That same great taste, but without the calories!
After a long break, I'm back into my holiday videos. They don't really take that long to make, it's just that I've been either too busy or too tired to sit down and work at the computer for any significant period of time.
So here it is: Venice!
I've decided to make video reviews of old games that nobody has ever played, possibly to give an insight into my childhood, to be informative, or maybe just to challenge myself.
AMVs are what started my love affair with digital media. It involves taking clips from an anime series (Japanese animation) and setting it to music to create a new interpretation, in a similar way that music videos change the meaning of a song.
Videos from my holiday in Italy, made entertaining with my creative editing style.
Videos that don't fit into any other specific category
Movie reviews with a difference, written in some kind of freestyle narrative, with comical "deleted scenes" at the bottom.
The closest thing I've ever had to a blog, these are essays that have been broken up into easily digestible sections, with pictures and external links. Notoriously difficult to create!
Various examples of creative writings I've done over the years.
As cute, funny, and original as it was, it just became too bloated, difficult to navigate, and a pain to update. You can still see it in the Miscellaneous section, under Unfinished above.
I decided it would be best if one could access (almost) the entire site from one menu. And how did I come up with the accordion style? Well, I didn't. My thanks go to stickmanlabs for designing this amazing menu and distributing it for free.
That's an in-joke between me and Nicholas. The story is as follows:
One fine day, me and Nick were walking down George St in the city. Along with the other buskers and street-peddlers, we saw a guy selling books about Doomsday. But rather than yelling out traditional prophesies of the end of the world, the guy was simply offering the book to people passing by and saying "Armageddon, mate!" in his best Aussie accent. It was such a classic scene that we've never forgotten it, and it always brings a laugh whenever it's mentioned.
Note also that this site has nothing to do with the movie Armageddon by Touchstone Pictures. The logo is merely a rip... er, method of showing the contrast between the serious and playful tone of the site.
That's not really the purpose of this site, and if you think it is, you're missing the point.
But since you asked, yes it is. Nothing lasts forever. How long do you think that we can keep going the way we are? With the world heading towards overcrowding and technological advances coming in thick and fast, something has got to give. And I can guarantee that in a million years, if the human race is still around, it will be completely unrecognisable compared to how it is today. On top of everything else, we still have no real means of protecting ourselves from an asteroid impact. So eventually, the world as we know it will end, but for anyone to think that they can put an exact date to when it will happen is just plain nonsense.
To entertain, and inform a little bit too. This is a showcase of my creative works; anything I think is interesting and can be shared on a website. This is also like a playground for me to practice my technical skills without putting my job on the line.
Traditionally, there were only 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse, but according to the novel "Thief of Time" by Terry Pratchet, there was a fifth horseman named Ronnie, who left before the group became famous.
Anyway, movies are always given ratings out of 5, always have been, always will be.
Most of my videos (everything after Lemmiwinks and up to Acceptance) were made using Adobe Premier. I first used DVD ripping software to get the footage off the DVDs, then I used Virtual Dub to select the clips I wanted and cleaned up the video somewhat. I did the editing in Premier and created a large master AVI file, which was then converted into MPG format using TMPEnc. I also used various other software to make a smaller WMV. I always recommend you download the MPG if it is available as it is of a much higher quality.
My older videos were made with the magic of Windows Movie Maker 2. Ok, it's not that great, but it's easy to use and gets the job done as long as it's not too complicated. I used Camtasia Recorder to take selected footage without sound. I then move these clips into Movie Maker, along with the music I've selected. Then comes the hard part: chopping up the clips into increasingly small pieces, disposing of what I don't want, and getting it in synch with the music. Its a job that can keep you occupied for days on end, but I find to be very rewarding and quite fun too.
The exception to all this was the Beetleball animation. That was original created using a 3D animation package called Houdini, which can't create video, but can render still images. I used some video editing software (I can't remember which one) to take each image representing every single frame of the animation and make it into a video, kind of like a flip-book animation. I exported all the music and sound from Houdini into one mp3, and added it to the video. All I had to do then was a little post-production (credits) and the video was finished.
Lately, I've been using Adobe Premier Elements and Flash to make more web-friendly videos.
If you download the video in WMV format, you don't really have much of a choice other than to watch it in Windows Media Player. I would recommend using version 9 or higher.
To view any other format, you could use Windows Media Player or MPlayer. MPlayer is fast and easy to use and will stay in full screen mode even if you move the mouse.
My latest videos just require you to have the Adobe Flash Player plugin installed in your browser. Easy!
I've provided different formats for people with different needs.
MPEG will be the highest quality of all the formats and also the most compatible, as it will work in just about any player without the need for codecs. However, it is also the largest in filesize. I don't even host most of them myself; there will usually be a link to AnimeMusicVideos.org, and you will need to be a member to download from there.
The DIVX and XVID are about half the size of MPEG or maybe even smaller, with only a minimal loss in quality. You will need to have the right codecs for them to work, however.
The WMV can only be (reliably) played in Windows Media Player. They are also the smallest and have the lowest quality.
Having said all that, my format of preference would have to be XviD, because the filesize isn't that big, and quite often it's just as good as the MPEG!
I would rather be dragged on my stomach naked through a cactus patch than make another 3D animation.
I don't think so. It was good to redo my first two videos as I was quite unskilled when I first made them, but I just don't think it's worth the trouble anymore. Those other videos are good enough as they are and I can't bring myself to put so much effort into making them marginally better.
Those are kind of like Parental Advisory stickers that I've attached to certain things to protect small children and people who are easily offended or have weak stomachs. If you fit any of these descriptions, be warned about viewing the content. You can hover the mouse over the icon to see the warning.
To this address:
jwulffj@hotmail.com