by Chuck Gaffney

Created on: November 23, 2007

Great anime music video(amv)creation is in the list of things that are easy to do but hard to really master. Before Youtube, many people were inspired to make amvs by seeing an anime they loved or by seeing an amv on a fansite. Youtube opened a can of worms and now everyone and their dog has made an amv or wants to make one. Creating a quality music video can be done even with the simple free tools already available but high-end video editing software opens a whole canvas of effects that will better express your vision.

Music video creation is an art form, legal issues aside. Like all art forms you have to first know what your theme is. Know why you want to express these two works of art together and also keep in mine your audience. Do you want to create something new, funny or inspiring? One thing you want to avoid is to copy the crowd. In the first wave of AMVs before Youtube over 80% of the videos were using Linkin Park music, then the trend moved to Evanescence music when Youtube gained popularity and as of today it's littered with Emo-styled-young-boy-rock-band music. You can add your amv to the list or you can skew off the beaten track. Personally, I have mixed Euro-techno music with certain titles. Before recent years that was somewhat out of the ordinary. The main thing though in picking your theme is that it has to be something that inspires you and your audience. Stick with that image and then run with it.

Next you need to pick a video editing software. There are a bunch to chose from that all cost a bit of money from FinalCut to Adobe Premiere. Many people though have opted for the free Microsoft Movie Maker. As expected, top quality videos can be achieved by a good program that you pay for but no matter how good the tools are, if you don't have that special touch, even the best program won't make quality videos for you.

Now once you picked your software, now you need to collect your data. I take music from CDs that I own and I use that. Same thing goes for the anime videos. Using your own content is best if you want quality in the image, but for a quick fix, you can download music videos from say animemusicvideos.org. This gives you multiple clips to use but please be sure to only use clean clips and not to take a person's idea. The whole issue with amvs is that very topic of ownership since both the music and the video isn't yours but I've seen my own amvs taken and someone just slapped on their site and name in the beginning erasing my intro. If

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