing rules on the style. Use anything! Use what you know! This one will be open to everyone, and parts will be assigned on a "first come, first serve" basis. :3 Again, i do plan to be lax on the deadline too as, well, im nearing the end of my summer break and I dont think parts will be done by then if I host the MEP this month midway, or early next month.

Also, please try to use software that doesn't smack a watermark on it! For mobile, i recommend Capcut! Its free and no watermark. For PC (Windows, Mac, and Linus), I would suggest DaVinci Resolve. While the Studio version is paid, the regular version isn't, and it has no watermark. You are a little limited on what you can use but if you learn the Fusion part of it, you can make some really nice edits! Here's a playlist of tutorials from PeeJ about AMVs/edits:

Finally, here's some examples of MEPs! Personal favorites of mine. Most are anime but cartoon ones do exist! Non/Disney was a super popular subgenre back then. Right now, Canon Renaissance, a MEP studio, is trying to bring jt back. Really cool stuff. :3

I have two songs in mind! It'll be small and short. I'll be easy on the deadline mostly because its my first. Also, ArtFight is going on. Im not in it, but i know others are.

[marshmallowgoop]

Thank you for the detailed and reassuring response! It's good to know I'm not that terribly slow at all of this!

I actually considered responding to the quoted part of the article in my tags, but I refrained because I'm always concerned about talking too much... which probably relates to everything I'm going to say in the rest of this post.

While I do consider myself new to video editing (editing with DaVinci Resolve for about a year), I wouldn't consider myself new to writing (it's what I got my degree in, after all). And with writing—particularly with fiction writing—I've often found that the more time and effort I spend on it, the worse it is. The work becomes stiff and overstuffed, and my ideas wind up not coming through.

But with video editing, I feel like this is rarely the case. Generally speaking, the more hours I devote to a video, the more I like it and the prouder I am of the results.

I fear that others don't feel the same, though. My second-most popular video on Tumblr is an "older" one of relatively little effort, and I unfortunately can't say that I care much for it myself. It took maybe 20 hours, tops, whereas more recent videos that pushed past the 50-hour mark—and that I'm far more confident in—have garnered maybe half the notes.

And of course, I'm really glad that my early edit has resonated with others, regardless of my personal feelings! It's a gift. But I'm absolutely terrified that I'm only getting worse here—that as I learn more effects and get more comfortable with my program, my work is actually degrading.

That's all maybe a very long-winded way of saying that much of my self-consciousness about spending so long on AMVs is that I worry the excessive time is actively decreasing the quality. I enjoy edits with lots of clips and effects... but are those kinds of AMVs just "bad"? Or is the way I'm executing them bad? Am I focusing on all the wrong things with my videos?

In the end, I realize that everyone's got their own tastes. And as stated in the "When fun has a time limit" article, "This is a hobby for most of us; why are we trying to cultivate a brand? Why do we obsess over this?" It's not like I'm selling my AMVs. If I'm pleased with my work, shouldn't that be considered success enough?

Probably, but it's still unpleasant to feel as though you're devolving!

And I probably should have made this a separate post! Most importantly here, I've enjoyed reading your thoughts about editing. As a new editor, it's interesting to see how others approach the hobby and what their experiences are with it. I liked your point about skipping over certain quality-related things because you don't care for them and would rather spend your editing time elsewhere, and I think that's where my ultimate struggle with editing lies. What should I spend time on? When—and where—do I need to stop?

I'm sure I'll always struggle with this; my fear of overdoing it is right in the tags of my first Resolve AMV, I'm hesitant to finish a WIP I've shared because it's performed better on Tumblr than any of my finished videos this year and I'm afraid that I'll totally ruin it, and while I don't think video editing ever exactly becomes unfun for me, there does always seem to be a point, at least lately, where I grow discouraged and hate my work.

(It's kind of funny and kind of sad, looking at Discord messages I send around the completion of a video. They say things like, "I added transitions and think I hate it now," "I was happy with it, but now I'm not so sure," and, "Should I be embarrassed to post this?" But going to bed and looking at it in the morning helps!)

Long ramblings aside, reading through your posts has really been reassuring! Video editing takes time, and my hours aren't all that unusual. That's good to know.

(Though, about the 30 hours versus 60—I mentioned spending over 60 hours on a 30-second video in one of my posts, but I also mentioned spending 30 hours on a 15-second video in the tags for the original post here. I know the 60 hours came from learning a lot of new skills, but the 30 hours is maybe kind of strange because I wasn't utilizing any new skills there, and I even had a good idea of what clips I wanted to use right away. Why that one took as long as it did, I really don't know!)

Originally posted 22 June 2022