OTAKUGRAYS OFFICAL GUIDE TO FLOW AND VISUAL APPEAL

Note: THIS IS NOT FACT. THIS IS ALL THEORY. IF YOU DONT AGREE THEN WRITE UR OWN DAMN GUIDE.

So your going to make an amv but you want people to enjoy it. You want that lovely flow that everyone has...

but how do THEY DO IT SO WELL? D:

Well first lets start at the beginning.

One of the best editors out there right now is Nostromo.

Nostromo believes that visual appeal is the key element in an AMV. He thinks that it doesnt matter if the anime matches the song...the important part of the editing is if its visually exciting.

So you use a lot of colors? You make it look cool?

Well not exactly....

AMVs consist of three parts...

The ANIME

The MUSIC

The VIDEO

Now im sure ur like OH WELL THATS OBVIOUS but think about how these elements interact.

If one is getting more attention it changes the AMV.

More Anime = MORE EFFECTS WOO LETS USE A LOT OF COLORS AND FLASHES AND MASKS WEEE

More Music = OMG TIMING ALL CUTS SOME FADES HERE AND THERE YEAH LOTS OF BEATS ARE BEING HIT WOO

More Video = OMG QUALITY IS BEAUTIFUL ITS SO CRISP AND CLEAR! LOTS OF GREAT SCENE SELECTION!


Each one plays an important factor in editing.

Here is an example of the difference between each.

MORE ANIME



MORE MUSIC



MORE VIDEO



Now as we all know, none of these are better than the other. One is focused on timing and does it very well. One is focusing on effects and does it very well. One is based around scene selection and does it very well. None of them are better or worse than the other.

Which did you think had more effort involved?

Which one looked like it was more appealing and you might watch it more than once?

Think of it as a balancing act.



If you have too many effects and mask and overdo it...

Then ur balance will tilt and the flow will require you to balance it out.

Now if the song you use calls for that kind of editing then for all you know, it might not tilt the scale too much and itll work just fine. Usually techno and other electronic songs work well with a lot of emphasis on the anime category.

It works the same for music as well. If you dont have any effects and you do full on raw editing...it can take away the interest and people may wanna turn away from it.

Another trick to that scale is that the video quality is changed depending on how you balance the scale.

If you use too many effects...the original video quality can be completely hidden and the visual appeal is screwed up.

If you use too much raw the visual appeal is there but there isnt any complete interest. Your viewers will become bored.


So how do you go about making that balance straighten out and become a appealing anime music video?

Simple. Practice. :3

If you think you have too many effects and its screwing up the amv...then switch to raw. If raw is getting boring...switch to effects.


Now FOR THE ANNOYING PART.

What that wasnt the hard part? D:

NOPE. The hard part is transition from effects to raw and back again.



Theres two kinds of cuts.

A HARD CUT



A SOFT CUT



Soft cuts are good for effects to raw and are best used for emotional editing. They should not fade to black unless the song stops playing.

Hard cuts are good for raw editing and hitting beats. They should not be used before or after a fade because the balance will be shifted too fast for the viewer to keep up.

This is a video that is perfectly balanced in both effects and raw.



The reason this amv is good is because it matches the beats but keeps that visual appeal. Its balanced and because of this balance, your eye is pleased.

This is Nostromo's visual appeal at its best.

This concludes my overly gigantic bandwidth eating tutorial XD

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or Just reply to the topic.
If you hate this tutorial...feel free to flame me as much as you want. I'll just ignore you or laugh my ass off.

nice tut dude ima try using more effects now

Funny thing is I use soft cuts for almost all my fades, even for action vids haha

i think it couldnt hurt to plan your vid out before you start it :0 that could really help

To me their has to smooth transition for flow.... My flow is kind of flow mixed with sync. Every transition form scene to scene has to be smooth to keep the flow present, unless of course their is like a drum roll or something similar that I want to hit.... and usually to make those really pop out, I use hard cuts. And my sync comes form the fight scenes, every punch, kick, hit has to be matched with a beat, as well as improvising with flashes here and there haha.

It kinda happens at random for me to be perfectly honest haha, but if I had to explain it, I guess you listen to the song, and what overall mood you want to set. Then from there you determine your pacing.

Pacing is a big aspect of flow in my editing. You mess up the pacing, and flow goes right along with it. take my last vid for example



Now the pace in this vid changes in accordance to the song as necessary but overall the pace stays then same once the song really kicks in. If I were to start off in the pace with the slow portion then yeah my flow is trash haha.

But to get pacing you gotta really understand the song your working with especially for slow songs. Listen for the progression of a certain part of the song... are there any notes that stick out to you? The first few scenes of my Saiyan Stray video kind of show this. I let one scene go for half of one of the progressions of that section, the second half of it I split into two again because a few of the notes stuck out to me, I tend to do this kind of subconsciously now but you get the idea.

Listen to your song, determine the pacing that will make your video look good. Then make sure your scenes transition is smooth to make your vid flow seamlessly from start to finish...

And this is me trying to explain my editing out of my ass lol, I never thought about it before.

lol, i try to use effects, but im absolute garbage at it and cant think of any cool looking original effects

ill try it, ive actually only done one rip, and it was a rip of shaman lol i just didnt post it

thats good...i never post the rips i do.

I DO 8D

I have no clue what you guys are talking about as far as hard and soft cuts go. My new years resolution will be to obtain and learn how to use Vegas


Good read though Otaku. It was really well thought out