Vid: Right Where I Belong - S4 Spike/Xander
It's been 2 years to the day since I last posted a vid. Now after much huffing and puffing at my computer, learning to use Avisynth, and wracking my brain trying to come up with something for fall_for_sx, it's finally here. Whoo-hoo!
Title: Right Where I Belong
Song/Artist: Right Where I Belong by 3 Doors Down
Summary: My homage to S4 Spander. Xander and Anya may be together right now but Spike showing up changes everything.
Big, big thanks to ash48 for the super quick beta job! You're a gem!
On Vimeo it's password protected. PASSWORD: belong
Low Quality Streaming - no password required
Download Link
My Vid Page
Notes: I wanted to keep things simple for this vid for various reasons. One, my vidding skills are ruuuusty. It's been a very long time since I've produced anything. I had a hell of a time producing my last vid, my program kept crashing and/or forgot where the clips were. The codec I was using made the clips jumpy and stray frames popped out of nowhere. Once I posted the vid, I decided to take a break and figure out what the hell was going on.
Fast forward two years and now I can say.... Avisynth...so worth it! It was tough getting going but once I got into the program the difference in performance was staggering. I've made a huge amount of changes in the last 2 years. Not just with Avisynth but I changed out the computer, and upgraded Vegas as well. Where before I couldn't do anything but vid, now I can hop out of the program to check my LJ and email at the drop of a hat. I'm amazed at the speed of the program now. And the clips are gorgeous. When I make a cut, it's cut there. There are no random clips springing out at me. Not to mention they stay put, no disappearing clips either. (Unless you write over the script, like I did early on. :P)
As for scripts and such, I thought that loading all the clips into one script would be a problem so I cut the amount of clips in half and made two. I didn't need to. Vegas has a great trimmer function and with markers, finding clips in the huge as sin script is a breeze. The downside is the jerky playback. It does take a bit of patience to sit and wait while it loads a preview so I can watch. But we're talking seconds here for short cuts and transitions. And worst comes to worst, there are always bathroom breaks. :D Because I use Dynamic RAM previews, I found that closing the program and reopening sped things back up. Closing and opening went pretty fast so sometimes I did this a couple of times in an hour.
Another reason I wanted to keep things simple was that I'm such an effects whore. Both of my previous vids are nothing but effects and I wanted to prove to myself I could do something straight forward, no flashy effects or long slow-mo emo angst shots. I don't know what was harder? Trying to remember how to function in the vidding program or keeping my paws out of the effects engine. *lol*
There were several times when I needed to turn day into night and I think I might have pulled it off. If I did, you won't even realize the clip has an effect on it. A few of the more flashy effects did slip in but I'm really proud that I proved to myself it's not all about the flashy-flashy. It also served to show me that I'm not really geared for the fast paced, quick cut vids. I like coming from that emo!angsty place. So, though they may be super cool, I don't think I'll ever be doing an action vid. Not anytime soon.
I came up with the idea for a S4 Spander vid cause I needed to do something for fall_for_sx and keeping it within one season would be a great way to start to learn how to use Avisynth. I started rooting around in my husband's music files and this song fit perfectly for the curious but unsure Xander and the needy but bruised Spike. I had years worth of fic to guide the story so that wasn't a problem. The Anya bits had me stumped for quite awhile though and I'm sure a more experience vidder would have blended the two parts seamlessly. Course no vid is perfect and that's this vids weakest point, imo.
For me though, I see this vid as a huge triumph. For almost two years I've been nothing but all talk, talk, talk. I'm sure some of you wondered if I was even doing anything on this side of the screen. *lol* It's so nice to finally produce something again! Yay! Go me! *does happy vid completion dance*
Title: Right Where I Belong
Song/Artist: Right Where I Belong by 3 Doors Down
Summary: My homage to S4 Spander. Xander and Anya may be together right now but Spike showing up changes everything.
Big, big thanks to ash48 for the super quick beta job! You're a gem!
On Vimeo it's password protected. PASSWORD: belong
You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com
Low Quality Streaming - no password required
Download Link
My Vid Page
Notes: I wanted to keep things simple for this vid for various reasons. One, my vidding skills are ruuuusty. It's been a very long time since I've produced anything. I had a hell of a time producing my last vid, my program kept crashing and/or forgot where the clips were. The codec I was using made the clips jumpy and stray frames popped out of nowhere. Once I posted the vid, I decided to take a break and figure out what the hell was going on.
Fast forward two years and now I can say.... Avisynth...so worth it! It was tough getting going but once I got into the program the difference in performance was staggering. I've made a huge amount of changes in the last 2 years. Not just with Avisynth but I changed out the computer, and upgraded Vegas as well. Where before I couldn't do anything but vid, now I can hop out of the program to check my LJ and email at the drop of a hat. I'm amazed at the speed of the program now. And the clips are gorgeous. When I make a cut, it's cut there. There are no random clips springing out at me. Not to mention they stay put, no disappearing clips either. (Unless you write over the script, like I did early on. :P)
As for scripts and such, I thought that loading all the clips into one script would be a problem so I cut the amount of clips in half and made two. I didn't need to. Vegas has a great trimmer function and with markers, finding clips in the huge as sin script is a breeze. The downside is the jerky playback. It does take a bit of patience to sit and wait while it loads a preview so I can watch. But we're talking seconds here for short cuts and transitions. And worst comes to worst, there are always bathroom breaks. :D Because I use Dynamic RAM previews, I found that closing the program and reopening sped things back up. Closing and opening went pretty fast so sometimes I did this a couple of times in an hour.
Another reason I wanted to keep things simple was that I'm such an effects whore. Both of my previous vids are nothing but effects and I wanted to prove to myself I could do something straight forward, no flashy effects or long slow-mo emo angst shots. I don't know what was harder? Trying to remember how to function in the vidding program or keeping my paws out of the effects engine. *lol*
There were several times when I needed to turn day into night and I think I might have pulled it off. If I did, you won't even realize the clip has an effect on it. A few of the more flashy effects did slip in but I'm really proud that I proved to myself it's not all about the flashy-flashy. It also served to show me that I'm not really geared for the fast paced, quick cut vids. I like coming from that emo!angsty place. So, though they may be super cool, I don't think I'll ever be doing an action vid. Not anytime soon.
I came up with the idea for a S4 Spander vid cause I needed to do something for fall_for_sx and keeping it within one season would be a great way to start to learn how to use Avisynth. I started rooting around in my husband's music files and this song fit perfectly for the curious but unsure Xander and the needy but bruised Spike. I had years worth of fic to guide the story so that wasn't a problem. The Anya bits had me stumped for quite awhile though and I'm sure a more experience vidder would have blended the two parts seamlessly. Course no vid is perfect and that's this vids weakest point, imo.
For me though, I see this vid as a huge triumph. For almost two years I've been nothing but all talk, talk, talk. I'm sure some of you wondered if I was even doing anything on this side of the screen. *lol* It's so nice to finally produce something again! Yay! Go me! *does happy vid completion dance*