Vidding discussion

Title: Mickey
Artist: Toni Basil
Vidder: bunniqula
Fandom: Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (Hana Kimi, live action)
Pairings: Nakatsu/Mizuki, Sano/Nakatsu
Link: [20.3megs, 624x352 DivX] or [58.9megs, 704x396 XviD] or [YouTube]
Summary: Sometimes, the boy doesn't get the girl dressed as a boy; sometimes, he gets the boy dressed as a girl.

Notes: The version shown at VividCon's Premieres vidshow is somewhat different from the online file. I was *exhausted* and rushing to meet the submission deadline to test audio format. This file has several changes from the one shown at VVC, for better or worse. Since I was tired but also had familiarity with the clips, my awareness of each clip's length was odd as I tried to estimate appropriate time to both read the subtitles and see the scenes. Thanks to the SARS team for the translation, which this vid includes their encoded hardsubs for certain scenes. I do welcome vid critique over the internet. I *definitely* would welcome a beta for any additional revisions. A special thank you to talitha78, who figuratively 'held my hand' during Premieres and also didn't say 'want some cheese' with that whine, afterwards. {g} Even with my disappointment over not resolving the audio, so far, I'm having a wonderful time at Vividcon! I've got awesome roommates and folk have been really nice.

( After Effects video effect ) Also, part of why I ran out of time to meet VVC's deadline was from watching Toni Basil's Mickey video, and I got curious about the outline effect seen in the video's intro and end. Hana Kimi's choice of colors and lighting felt 'retro' to me, and I wanted to tap into that 80s vibe. Over the years, I rarely use Adobe After Effects for video editing, but I did experiment and found a similar outline effect... which I ended up not using this effect at all. I may or may not use the effect for another project, but for those that may want to tinker with the effect, I've got the instructions in my journal. I was using After Effects 7, but the CS versions should also be able to do the same thing. It's possible AE, under the new CS5, may be able to do this better, I don't know.

It's probably best to experiment around and adjust Levels/contrast in each clip to smooth out texture. Some clips manage to look acceptable without vid prep, while others look like the characters have some sort of flesh-eating virus. Less action in video is preferred. This effect can be combined with others such as mattes, etc.

( test image ) This is a small sample image from a video frame (left pane is before filters and right pane is after filters). I've read AMV.org's forum, one of its tutorials, specked out Scintilla's Guide to Avisynth Filters, and read the settings/help text included with some filters, and wooboy, it's very possible I've completely missed various film filters because I use newer live-action source, thus, only use a few filters... but *damn*, I've got my face almost smooshed up against the monitor screen, and I'm not seeing what others are seeing. While the animated footage had some 'noise' going on, other vidders want their source very 'crispy'. Then again, my eyesight is *bad*. I'm linking to a couple fullscreen captures using beforeafterline and AvsP, suggestions on improving the video and/or script would be welcome and appreciated, otherwise, I'm rolling with what I've got:
( clip details )

Also, for those that may want to legally try Sony Vegas Pro, B&H has Sony Vegas Pro 8 OEM (disc only and does not include the DVD burning software, DVD Architect) for $129.95, not including tax if applicable or shipping. Since B&H is an authorized Sony reseller in NY and there are some comments about v9 possibly releasing soon, you do get a free upgrade within 30days of purchase. This info may or may not be of interest to some since a new, unopened box version with both Vegas Pro 8 and DVD Architect can run between ~$400-$550 from retailers.