Big List of Vid Meta [updated Newbie List 2.16.6]

So I slid into vidding, groped a bit in the dark, slammed into a few walls, and eventually found my way into various info, tutorials, and meta. It would be a waste, I thought, not to organize the suckers. The following is a list of vidding thoughts and discussions that've occured on LJ with a couple of random website links, at the very bottom section there's a link that'll take you to a list with vidding communities.

If you're new at vidding, I would recommend you read through these links with caution, there's SO much information here that if you read *everything* it's probably just gonna make your head all swirly and *EXPLODE*.

Instead, check out the more user-friendly
Vidding For Newbies
...and only when you run into trouble, start looking at the rest of these links. ::hugs newbies:: Vidding is only as hard as you make it to be!

(ps. All those details of codecs and framerates and aspect ratios and etc?...well, that you're going to run into any where. You are *going* to run into those types of problems, it's not a matter of "if" but "when". Don't stress out about it at first. Make vids, have fun, learn as you go.)

( Onto the List! )

Vidding for Newbies [updated 2.16.6]

Okay first?

Take a deep breath.

Don't Panic.

- a DVD dad 'ripper' (like SmartRipper)
- a program that converts .vob to .avi, or that otherwise makes video 'clips' (like DVD2AVI)
- a clip 'editor' program (like Premiere and/or Windows Media Maker and/or Final Cut Pro)

is *all* you need to make a vid from a DVD.

That, and a song, an idea, and a good bit of bloody mindedness.

Next?

1) Get a random .avi file from somewhere. (Doesn't matter, outtakes or something you've downloaded.) Get a song.
2) Open up your editor.
3) Play with the clip and/or edit a short sequence.

DO THIS FIRST! Reading too much Vid Meta before you run into problems is just gonna make your head EXPLODE.

_{I'm not shitting your about this. Do not make me start talking about inverse telecine decimate and non-square pixels at you...}

(ps. Don't stress out about all those details of codecs and framerates and aspect ratios right now. You are *going* to run into those types of problems, it's not a matter of "if" but "when", but right *now*? Don't worry about it. Make vids, have fun, learn as you go.)

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[READ before you start vidding]
No, seriously. READ THESE. ::stands there with a pitchfork::

What is Clip Theft and why you just shouldn't do it, and also further post on clip theft.

Random things learned from vidding that's good to know before one dives in, and meanwhile some common misconceptions about vidding 'rules' (ie. "It's perfectly okay to disagree with some Vid Meta, just have a *reason*").

Some with newbie advice from the school of tough love, or as I like to call it 'Ya Need to Develop your Inner Snape', and sisabet's So You Want to Be a Vidder: Five Not So Easy Steps.

[Regarding Song Choice]
ie. all songs *can* be vidded, but not all songs/subjects are easily viddable at every skill level...

on Song Choice and Song-with-Fandom choice

Why the Average Pop Song makes a boring vid.

BUT! a reply in argument to this about vidding popular music and songs vidded multiple times and how Popular is not necessarily a dirty word.

Read this page on editing so your music is shorter. Trust me, ya wanna cut your music. It WILL make your vid better.

[Technical Info for Getting Started]
Read the following websites ONLY UNTIL YOU CAN GET STARTED. (if you read more than that your head's gonna explode)

Check out Vidding 101

A&E's Technical Guides to All Things Audio and Video, it's very long and very very comprehensive. Again, DON'T PANIC. Read until you know how to get started, refer back repeatedly when you get in a rut.

Vidding on a computer and Vidding on analog, the technical stuff is rather scary but again, DON'T PANIC.

Still stuck? Try the Troubleshooting links below...

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Vidder Comments

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[Specific Vid Commentary]
- laurashapiro comments Some Fantastic, Rook, Wonder of Birds.
- sineala has various outlines, vid planning, and commentary in her memories
- heres_luck talks about Glorious #1, Come On, and Superstar, Atropine, about Superstar's structure and thematics and Superstar's motion and timing.
- sisabet comments on Closer and Without Me.
- sockkpuppett answers questions about her vids, The Other Side, Rebel Yell and Nightmares, So Real.
- renenet gives a So Real vid analysis

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[General Comments As A Vidder]
- laurashapiro comments on Vividcon season
- valarltd writes about her creative process
- f1renze compiles vidding thoughts
- sockkpuppett's vidding commentary in general
- sithdragn answers general questions
- absolu3destiny posts on Teething problems and compares vidding live action to vidding anime. Further "vidding" vs "amv-ing" musings
- linzeems answers general questions on vidding, posts a Talk about vid talk and my user info.
- lierdumoa on two-sided vidding motivations, and vidding as meta
- heres_luck has general comments on vidding and answers questions about her vids
- sisabet, goes over her creative process, answers random vidding questions, and more random vidding questions, and answers yet more questions about her vids

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Vid Recs and Reviews

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Things of note: different people find/focus/review different things in a vid, what works for one person doesn't for another. Take everything with a grain of salt.

poison_pagan is a journal of vid reviews

recs by elefwin

So Real vid analysis by renenet (vid by lum)

vid recs by hesychasm

"You Know He's Gonna Be" recced by rashaka

Memories from VividCon 2004

castalianspring recs aLOT of vids

destina reviews Vividcon vids

elynross recs a DS vid, an AtS vid, and crowie

eruthros recs comedy vids, rare fandoms, sex vids.

heres_luck recs lots of vids

hesychasm's reviews, specific review of beatitudes.

imation23 raves about her favorite vids and why.

katie_m recs a LOT

kwaldo12 reviews the Media West 2004 Gen Vid Show.

ladysorka recs vids

laurashapiro reviews Don't Fight In The Snow", and posts her review on VividCon vids

linzeems reviews her favorite vids, reviews of Paradise.

lithium_doll's recs

morgandawn recs vids.

pipsqueaky reviews some vids

sisabet pimps vids and tells you why

sockkpuppett points out her favorites and why, raves about Seah&Margie's storycreation

untrue_accounts reviews 'Posession' (YnM) at great length

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Flying Leap: Feedback and Critique

Critique hurts, always; get over it, learn from it, get better. Self-critique usually hurts the most, and usually transmutes into a vidding funk; but there are ways to get past it...

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[On Critique]
- vidding and betaing and the reception of critique.
- on critique and the issue of 'quality' and how giving good critique requires giving good praise (has various noteworthy links).
- reasonable vs. unreasonable critique.

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[Feedback]
- One new vid-feedbacker's highly detailed results from giving vid fb
- how to give vid feedback as well as overcoming bad feedback habits.
- how to give feedback for vids (with good comments)
- Vid Rec'ing and Feedback
- Adventures in vidding: The audience's tale
- Vidding on the fringes (the macro-fandom v. micro-fandom discussion)
- On Vidding And Connecting With Your Audience

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[When the Self-Criticism Gets Too Much]
- how to get past a vidding funk
- more on getting past vidding funk
- learning to use what you already know (aka. even more on getting past vidding funk)
- links to several people's vidding funk and notes how she's getting past her's

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Neither here nor there: Misc. Vid Stuff

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Below are the general question/answer sessions and meta and rambling about vidding itself as a whole, as an act, as an experience.

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[Collections of People Who Vid]

- vidding: live action vidding discussion and announcements
- vidder_weekly: weekly newsletter of vidding fandom
- ink_vids: anime vidding discussion and announcements
- amv: anime vidding announcements
- vividcon: the annual vidding convention in Chicago.
- mac_vidding_101: for mac vidding help
- the_reel: for vid-recs reviews
- vidding_archive: for an archived list of vids available online
- vidder@yahoogroup
- upcoming conventions with Vid shows
- AnimeMusicVideos.org, gigantic anime vid repository and forum.

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[The Funny]
- Don't miss the hilarious Life Cycle of the Vid and Vidder
- The Problem With Vidders
- Catagorizations of vidders .
- Scenes from a beta-relationship
- Possible Vid of Vividcon

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Anime Vids vs. Live Action Vids
- Anime vids compared to Non-Anime vids
- anime vids v. live action vids (internal motion and accessible vidding)
- absolu3destiny posts on Teething problems and compares vidding live action to vidding anime. Further "vidding" vs "amv-ing" musings

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[Beyond A Vid]
- There's comments towards the middle of the post how vids and vidding have changed in 4 years.
- vidding as a career
- heres_luck posts on types of vids, the learning curve, changing from fandom-vidding to being-a-vidder, her history/arc/learning as a vidder, and Rambles about remastering, answers questions about her vids
- sisabet answers questions about her vids, Remastering Without Me
- heres_luck
- linzeems posts a Talk about vid talk and my user info.
- lierdumoa on two-sided vidding motivations, and vidding as meta

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3rd Level: Vidding that shows deeper

Telling a story about the story through limited media and limited time is completely, utterly, possible...

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[Vidding Technique]
- Language of Vidding
- Creating Mood Panel from VividCon
- clipping and rhythm in vidding
- Aesthetics: Movement

[Clip Choice]
- the issues with overused clips and how to get past it
- the problem of vid cliches.
- the literal and the metaphorical (with interesting comments in reply)

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[The Big Picture]
- POV in vids and making progress as a viewer.
- Connecting with the Audience
- music vid existentialism
- vidding as storytelling...or not
- narrative in a vidding context.
- on the creation and use of subtext in vid.
- Limitations On The Creative Vidding Process
- It's a Metaphor - Subtle
- How To Make a Gut-Wrenching Video In Five Easy Steps or Less...

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Rooftop: Recs and Reviews and Commentary

I find it helpful to read other people's thoughts on vids and recs on vids, paying attention to WHY certain vids worked or was liked...

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_{[as this could get long, I've divided this into two pages]}

[Vid Recs and Reviews]
Explanations of why vids worked, or didn't.

[Vidder Comments]
Specific vid commentary and general comments on vidding by the vidders themselves.

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2nd Level: Technical Vidding Tips

Learning this stuff is all in how much of a perfectionist you're willing to be...

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[Specific]
- Read the Principles of Audio in Vidding, I cannot recommend these tips enough, the tips start in the middle of the page and dammit, I need to quote this part...

The basic principles of matching audio and visuals are pretty simple... it's just that lots of people don't pay enough attention to their audio. Once you actually start really listening to the song it all falls into place.

...'cause hell yes.
- Something Vid-like This Way Comes: Internal Motion
- What the Hell are Keyframes and How To Use Them
- Tutorials by lithium_doll
- Vid Tutorial 10: Colour And Movement by lithium_doll
- the crop tool and other methods of clip control (in comments)
- how to create a dreamy look in Premiere
- solarize and number of frames needed for visual recognition
- vidding motion in the Spiderman2 trailer
- Quick Guide to Masks, Mattes, and Keying

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[General]
- sisabet's things learned while vidding
- When/How to use special effects
- sockkpuppett lists things learned from vidding and things learned from each vid.
- Discussion on the vidding process.
- sisabet answers questions about her vids
- heres_luck answers questions about her vids

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1st Level: Song Choice

ie. all songs *can* be vidded, but not all songs/subjects are easily viddable at every skill level...

- on Song Choice and Song-with-Fandom choice

- Why the Average Pop Song makes a boring vid.

- BUT! Popular is not necessarily a dirty word. and on vidding popular music and songs vidded multiple times.

- Read this page on editing so your music is shorter. Trust me, ya wanna cut your music. It WILL make your vid better.

[back to index]

Basement Level: General Info

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SmartRipper, DVD2AVI, Premiere and/or Windows Media Maker (plus the proper codecs for compression) is *all* you need to make a vid from a DVD. That, and a song, an idea, and a bit of bloody mindedness.

( Read more... )

[General Technical Info, from Getting Started all the way to End Product]
This set of guides are really long and comprehensive. BUT DON'T PANIC! Read them slowly, take breaks to practice, and refer back repeatedly when you get in a rut.
- Vidding 101
- Guide to Easy Songvidding
- Vidding on a computer and Vidding on analog, the technical stuff is rather scary but DON'T PANIC. It's managable.
- A&E's Technical Guides to All Things Audio and Video, has been renewed and revised and it's very long and very very comprehensive.


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[DVD RIPPING issues]
- Vidding from a DVD and advises one avoids Pinnacle if you're looking for a capture card.
- This site gives a step-by-step to DVD ripping with links to the appropriate programs. I found the last four progams to be unnecessary, all I used is DVD2AVI (which takes up very little space and is fairly low tech). However, you won't get sound without major fiddling that I didn't bother to figure out and the bigger files may be a bit annoying with DVD2AVI.
- ripping on a Mac, various answers in the comments
- a GOOD, EASY guide to using GordianKnot for ripping to DivX
- useful vidding/ripping information.
- Virtual Dub and encoding
- that Multipass 1stPass/NthPass thing for Divx explained.
- astolat's lists her hardware setup
- Splitting source using Virtual Dub
- DVD ripping/conversion question (answers in the comments)


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[CROSS-PLATFORM/CONVERSION issues]
- Viewing wmv files on Mac's
- Converting .wmv to .rm.
- Converting a bunch of realplayer files to either avi, wmv, or mpeg
- What are your reccomendations for programs to convert avi to mpeg? (answers in comments)
- Converting .ogg to .avi


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[SOUND issues]
- resolving sound issues in WMM
- Not that it's one hundred percent necessary in vidding, but if you're going to be mixing/altering songs, you'd probably would want what rahalia_cat explains as Exact Audio Copy, which removes all the random clicks and buzzes.


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[EXPORTING issues]
- How to compress vids on WMM
- working through Premiere's encoding issues (the original problem can be found here)
- getting past exporting problems in Premiere
- Virtual Dub and encoding
- authoring DVDs
- putting vids into MPEG-2 format
- Virtual Dub encoding, aspect ratio problems
- Adobe Premiere "encounters a problem" on rendering a vid


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[Miscellanious issues]
- how to Create a Watermark
- how to remove the DivX watermark
- how to get rid of video hitches when you flip horitzontally in iMovie on OS9
- the project trimmer in Premiere...
- Info on MPEG-4
Quickie explaination of avisynth and it's implications


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[Before you start vidding...]
- What is Clip Theft and why you just shouldn't do it
- further post on clip theft
- Random things learned from vidding that's good to know before one dives in.
- some common misconceptions about vidding 'rules'.
- with newbie advice from the school of tough love, or as I like to call it 'Ya Need to Develop your Inner Snape'


[back to index]