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Information

• Member: Bakadeshi
• Studio: AuN Studios
• Title: Angel's Redemption
• Premiered: 2004-04-24
• Categories:
  • Action
  • Drama
  • Serious
  • Horror
  • Instrumental
• Song:
  • Mazedude Doom2 - Blood Bath
• Anime:
  • Ceres, Celestial Legend (Ayashi no Ceres)
• Participation:
  • animecentral AMV Contest, animecentral AMV Contest (2004-05-14)
  • Otakon (Summer '04), Otakon (Summer '04) (2004-07-30)
• Comments: ===============================================================
  
  Contests Results:
  
  Anime Central 2004: Finalist in the Action Category.
  
  Otakon 2004: Finalist in Dramatic/Serious.
  
  Nominated for Best Instrumental, Best Dramatic, and Best Horror for 2005 animemusicvideo.org VCAs. (Finalist in Instrumental and Horror.)
  
  The Concept:
  The Concept for this video, was to have a Dark Horror type atmosphere, Done in the style of an Action video (ofcourse with some action) But with alot of Mood, emotion, and story involved. You could say its a Hybrid of a Drama, Action, and even a little romance thrown together in an overall Dark and Eerie atmosphere. Effects usage was also a driving part of this concept, as it was intended to be my most technical challenge yet. These are the challenges I gave myself:
  
  1. Many effects (of wich I did not know how to do yet), but in a way that added to the mood and not detract,
  2. Switchup my Editing style often during the course of the AMV,
  3. Try to synch to every part of the music possible without making it too hard to follow,
  4. Make the timing as perfect as humanly possible
  5. Keep the effects simple and mostly subtle. I didn't want another Euphoria ;p (not yet anyway.... )
  6. Amongst all this, still tell a very deep story and keep strong mood and emotion throughout.
  7. Use Ayashi no Ceres as the anime, which is a challenge in itself to accomplish all of the above.
  8. Make Ayashi no Ceres look good. I want people to want to see the anime after seeing this video. (even though the anime isn't for everyone....)
  
  This was one huge experiment for me concept wise, and a challenge Technically, but unlike Sexy Body Cowgirls, it was handled very seriously and with much more dedication and effort. I hope it shows.
  
  Description:
  
  (Warning!: This is not an AMV you can watch once and get everything! 
  It has alot of underlying story that switches between each other.  I
  suggest watching the AMV a few times before you read any further, to see if you
  can pick out the overall story on your own.  This will tell me how
  effective I was at conveying what I wanted to in the AMV.)
  Also be warned there are many white flashes in certain parts, and incredibly fast scene synching. Don't watch in a dark room, especilly if you are epiliptic prone ;p Update: Indirect link now contains versions with toned down white flashes. Not as hard on eyes.
  
  Also,  there is one major spoiler in this AMV,  not particularly
  important to the main story of the anime,  but it is a major spoiler
  nonetheless.  You have been warned.
  
  This is my biggest,  most technically advanced Project to date, and
  easily my best work to date as well.  This video is mostly a mood video, 
  with some of the original story of the anime carefully selected and thrown in to
  best express this mood.  It is aimed to bring to light the darker side of
  Ayashi no ceres,  and showcase all the tragedy and misfortune that happens
  to Aya in the anime due to her "Fate".  The video takes the approach of
  being told through the eyes of the fortuneteller that originally read her her
  fortune in the beginning of the series,  where she said:
  
  "When the 16 stars and moons come around,  you will know where your fate
  will lead you.  What I can see are blood, anger, and tragedy. 
  Everything in this society will be offbalanced,  Your fate would be
  strongly influenced by a dark star.  your energy and strong will might
  change the course of your fate.  It all depends on you."
  
  I decided to leave the last part of the prophecy off so as to lend more of a
  mysterious "They don't know whats coming" feeling to the end, where I cut it off
  at "This is your fate."  (Thanks to Madbunny for the idea)
  The story is a bit complicated in this one,  because It takes various
  sections of story from the anime, and tries to amplify those feelings and
  emotions in this video.  The more important feel in this video is the Mood,
  rather than the story,  but it helps to know the story,  especially to
  understand what happens in the later part of the AMV. 
  There are 3 different smaller stories going on at once,
  that all ties into one main story. The main story is all the trauma and tragedy
  that Aya is faced with after her 16th birthday because of her fate. the 3 mini
  stories are all 3 separate things that happen in the anime, that ultimately
  breaks her in the end. The first one being her father getting shot in the
  beginning, the middle one being her love with Toya (red haired guy, also the
  dark star) and the various things that happen due to this, and the third one,
  the most difficult one to tell in such a short AMV is the story with her, that
  other girl (with the short blue hair and the dimple), and Toya's love triangle
  type thing that happened in the anime.  Which ultimately leads up to her
  committing suicide, right in front of Aya, which is the last straw that
  ultimately "breaks" her in the end.  Those of you who have seen this anime
  knows exactly what I'm talking about.
  
  Because of a somewhat obscure nature of some of the characters centering
  around the actual story of the anime,  those of you who have not seen the
  anime may not distinguish between a few of the characters,  So I will give
  a brief overview of the characters here.  Note this is not spoiling
  anything in the anime really,  except maybe a few minor details you find
  out very early on anyway. 
  
  The Characters:
  Aya: - Yellow haired girl, (most depicted
  throughout the video) - Main character of the series, on her 16th birthday, the
  angel inside her, that was passed down from generation to generation finally
  awakens.
  
  Aki: - Golden haired boy.  (depicted in the very beginning and
  various other places in the AMV) is her twin brother. He also carries in him an
  ancestor passed down from generation to generation that had originally married
  the angel Ceres and had children resulting in these nutcases ;p Not terribly
  important to the story of this AMV though, but I barely touch on him. hes in it
  mostly just to be the brother that can't be with her. he is very important in
  the anime though. Hes also the elusive fishtank guy. (Inside joke, My beta testers couldn't figure out who the "fishtank guy" was ;p)
  
  Toya: - The red haired guy (first appears at 1:35) in amv- Depicted as
  the "dark star" in the prophecy (or fortune whatever you want to call it) he
  falls in love with Aya, and effects her "Fate" throughout the series.
  
  Aya's Mother: -01:56 this evil looking lady here is her mother. she
  blames Aya for the death of her husband and so is messed up in the head after it
  all, and tries to kill Aya. Ceres wakes up as a defensive measure. (the symbol
  was used in the background to depict that. thats the crest symbolizing Ceres's
  powers.)
  
  Yufei (sp?  going by sound) - 04:33 this guy that ceres is
  reaching for is yet another guy. (this remind you of Fushigi Yugi with all these
  guys looking the same? well same author ;p anyway, this guy is a protector of
  Aya more or less in the series, and loves Aya, but she doesn't return his
  feelings. Ceres oddly enough takes a liking to him though.
  
  Ceres:-04:33 The blue hair girl that exibits all the telekinetic powers, 
  She is the angel inside Aya. when she awakes, Ayas body takes this form and Aya
  goes to sleep inside her. (similar to the ID syndrome. ala Xenogears) except
  Ceres is a whole different being on her own, rather than it just being
  personalities.
  
  Other guy: 2:42 this guy i is not important
  in any way to the story of the amv, hes just there for the fight.
   
  Other blue haired girl (With the dimple): 3:14
  ok here's where it gets complicated. This girl is actually the second Ceres you
  will see later in the AMV. (the 2 Ceres fighting it out)
  She was an experiment to create an artificial Ceres in the anime. she has Ceres
  powers, but she is not Ceres. She is also the meaning behind the 901 hospital
  door (her room) and that scene is when she awakens. The following scenes are
  between her, Toya, and Aya, she takes a liking to Toya, who is already in love
  with Aya, but doesn't remember his past, so the same people behind her
  experiment, make it so Toya thinks his past is with her, as sort of a deal in
  her cooperation. Toya is hit by a car which ultimately causes him to lose his
  new memories of Aya, and the fake ones with that girl surface. this of course
  saddens Aya, and she is in turmoil in her head over the scenes of him with her.
  3:30-3:45ish. Ultimately in the end, Toya remembers Aya and rejects the other
  girl. She is also upset at Aya for killing her mother in the beginning when
  Ceres woke up after her father was killed. (her mother was in that building)
  In the end, she commits suicide by converting back to herself, and letting
  herself fall to the ground, (after Toya rejects her and remembers Aya) and this
  freaks the hell out of Aya, who blames herself for all that happened to the
  girl. The AMV climaxes on this event as the last straw that "breaks" Aya so to
  speak.
  
  This was my most difficult project as far as choosing
  scenery to express what I wanted.  I would like to know if this was
  successful at all when you watched it the first few times.  Please do leave
  me an opinion on weather or not you were able to follow the story, and any other
  thoughts you may have on it,  weather it be good or bad.  All Opinions
  are welcome.
   
  
  Technical Details:
  Video Format: Xvid 2-pass encode VBR  (Used AD&E's guide specs
  with minor modifications) Use Divx to play for best quality.
  Audio Format: Lame Mp3 192Mbs 48 khz Stereo
  Source Footage: Ayashi No Ceres TV Series,  First 15 or so episodes
  were used, Cleaned up footage  with Smart smoother HSV and contrast filters
  in Virtual dub.
  Software Used: Adobe Primiere Pro (7.0), Extensive use of Adobe Photoshop
  CS for custom effects (like the static/scanlines) and minor footage editing (Toya
  in the rain), VirtualDub, Avisynth 2.5, DVD2AVI.
  
  Time to complete: +-100 hours in the span of about 2 months, Including
  beta enhancements and footage selection. 
  
  Personal Notes:
  A few Techniques used in this amv that few are going to notice as an edit:
  00:26 This entire scene of using the crystal ball to zoom into the animation
  (to tell the story like it is happening in the ball)  was fabricated by me
  using a combination of moving footage and Photoshop images.  The following
  scenes were changed to black and white purposefully.  The static lines are
  really just a simple white lines drawn on a transparent overlay in random
  places,  used 4 different images with them scattered in different areas of
  the image to emulate the scan lines.
  00:34 These scenes that flash on the screen in synch with the chimes, are 
  altered.  They consist of three layers,  One on the bottom is blurred, 
  the one over it is slightly transparent with Edge feathered, and moves from an
  offposition to match the position of the first image in synch with the falling
  sound in the chime,  and the third layer is a grey fade effect I made in
  Photoshop by filling the image with grey and using a large soft edge eraser to
  erase the middle of it.  On top of that still is my custom static effect
  which uses the noise filter in Premiere along with the static lines I made in
  Photoshop.
  00:40 All of these titles are custom.
  00:48 one of my attempts to scene/action synch.  I synched many little
  things that happen on the scenery to the music,  such as lightning flashes,
  scene blends, and transitions.
  01:25 Believe it or not,  this zoom up effect is not my creation, 
  it was in the original anime.  I like it however,  and will probably
  use it again in another project (I know how to duplicate it)
  01:30 This entire gun sequence scene is timed to as much of the music I could
  think to synch with.  The white flashes are all timed exactly to the snear
  drum hits. (They are not random)
  01:48 always wanted to try an effect such as this.  Liked how it looked
  so I kept it in.
  01:50 This one is a big edit.  This original scene was not in this part
  of the anime,  and was actually a scene in broad daylight.  I used
  some HVS adjusting to darken the image to match the surrounding scenery, 
  and used a sequence of Photoshop images to draw in the rain effect overlay. 
  I love creating nonexistent scenery to match my intention when they are not
  available in the footage.  I could've gone a step further and edited the
  background to be green like the rest,  But I didn't feel it necessary for
  the amount of work it would take,  since its barely noticeable.
  02:11 This is just an overlay of the same image,  using wind effect and
  opacity levels to create this effect.
  02:16-02:26 Possibly one of the most difficult parts of the AMV to time. 
  This consists of about 8 layers of stuff happening all at once,  everything
  timed to some part of the song.  Nothing here is random.
  02:35 The escape scene was somewhat of a challenge timing wise,  but not
  as difficult as the above one.  It has use of strobe effects and white
  flashes to highlight the fast beat of the song in this section.  The
  clipping is used to add tension.
  02:50 This part has many use of effects,  and mostly just to help fill a
  timing gap,  as footage was very rare here.  Some of it are stills
  using effects to make it appear like its still moving.
  03:16ish,  the rapid flashing that appears randomly throughout the rest
  of the video starting here, is timed to the rapid sneer that's about a half a
  second in length in the song,  listen carefully you will hear it.  Its
  not an error.
  03:30 This consist of 3 overlayed images played at different starting
  positions at different opacity levels to create this eerie feel.
  03:38 I saw this overlay and zoom up effect used somewhere before and liked
  how it looked,  so I used it here.
  03:44-45 You can thank my little sisters for these 2 neon like effects. 
  I asked them to pick out the weirdest colors they could see as I switched
  between them,  and they chose these.
   03:50-55 Much overlaying used here... its about 3 or so different
  scenes overlaying with each other.
  04:16 This consist of one scene,  (the field)  as the main scene, 
  and different other scenes flashing over it.  I did this to get a feel of
  her crying in the field because of the occurrences she is thinking about (as
  they flash on the screen here)  basically a lot of scene switching is done
  here to try and tie it all together at the end.
  04:31 these are Photoshop images created using a charcoal (I think) filter to
  create the black and white textured look.
  04:36 scene constructed using a lot of fades, zooms, blurs, and overlays to
  create the zoom out of the crystal ball look.
   
  Special Thanks:
  Madbunny:  For continuous Beta testing and many comments and ideas that
  ultimately made this a better AMV than it would otherwise have been. He also
  gave me the idea for the alternate ending.
  Pen-Pen2002: For catching my spelling/grammar errors,  and  Beta
  testing feedback.
  JoyKiller: For help with Beta testing and some technical issues.
  Xenodrake: For Early WIP testing and suggestions.
  Everyone else on the forums who were helpful in the making of this video.
  
  Major thanks to Mazedude who graciously gave me an uncompressed render of his
  Blood Bath Synth to use in the project for best quality.
   
   
  Various Other AMVs that effected the creation of this AMV in some way or another:
  AMGM Loss (white flashes, inspiration), Eternal Damnation (inspiration), Tainted Dounuts (Original Idea for my custom static scan lines), Evolution (multiple transparant images to depict getting hit (used twice in the fight scene)) and various other titles as inspiration. ALthough I'm sure alot of the effects have been used before, most of the other effects I havn't credited here are my own ideas for this vid, and at least half of those I just found accidentally playing with filters, and thought they looked cool ;p
  
  Sorry for the large Filesize, I tried to get the absolute best quality to filesize ratio, and due to the heavy action and effects usage in this peice, and the 29.9 fps video rate, this was the best I could come up with. There is a lower quality lower resolution file available from the indirect link. (My host won't allow direct links from this site for some reason. The link to it is directly on the page)
  
  
  Local Link is HQ 640x430 Xvid.
  
  Indirect is both the HQ (640x440) Xvid and LQ (320x240) Mpeg versions. This also contains a few corrections in the credits, and toned down white flashes for those who asked for it.
  
  Update:The Local link version is a remaster, after obtaining feedback on the forums, Slightly toned down white flashes, and ran through a list of cleanup filters for better compression and better overall visual quality.
  
  Update: Removed Romance flag since I noticed it ranked pretty high on the romance top 10% list, and it realy isn't ment to be a romance. there are only a few elements of romance in it.
  
  Just released, The sequel to this video: Angels Redemption 2: The circle of sin. Be sure to also check that one out, as I have matured alot as an editor since this one ^^