Tuesday, December 18, 2007

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(Copy the following links in your browser's URL bar)

How to make videos:
http://blackdragonthegreat-tutorials.blogspot.com

Useful sources for video clips, movies, programs, music, etc...:
http://blackdragonthegreat-usefulsources.blogspot.com

About me (blackdragonthegreat):
http://blackdragonthegreat-history.blogspot.com

My videos:
http://blackdragonthegreat-videos.blogspot.com

By: blackdragonthegreat

Monday, December 17, 2007

Sunday, October 14, 2007

List of very useful programs and sources

I had to surf half web to find all this stuff!!!! You can't imagine how much time I spent looking for good alternatives and complementary softwares to the classic windows movie maker and the old emule, so have a look because it could really be helpful for you =)


Clips found at:
- www.ultimatedbz.com
- www.anidown.com
- www.dragonballarena.net

Other useful websites:
- www.mininova.org
- www.isohunt.com
- www.rapidshare.com
- www.megaupload.com
- www.media-convert.com

Useful websites related to video broadcasting ( IF you hate restrictions ):
- www.xanga.com
- www.motiono.com
- www.ifilm.com
- www.gametrailers.com
- www.clipser.com

Useful P2P sources:
- limewire
- frostwire
- emule
- edonkey
- iMesh
- utorrent

Useful programs related to video editing:
- sony vegas 7.0
- magix video edit pro 12
- adobe premiere / adobe premiere pro
- adobe premiere elements 3.0
- virtual dub 1.3
- cinema 4D release 9
- easy media creator 9 suite
- avid free DV
- windows movie maker ( 2 or 2.6 or 6.0)
- quicktime pro
- Pinnacle Studio 10 Plus
- DivX author
- Pinnacle Studio 10 media suite
- MediaOne
- VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2
- TMPGEnc
- Final Cut ( only for mac)
- QuickEditor
- MainActor

Useful programs related to video converting:
- boilsoft RM converter
- Im TOO 3GP converter ( recommended)
- total video converter
- virtual dub
- quicktime pro
- WinAvi video converter 8.0
- DivX author
- free iPod video converter
- AVS video converter
- VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2
- TMPGEnc
- www.media-convert.com (online converter)
- vixy.net (online converter)

You can get sony vegas 7.0 from here:
- www.mininova.org
- www.isohunt.com
- http://www.megaupload.com/?d=S W1GLHJ8

You can get adobe premiere pro 7.0 from here:
- www.mininova.org
- www.isohunt.com
- http://www.megaupload.com/it/? d=4T8UZPSS

Making AMVs tutorial ( windows movie maker)

This is a tutorial I wrote long time ago to help my friend Dannyrocksass, and later on I used it again to help another friend, Yabourtle and other people; these days I've been thinking about posting it here as a tutorial for all those who want to start amv editing with windows movie maker, so here comes!!!

ps: sorry if it's a bit confidential, but remember that when I wrote it I was referring to my friends!

pps: if something is not clear to you don't be shy and write me, I'll gladly try to help you!

Note: if you write PLEASE do it on youtube because I never check my emails except for that one, which I check daily.

First download .avi or .mpg clips; then open your windows movie maker. On the left there should be some blue movie tasks right? Click on "import video" and select your clips to open them on wmm; now if you have vista's movie maker you'll be done immediately, but if you have xp's mm you'll have to wait until it's done creating clips. ( if you have vista you can either create them manually by spitting them by yourself or automatically by selecting "create clips" but I don't suggest it).

Now that you have your clips ready, import the music in the same way and you can start working on your video!!! Add a title or a logo with your name so that if your amv is stolen the thief won't be able to say that he made it ( it worked out many times for me and other people). Set the audio levels ( tools> audio levels) and choose if you want to view a storyboard or a timeline ( I prefer the second one because you can see all the things you're putting in while with the first one you can only see the clips), then place the song into the " music " timeline.

Ok now start splitting those clips with that little icon under the video's preview and get a bit of that part and that part ( the useful oned though!), and then put them into the " video" timeline; you can add transitions and effects and titles by clicking on the movie tasks' options or by clicking the right mouse's botton or how is it called. Once you're done click on " save to my computer".

Now I'll give you some tips that you'll find useful when you'll be working on your video:

- listen to the hard beats and when they come add a clip featuring a hard blow ( ex. goku punching frieza's stomach);

- when you publish your video don't be shy and always choose the minimal compression: for example, if you can choose the video's final size between 23 MB and 95 MB choose 95 ( be careful not to go over 100 MB otherwise youtube will not acept it; oh also, if the maximum size is 107 select it because the final thing will be always a little bit smaller than what is said);

- save every 5 minutes and before doing big changes ( if the thing is radical you'd better save another project file);

- don't delete projects because maybe some day you'll have to re-work through it;

- start with small things ( like one episode) and do a first try, play around with effects, try transitions, etc and after 2-3 times you can start with bigger things... I mean, keep improving the difficulty of your videos each time;

- there are many types of amvs: tributes, lyrics-based, lip-synch based, trailers, etc...

Good luck =)

My AMV- editing life in numbers and colons

The first amvs I saw, which inspired me ( in order):

1) ace9010's gohan vs cell- one step closer
2)IDK who's goku vs broly- bring me to life
3) IDK who's the fall of a tyrant ( goku vs frieza- requiem for a tower)

About my amv-editing life:

Date I've started making amvs:

25/04/07 ( April 25, 2007)

- Total amvs done since that date: 114
- Total amvs uploaded onto youtube: 114
- Total amvs uploaded onto other websites: 14
- Total amvs online: 114/114
- Number of finished AMVs to upload: 0

- DBZero member since: May 10, 2007.
- Dragon Kings' founder and leader since: May 10, 2007.
- Italian AMV Corporation's founder and president since: September 28, 2007.
- First very popular video: Goku vs cooler- in the end; uploaded on May 2, 2007.
- Most popular video: Goku ssj3 vs kid buu; uploaded on May 5, 2007; being my most popular video since August 20, 2007.
- 10'000 channel views: September 21, 2007.
- 100 AMVs on: November 18, 2007.

- First youtube friend: TheEclipseProduction
- First Subscriber: Cornflakedmc
- First video: Gohan vs Cell- Metallica; uploaded on April 25, 2007
- The person who tought me something about amv-editing: TheEclipseProduction
- Favourite editors: all those guys who try their best when making amvs and just make them for fun.
- My fan #1: 387
- Program I used the first time: windows movie maker 6.0

Program I use now:

- Sony Vegas 7: main editing
- VirtualDub 1.77: compressing final amvs
- ImTOO 3GP video converter: converting clips
- Windows Movie Maker: titles and credits
- Adobe Premiere Pro CS3: quality videos
- Adobe Premiere Pro 2: just in case
- Adobe After Effects 7: apply super effects
- Adobe Photoshop: titles
- Adobe Premiere Elements 3: medium editing
- Adobe Premiere 6.5: collection
- Adobe Premiere Pro 1 & 1.5: collection
- Sony Vegas 8: h264 editing
- Audacity: music changes ( speed up, etc...)
- DVD decrypter: copying DVDs' content to HD
- DVD2AVI: converting .dv2d to .avi
- VirtualDubMod: compressing clips
- Magix: collection

About my AMV-editing life

Now I'm going to explain how and why I've started amv-editing. Perhamps it's not as important as what Napoleon did during his life, but at least it's interesting to know how other editors have started.

In November 2006, while I was looking for some cool videos to download from google video, I decided to look for a gohan vs cell episode; while surfing on all the results google showed me, I saw something strange called " gohan vs cell- one step closer" hosted on the website xanga. I got very curious so I watched: it was a very nice AMV done by one guy who later I would casually find on youtube, ACE9010; that AMV impressed me a lot, too bad I couldn't download it, so I looked for a broly vs goku one on the P2P net emule, because until then I had never seen that battle. After searching for a while I found one and I downloaded it: the song was one of my favourites, "bring me to life", and the video, now hosted on youtube, was simply awesome.
Seeing that I could find Dragon Ball videos online, I started downloading everything that was available on google video, and later on from youtube; although I used to watch amvs, I never thought about making one myself, so for some months I just kept watching them.
Later on, during the Easter holidays, I decided to look for dragon ball episodes: searching on google I found many websites but most of them were not free so I spent sometime searching; also, I just wanted to watch the episodes because I had missed some of the most important ones all the times I saw dragon ball and recorded it into VHS! After some time I found some cool websites and I started downloading the DBZ ones, starting with the kid buu saga, which was the one I missed the most in VHS: the episodes were hosted in the RM format, which offers good video and audio quality and, what's most important, occupies a lot less space than the AVI format. I spent many days downloading and watching, until one day, I saw again one of the best dragon ball amvs ever, the " The Fall Of A Tyrant" ( goku vs frieza) one, and I got the idea of making one amv of my own, so I opened windows movie maker and tried to import the RM episodes: you can't imagine how disappointed I got when I saw I couldn't do that!!!! But I really wanted to make my amv, therefore I looked for a video converter; at first I couldn't find the right one because all of them were to pay for and very few could convert RM files into wmm suitable formats, so I spent countless hours downloading and trying video converters for nothing... but then I saw the boilsoft RM converter and I downloaded the trial version. At first it behaved like all the other converters, but one tuesday, on April 24, for some strange reason ( perhamps a virus), it started converting the whole video without writing the hated " Unregistered Version" thingy!!! Man, I must say, I'd been very very lucky indeed: the virus corrupted the installation, so the converter behaved as if it was the Full Version!
Helped by luck, I converted the first episodes into the MPEG-1 format, and so I the day after I managed to do my first AMV: Gohan vs Cell- Metallica! I uploaded immediately after finishing it into an account I had created 1 month earlier, the Blackdragonthegreat one, and asked one youtube friend, TheEclipseproduction, to give me some feedback about it. He thought me how to split clips and the day after I made the reviewed version, which was, in my opinion, an incredible step forward in terms of synch and clips' choice.
I kept on making similar videos in terms of style ( effects, songs, etc...) and I improved a bit but not dramatically; one day ( wednesday) I made a goku vs cooler video with the song "in the end" by linkin park before going to karate, and the morning, before going to school I checked how it was going and noticed that it had scored more than 250 views in less than one day!
That made me feel more confident about my videos, so I continued making videos; on May 5, I had to go to the Italy Open ( Tennis championship), and because before going to it I was bored, I made a goku vs kid buu video with the song " Requiem for a tower", and when I came back from it I made a goku vs baby video with the song " In the end". The following morning, this one had scored 620 views, and the goku vs kid buu one had scored something like 300 views ( later on, the kid buu one would become my most viewed video, surpassing the other one by a lot of views, but this in the month of August).
On May 10, I got invited by busterbob143 to join the DBZero production: at the time he had one of his videos, goku vs cell- scatman, being watched by more than 10000 people per day, so being invited by him to join his group was a great honour for me, and I'll never stop thanking him for this ( right now I've been upgraded from normal to senior member together with ACE9010). The same day, I created a group for people who liked DBZ/GT very much, the Dragon Kings and started inviting more people to be my friends... Also, on September 28th I've founded the Italian AMV Corporation with the help of an italian friend, DarioUltrasNapoli, and I've been joining many awesome groups as well.
And so I continued making AMVs, until now. Another thing I improved since then is the quality of my videos: one day I saw the difference between a clip I had downloaded from Dragon Ball Arena and one of my recent AMVs, and I noticed how this one was better in terms of colour and aspect ratio and pixelation, so I started using these ones from then on ( September). Also, I've found out some useful programs which some beginners could find useful, such as sony vegas, virtual dub limewire, some websites, etc... I'll be hoting a list of these in another post, don't worry; as for myself, I prefer using sony vegas.

First things first...

My name is Carlo Edoardo Capponi, I'm from Italy and I was born in 1993. In this site I'm not going to talk about my ordinary life; instead, I'm going to write about my AMV editing life and I'll post all my videos here.
As you can see, all my videos are about dragon ball ( except for a sailor moon one I made for a fan ); they show a single or multiple fights at once, and instead of their original audio, I've put in a song: this kind of videos are called AMV ( anime music videos), and they're made by millions of fans around the world. Most of these people don't have absolutely anything to do with professional video editing ( cinema, etc...), but they do it as a tribute to their favourite animes, and excluding some rare cases, none of them are paid for what they do.
As for myself, I make these videos for fun during my free time: once I've finished them, I upload them onto youtube to show the world my hard work, and so I get opinions and tips from all kind of editors on how can I improve, which is the best choice of clips for a certain video, what song can go better with these, etc...
My goal is to entertain the biggest number of people I can and show them what I, blackdragonthegreat, am made of when it comes to video editing!!!!