Vidding for Newbies [updated 2.16.6]

[permetaform]

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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[Troubleshooting]

When you hit that Brick Wall Of Frustration, start checking these links out:

Foundation Level: General Info

[X] Getting Started
[X] DVD ripping
[X] Cross Platform/Conversion
[X] Sound
[X] Exporting/Compression
[X] Misc Technical issues
[X] Before You Start Vidding...

1st Level: Song Choice

Both sides of the song choice debate.

2nd Level: Technical Vidding Tips

Specific Tips on Effects and General Tips on Vid-making

3rd Level: Vidding that shows deeper

Clip Choice and The Big Picture

Rooftop: Recs and Reviews and Commentary

Recs and Reviews, Specific Vid Commentary, and General Vidder Comments

Flying Leap: Feedback and Critique

On Critique, On Feedback, and on Getting Past Vidding Funk

Neither here nor there: Misc. Vid Meta

People Who Vid, The Funny, and Beyond a Vid

Comments

[imacartwright.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind me commenting here... I found you through your Newbieguide vidding post.

I am looking for any information that is specific to vidding for newbies on a Mac OS X machine. Everything I find so far seems to be just for PC.

If you could point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it!

Thanks! :)

[permetaform]

argh, things are being extremely insane right now, I'm so very sorry for not being on top of this.

some general editing info available at 2-pop.com. In general, what adobe premiere is for Windows, Final Cut Pro is for Mac. I think it was sdwolfpup that had an Insane Vidding Month of December where she taught herself FCP by making a short vid every other day...poke me if it's not her.

what you could do also is to post a question on vidding

and here is an anime vidding guide using iMovie (ie. WMM apple-equivalent):
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/imovieguide/tutorial.html

I hope this helps! ::hugs:: I'll eventually clear out my vidding link folder again, but I don't know when that'll be in the future, I'll shove it up to the top of my to-do list tho!

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

Since I am a Mac vidder: most of what Permataform wrote goes for Mac vidders.

On the technical side, you have 3 software choices: IMovie, Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro. If you've never vidded before start with IMovie and work your way up. Or dive into Final Cut Express.

To rip clips from DVDs, you will first need to decrypt. MacTheRipper and DVDBackup are just a few Mac OSX decrypting software.

To clip or snip clips from the now decrypted DVD files, you can use DVDxDV or MPegStreamClip. The latter is free, but you will need to get Quicktime Pro MPEG-2 codec ($20).

All this software is easily located by googling the names.

And finally there are some good online communities for IMovie and Final Cut Express/Final Cut Pro.

IMovie Tutorials (again do a google search): http://www.atomiclearning.com/imovie2x.shtml

Final Cut Express/Pro:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_homepage_index.html

Good info on Digital Video on Macs: http://listserver.themacintoshguy.com/pipermail/MacDV/

And last, join the vidder mailing list and ask if any of the other Mac vidders can offer some specifc help.

[permetaform]

much belated, but there's also mac_vidding_101 if you're still looking for mac help!

[(Anonymous)]

God this is fantastic. I am so grateful you have taken the time to write all this down, and link to everything that would be helpful to a newbie in vidding. I haven't yet taken those first steps towards making a vid yet, but I have a song in my head that is connected to my fandom and it.won't. go. away until I try and make a vid. So maybe now I will check out what DVD rippers there are to get, and I will read the rest of your posts with interest. I have to say that I am shocked some people out there would rip other people's clips off without taking the time to invest in it themselves. No patience maybe? Either way, its rude! And apologies if I have replied to this in the wrong place - I haven't an LJ (yet) and am completely new to everything :)
Magenta

[permetaform]

Thank you! I'm glad you find this useful! Eventually I'm thinking of writing an even more streamlined version but methinks this will do for now.

Actually, the easiest way to get into vidding is via downloaded source, but with DVD source your vid will be prettier. Welcome Home, my SGA vid, is made from downloaded source, while The Fragile, my 5th Element vid, is made from dvd source from before I had a tech upgrade. It's all perspective, really, there are many ways to go about vidding and it's not all painful. =) poke me if you have more questions, I might not get to them right away because of Real Life, but I'll try to get to them in a timely manner.

[(Anonymous)]

Hey thanks for the speedy response (oops - replying after 'night on the town' - apologies in advance in case of dodgy spelling and gratious hugs!). What do you mean 'downloaded source'? Is that trying to source the clips you want online? I have had a look at your LJ (yup, lurker!) - is there a quick link so I can see Welcome Home and The Fragile so I can see the differences you are outlining? Ahh, thank you for letting me ask questions - I really appreciate it (hic!). Oh dear, far too late in my time zone for me to be answering this! Magenta x

[permetaform]

What do you mean 'downloaded source'? Is that trying to source the clips you want online?

yup!


is there a quick link so I can see Welcome Home and The Fragile so I can see the differences you are outlining?

http://community.livejournal.com/kanzeyori/11150.html

=)

[(Anonymous)]

Oh they are lovely! I like the clips you used in Welcome Home – have never seen this show before but enjoyed the eye blinks to the music and the way you constructed this. The Fragile – great new take on a popular film – I would never have believed the NIN would have suited that but it does so well. They both seem excellent quality whether from downloaded source or dvd source – perhaps The Fragile slightly better quality – as you say – prettier?! Thank you so much, have decided to look into SmartRipper, as don't think I am going to find the clips I want online! Cheers again.
Magenta x

[silversolitaire.livejournal.com]

Hi! I'm trying to read your guide, especially the part about technical tips, but somehow it just links back to the song section! ;_; I'm hoping to find some very basic answers to vidding that I somehow can't find answered anywhere. Thanks for putting together this guide though!

[eireangel-arts.livejournal.com]

Hi! I read your guide and I wanted to thank you, number one. I've made three vids so far, all Firefly fandom, and I'm told that they're really good, for a beginner. I don't know if I agree with that, but then again, we're our own worst critic, right?

Ok, so I want to advance. I was wondering if you could rec me or give me some hints and tips? I want to try experimenting with special effects. Like, which software is better, etc...?

[permetaform]

Well, most of the best effects are made by combining minor effects (like color changes, blur, and composition effects) together creatively. Think of your favorite collages or icons; most of those effects were made with a combination of color, crop/erase, and blur, rather than having a "pastezd on" effect.

So really, all you need is a good video editor and you should have all you need to create some special effects. What I would consider a good video editor is Pinnacle, Ulead, or something like that; a really good video editor would be something like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro. Something that would help with masks in Premiere is Photoshop. Something that would help with composition and combining video pieces is Adobe After Effects (think picture-in-picture effects).

But even without it, some simple types of special effects can be done very easily in iMovie or Windows Movie Maker, I made "Why" for instance in WMM.

[mirrorskippy.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to bother you, but reading through this I thought you might be the most direct way to find an answer (or at least point me in the right direction) to a vidding problem I'm having.

I've got the source (a full length DVD) converted to AVI and put that onto my editing program (I've got WMM and Adobe but I'm using WMM to start with) but the 'clip' is basically the entire movie, and when I tell the program to cut it into more clips it spends 14 minutes doing nothing (It'll tell me its making more clips in those 14 minutes but at the end nothing but the one gigantor movie clip shows up). Did I do something wrong in the conversion process, or is the program just giving me trouble for no good reason?

[permetaform]

hmmm. Well okay, how big is the .avi? it might be too big for it to handle if it's larger than about 2 gig (or less, how much RAM do you have?)

Also, sometimes WMM just don't want to make clips. ::wry grin:: I'm not sure I know the patten to when it wants to make clips and when it doesn't
You might just have to make clips manually...

btw, the best render from WMM is the NTSC DVD option =)

[mirrorskippy.livejournal.com]

The 'clip' is 600mb, and I have *no idea* how much RAM I have, but the laptop is only 4 months old so I should have plenty of space, right?

Yeah the weird thing is it'll make clips of the first 7 minutes, and then nothing for the last *2 hours* of the movie. WMM is so random.

Manually make clips? That sound ominous....

[permetaform]

Manually make clips? That sound ominous....

yup. welcome to the club. the one where we loathe making clips LIKE BURNING. XD

[mirrorskippy.livejournal.com]

Well I figured out the clip making, thanks for listening to my confusion, it was much appreciated XD

welcome to the club.

Yeah, about that - is it too late to get my membership fee back?

[permetaform]

=) no problem. It was something that I scratched my head alot over myself so I sympathize with the frustration. WMM is funny sometimes, decides to do it's own thing...like pee on your rug. =D

[kaytee4ever.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this. A problem with trying to read some of the other linked posts (starting at "[READ before you start vidding]" is that some of the entries are friendslocked. :(

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

Play with the clip and/or edit a short sequence.
This was the best advice ever. I did read before I started and yes, my head was on the verge of exploding. :-) Then I did exactly as you said made my first 30 secs of vid and it was fun and awesome. Later on, I needed the bloody-mindedness. A lot of it. But thanks for the advice for beginning, it helped get me started.