![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
extrapenguinVexercises round-up post
The 2022 round of![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
vexercises – an annual intro to vidding bash that also attracts a bunch of more experienced people looking to try out something new, either in source, software, or technique – just came to a close! I completed each of the 7 rounds, and figured out I might as well make a final post on the matter, explaining my stuff!
Or, use 6-second cuts from your source (which may have internal cuts) and set the same vid to two pieces of music.
On AO3: Open up the Gates | High and Low
This is the one I originally vidded it to. I had a bunch of SWTOR source I wanted to use somehow, most recently the Jedi Consular, which ended up being my favorite story, so I went and searched for a music that would fit the vibes. The Wind That Shapes the Land by Unleash the Archers ended up being a very good match, so I went and clipped chapter 1 of the source to that and ended up with something I quite like.
I generally select the new audio for the pechakuchas by playing the video on my computer so its audio goes to my headphones, which I am not wearing, and putting my phone's music library on shuffle. I first considered a contrasting song (like I did for the 2020 ones: ver 1, ver 2) but couldn't find one where the vibes fit at all. Then Hunting High and Low by Stratovarius came on and it, being in major key, fit the contrast bit, and the hunting fits at least somewhat with the Consular's story, what with Qyzen considering you the Scorekeeper's Herald.
Or, make the motion from one clip continue to the next.
This one I had a bit of an issue with, as there's ... not that much motion in the average SWTOR base game cutscene, and I'd decided to restrict myself to the Tython footage, which compounded the issue. I tried with various matches, produced a thoroughly boring vid with very little motion matching in it, and slapped a charcoal filter on it + the original atop on Screen blend mode that rescued it a surprising amount. The music is Infected Monarchy by Ad Infinitum.
Or, cut on the beat. Or exactly between the beats.
On AO3: Leave This Place Alive
This, I think, is the vid I set out to make from the Jedi Consular footage; as a result, I didn't even consider making a 1-minute version instead of the full song. I got this song (The Killing Joke by Volturian) on shuffle and knew it was perfect for a Syo Bakarn & Jedi Consular vid, using all of the footage I had. Looking back, I notice one place where I flubbed the rhythm, but all in all, I'm happy with how this turned out. Cutting on the beat is very much my happy place and I like that I managed to make more rapid cuts than I usually do.
Or, make a very lyrics-related vid, incorporate the lyrics as text on-screen, then substitute an instrumental song on it.
(+ the text-free original; a bit bland, as I cut for room for text.)
I interrupted the usual schedule of SWTOR because I had a terrible, terrible idea. And terrible ideas must be shared. So! Star Wars Prequel Trilogy time it was (with a bit of Rogue One for spice). I also think it works better if viewed in reverse order, as I've presented. I also had the good fortune to find an instrumental (Toledo 712 AD by Everdawn) with the exact same BPM as my original (Darth Vader by Dragonette). I'm really happy with how this ended up going! I also branched out to Blender; the original vid was done in Kdenlive, as always, but I put the text on in Blender, which afforded me much better effects and control over them. Look at all that pizzazz! This vid is fun and it should be.
Or, make a vid with a color theme or with color editing.
I didn't return to the Consular footage because I'd already made my defining vid and listening through my music library revealed another idea instead: my Imperial Agent had recently gone through the KOTFE/KOTET expansions, so I had the footage to make an extremely moody vid to The Ghost and the Reaper by The Dark Element. (The Imperial Agent does get to be a Ghost Agent, after all...) I decided to avoid sharp cuts here and mostly do fades, including fades through white for effect; I'd seen a few Jonde vids on YouTube that did nice things with those and decided to try it out. I did not, however, add any LUTs here, oops.nu_breed declared it had built-in lightbuilding, though, so I guess it passes? \o?
Exactly what it says on the tin: make a vid about a secondary character. Or a response fanvid, but I didn't have anything to respond to.
On AO3: Die Like a God
SWTOR has the protag in the center of each frame, so making a side character vid would've either been a pain, involved some of my least favorite characters in the game, or been a rerun of vexercise #3. So I decided to go back to the Prequel Trilogy and make a vid about Mace Windu. Then I realized I didn't have any song in my music library that fit him.
After listening to 5 new albums without finding anything, I gave up on finding an apt song and decided to go deliberately against the grain with a what-if reading, because that would at least be interesting, instead of eh. The Ides of March by Vision Divine fit the bill, so, a vid where Mace Windu goes to face down Palpatine willing to die because that way he'll become immortal. Not my interpretation of canon, but hey, maybe it's cool?
(My other shortlist options were Jupiter and Moons by Temperance, and No Surrender by Beast in Black.)
Or, make a vid! About whatever, using whatever technique!
On AO3: Common People
Now, way back when I was watching AotC for the first time and liveblogging my reactions in chat, my dear friend phyrry told me they wanted a vid about Padmé set to Common People by Pulp. When the free vid challenge came, I read the text about expanding a previous vid to full length and decided to extend my The Wind That Shapes the Land pechakucha to its full length and do another pechakucha 2 ways, this time with a full-length song!
Then I looked at the song's length. It is over 8 minutes long. It is possible to vid that, but I would need to bring my Consular, currently done with Chapter 3 and no further, through multiple expansions, record all of that, and sort through the footage. I did not have anywhere near the time to do that.
So I panicked for a minute before realizing that hey, this was the perfect excuse to do that Common People vid! A bit of searching around revealed a bunch of covers. After some listening, I decreed the William Shatner version my favorite, to my great surprise, and 100% of respondents thought that I should vid to that one if I liked it better. So I made a class critique vid of Padmé Amidala to Common People by William Shatner. It goes harder than the original, imo, and I liked the opportunity to, well, dig out that Padmé is the sort of rich that never wears the same clothes twice and even her refugee disguise is more Moderately Successful Businesswoman than anything that actually looks like a poor person. She exudes wealth and filthy richness. Her idea of going into hiding is one of her family's private estates with servants. She is filthy rich. Anakin was born into slavery. (I also featured Shmi's death and touched upon George Lucas's ???? idea of starting the Grand Epic Romance when one of the participants was nine. You have been forewarned.) The vid is not kind to Padmé, but tbh, fandom is often overly kind to her and other rich characters.
Technique-wise, I sort of wanted to do some mouth-flap matching for the speaky bits (so it comes across as, if not the characters actually having the dialogue, then Anakin doing a voiceover reminiscence of what happened over scenes of the thing happening) and then going for a more traditional vid-y direction for the singy bits. The titular common people were Anakin, Shmi, and the Larses; Padmé was the clueless rich girlfriend. It was also important to me to have the first "I want to live like common people" come from Padmé as Queen Amidala, making a royal decree, to really dig it in. I used podracing as a stand-in for the pool and smoking, as there was footage available for it, and it works as a blood sport: Anakin, a slave, risks his neck for material benefit of the rich Queen, but has also been sent to compete just for the entertainment of others – yet what else is there to do on Tatooine than watch the pod races?
Vids I put on AO3:
Open up the Gates | High and Low (SWTOR)
Leave This Place Alive (SWTOR)
Die Like a God (SWPT)
Common People (SWPT)
The 2022 round of
vexercises – an annual intro to vidding bash that also attracts a bunch of more experienced people looking to try out something new, either in source, software, or technique – just came to a close! I completed each of the 7 rounds, and figured out I might as well make a final post on the matter, explaining my stuff!#1: Pechakucha 2 ways
Or, use 6-second cuts from your source (which may have internal cuts) and set the same vid to two pieces of music.
On AO3: Open up the Gates | High and Low
This is the one I originally vidded it to. I had a bunch of SWTOR source I wanted to use somehow, most recently the Jedi Consular, which ended up being my favorite story, so I went and searched for a music that would fit the vibes. The Wind That Shapes the Land by Unleash the Archers ended up being a very good match, so I went and clipped chapter 1 of the source to that and ended up with something I quite like.
I generally select the new audio for the pechakuchas by playing the video on my computer so its audio goes to my headphones, which I am not wearing, and putting my phone's music library on shuffle. I first considered a contrasting song (like I did for the 2020 ones: ver 1, ver 2) but couldn't find one where the vibes fit at all. Then Hunting High and Low by Stratovarius came on and it, being in major key, fit the contrast bit, and the hunting fits at least somewhat with the Consular's story, what with Qyzen considering you the Scorekeeper's Herald.
#2: Visual Matching
Or, make the motion from one clip continue to the next.
This one I had a bit of an issue with, as there's ... not that much motion in the average SWTOR base game cutscene, and I'd decided to restrict myself to the Tython footage, which compounded the issue. I tried with various matches, produced a thoroughly boring vid with very little motion matching in it, and slapped a charcoal filter on it + the original atop on Screen blend mode that rescued it a surprising amount. The music is Infected Monarchy by Ad Infinitum.
#3: Rythmic Editing
Or, cut on the beat. Or exactly between the beats.
On AO3: Leave This Place Alive
This, I think, is the vid I set out to make from the Jedi Consular footage; as a result, I didn't even consider making a 1-minute version instead of the full song. I got this song (The Killing Joke by Volturian) on shuffle and knew it was perfect for a Syo Bakarn & Jedi Consular vid, using all of the footage I had. Looking back, I notice one place where I flubbed the rhythm, but all in all, I'm happy with how this turned out. Cutting on the beat is very much my happy place and I like that I managed to make more rapid cuts than I usually do.
#4: Lyrical Play
Or, make a very lyrics-related vid, incorporate the lyrics as text on-screen, then substitute an instrumental song on it.
(+ the text-free original; a bit bland, as I cut for room for text.)
I interrupted the usual schedule of SWTOR because I had a terrible, terrible idea. And terrible ideas must be shared. So! Star Wars Prequel Trilogy time it was (with a bit of Rogue One for spice). I also think it works better if viewed in reverse order, as I've presented. I also had the good fortune to find an instrumental (Toledo 712 AD by Everdawn) with the exact same BPM as my original (Darth Vader by Dragonette). I'm really happy with how this ended up going! I also branched out to Blender; the original vid was done in Kdenlive, as always, but I put the text on in Blender, which afforded me much better effects and control over them. Look at all that pizzazz! This vid is fun and it should be.
#5: Color Grading
Or, make a vid with a color theme or with color editing.
I didn't return to the Consular footage because I'd already made my defining vid and listening through my music library revealed another idea instead: my Imperial Agent had recently gone through the KOTFE/KOTET expansions, so I had the footage to make an extremely moody vid to The Ghost and the Reaper by The Dark Element. (The Imperial Agent does get to be a Ghost Agent, after all...) I decided to avoid sharp cuts here and mostly do fades, including fades through white for effect; I'd seen a few Jonde vids on YouTube that did nice things with those and decided to try it out. I did not, however, add any LUTs here, oops.
nu_breed declared it had built-in lightbuilding, though, so I guess it passes? \o?#6: Side Character
Exactly what it says on the tin: make a vid about a secondary character. Or a response fanvid, but I didn't have anything to respond to.
On AO3: Die Like a God
SWTOR has the protag in the center of each frame, so making a side character vid would've either been a pain, involved some of my least favorite characters in the game, or been a rerun of vexercise #3. So I decided to go back to the Prequel Trilogy and make a vid about Mace Windu. Then I realized I didn't have any song in my music library that fit him.
After listening to 5 new albums without finding anything, I gave up on finding an apt song and decided to go deliberately against the grain with a what-if reading, because that would at least be interesting, instead of eh. The Ides of March by Vision Divine fit the bill, so, a vid where Mace Windu goes to face down Palpatine willing to die because that way he'll become immortal. Not my interpretation of canon, but hey, maybe it's cool?
(My other shortlist options were Jupiter and Moons by Temperance, and No Surrender by Beast in Black.)
#7: Free Vid
Or, make a vid! About whatever, using whatever technique!
On AO3: Common People
Now, way back when I was watching AotC for the first time and liveblogging my reactions in chat, my dear friend phyrry told me they wanted a vid about Padmé set to Common People by Pulp. When the free vid challenge came, I read the text about expanding a previous vid to full length and decided to extend my The Wind That Shapes the Land pechakucha to its full length and do another pechakucha 2 ways, this time with a full-length song!
Then I looked at the song's length. It is over 8 minutes long. It is possible to vid that, but I would need to bring my Consular, currently done with Chapter 3 and no further, through multiple expansions, record all of that, and sort through the footage. I did not have anywhere near the time to do that.
So I panicked for a minute before realizing that hey, this was the perfect excuse to do that Common People vid! A bit of searching around revealed a bunch of covers. After some listening, I decreed the William Shatner version my favorite, to my great surprise, and 100% of respondents thought that I should vid to that one if I liked it better. So I made a class critique vid of Padmé Amidala to Common People by William Shatner. It goes harder than the original, imo, and I liked the opportunity to, well, dig out that Padmé is the sort of rich that never wears the same clothes twice and even her refugee disguise is more Moderately Successful Businesswoman than anything that actually looks like a poor person. She exudes wealth and filthy richness. Her idea of going into hiding is one of her family's private estates with servants. She is filthy rich. Anakin was born into slavery. (I also featured Shmi's death and touched upon George Lucas's ???? idea of starting the Grand Epic Romance when one of the participants was nine. You have been forewarned.) The vid is not kind to Padmé, but tbh, fandom is often overly kind to her and other rich characters.
Technique-wise, I sort of wanted to do some mouth-flap matching for the speaky bits (so it comes across as, if not the characters actually having the dialogue, then Anakin doing a voiceover reminiscence of what happened over scenes of the thing happening) and then going for a more traditional vid-y direction for the singy bits. The titular common people were Anakin, Shmi, and the Larses; Padmé was the clueless rich girlfriend. It was also important to me to have the first "I want to live like common people" come from Padmé as Queen Amidala, making a royal decree, to really dig it in. I used podracing as a stand-in for the pool and smoking, as there was footage available for it, and it works as a blood sport: Anakin, a slave, risks his neck for material benefit of the rich Queen, but has also been sent to compete just for the entertainment of others – yet what else is there to do on Tatooine than watch the pod races?
Vids I put on AO3:
Open up the Gates | High and Low (SWTOR)
Leave This Place Alive (SWTOR)
Die Like a God (SWPT)
Common People (SWPT)