The Round Stable

(?) · by **Isaak** (?) » Mon Jan 09, 2012 6:50 pm

I now know all the things :starity:

Thanks, I'll be looking into this!

(?) · by **Isaak** (?) » Sat Jan 14, 2012 8:00 pm

Streaming in two, ultraenthusiastic episode talk ahead!

(?) · by **Isaak** (?) » Sat Jan 21, 2012 8:02 pm

After a craaaazy week of studying, the livestream is back!

(?) · by **Isaak** (?) » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:52 pm

A preview of what's to come this week, next to an actually useful, long and informative blogpost. Maybe even two of those!

(?) · by **Artificer** (?) » Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:04 pm

Goddamn. This is awesome as hell. :awesomedash:

Go Applejack!

(?) · by **drunkill** (?) » Wed Feb 15, 2012 5:58 pm

This is cool, keep it up.

You are taking your time with this one, which is great because it shows. Plus, it's appajak, she needs an awesome video.

(?) · by **Isaak** (?) » Thu Feb 16, 2012 7:39 pm

If y'all are up for it, you can get a peek at its progress in today's Livestream, starting in 25 minutes

(?) · by **Isaak** (?) » Sun Feb 19, 2012 3:49 pm

Language in the Land of Film

I've been wanting to do a long and informative post but throughout the AJ video I've been doing so many interesting new things I haven't really had much time to reflect on the project and what I've learned. So I'll reserve most of that for later.
For now though, I want to share a bit of an epiphany I had which had an influence on the video. A bit of a warning, even as I'm typing this down, these thoughts are far from fully realized so take them as a means of starting a discussion, rather than conclusions.

Not too long ago I was asked by someone on Youtube to give his video my blessing.

For context, you can find it here

Click here to view video.

It triggered the start of a critical analysis of the video, turning the gears of my subconsciousness, getting me all philosophical and causing me to write sentences which will end up being far too long. While giving my critique I articulated some dormant thoughts for the first time, made me realize things and allowed me to have a new perspective on the medium of film and by extension other media.

You could say that any medium or artform is in essence a way of telling a story: you are relaying a certain message through a medium of your choosing, be it film or literature or music or games. I won't go in-depth about the nature of these messages, instead what's important for now is how the medium affects the way the message is conveyed.
As a writer, musician, game designer, director or pretty much any creator you're telling your prospective audience something with the tools you have at your disposal and the rules on how to use them. In film these come in the variety of shapes and forms, including but certainly not limited to: on screen text, the 180 rule, cuts, different kinds of shots, aspect ratios, time itself (slow motion, fast forward), colour, composition et cetera.
These define the very nature of the medium and the medium itself defines them, ultimately these tools and rules shape the way you convey what you want to convey.

It's up to the creative mind in charge to choose tools befitting the message he or she wants to convey and wield them according to the preset rules of the medium to strengthen the message and leave a lasting impact.
Or, if the creator so chooses, create an entirely new set of rules and make something experimental.
In other words, to ensure you're going to properly tell your story a visual language needs to be created using the particulars of your medium. A visual identity needs to be defined to maximize the potential effect of your message.

I'll get myself out of the abstract corners of my mind and give a practical example:

The Matrix is straight up Cyberpunk, with the titular virtual reality being presented to the audience in a slight green tint and a lack of bright and saturated colors. This is to let the audience know the differences between the Matrix and the real world. The Wachowski's smartly play with this notion by at some point presenting the Woman in Red, her striking red dress literally standing out from the crowd and to the audience. Later on the how's and why's of the Matrix are explained by the Architect, which gives more insight on why the Matrix looks so muted. A sidenote: Interesting how the DVD box art of the Matrix is blue, the visual style was probably further developed as it turned into a franchise.
Another example would be the classic scrolling green code which defines the look and feel of the title sequence and is how the Matrix is represented in the film's 'real world', neatly tying the sequence and the film itself into one coherent whole.

These are but a couple of practical examples which explain why the franchise has become so recognizable and memorable: the Matrix has a well defined visual identity. I haven't applied this line of thinking to anything else yet and now my mind is starting to put My Little Pony into the same equation for analysis... Oh and not to mention sound design... I best move on for now and bring this back to PMVs.

Language has rules so that we may make sense of what people are saying (with varying results) so as a filmmaker you need to define the particular rules of your work's identity and tell, or rather show them to your audience.
For instance
"The primary subject is Rainbow Dash."
"She will be presented using this immaculate song."
"Visual elements 1, 2 and 3 respond to said music in xyz ways."
"The color palette of the video is based on the character."

By defining your video's language and presenting its rules you're creating your audience a mental model in which you can play with the tools you have chosen and, if you want, slowly introduce variations to it.
This is something a lot of the PMVs overly reliant on effects lack: a clearly defined visual language with which it wants to convey something. Often times videos end up being noisy smorgasbords of every effect a particular program has and any sort of intended message is lost in the mess. If there was any message to begin with that is.

Like I said, this train of thought is far from reaching its destination but it has its influence on AJ's video, prompting me to think of ways I could more elegantly tie together different sections of the video.
I'll save the specifics of that for another post and for now I'll leave you with the above, somewhat disorganized collection of words.

(?) · by **Isaak** (?) » Mon Feb 20, 2012 6:40 pm

Working Title Like Applejack, tentative release date: 02-25-12.

(?) · by **drunkill** (?) » Tue Feb 21, 2012 12:47 pm

This soon? Nice.

(?) · by **HuffyTheMagicDragon** (?) » Tue Feb 21, 2012 4:38 pm

Isaak wrote:Working Title Like Applejack, tentative release date: 02-25-12.

So I guess the title will be the last thing completed then. :v:

Looking forward to this sooo much.

(?) · by **BattyBovine** (?) » Tue Feb 21, 2012 10:13 pm

Aww, I hope it does get released on that day. It would be the best birthday present ever. :allears:

(?) · by **Isaak** (?) » Thu Feb 23, 2012 6:42 pm

BattyBovine wrote:Aww, I hope it does get released on that day. It would be the best birthday present ever.

It'll be uploaded a few minutes before 20:00 GMT+1. Afterwards I'll be having a special Livestream presenting the video's inner workings and answering questions, so if you like come over

There will be no streams today or tomorrow.

(?) · by **Isaak** (?) » Sat Feb 25, 2012 7:17 pm

Click here to view video.

For Magnus.

All the info about everything right here in the description.
--

Presenting Strive Like Applejack, the final installment in the Mane Cast Trailer series.
I started this series as a means of becoming a better videomaker, getting to know the programs I was familiar with and learning new tricks along the way.
This journey has taken me from lesson to lesson, program to program and along the way I met some of the most fantastic and helpful people ever.

Strive may be the last installment, but it represents a lot of firsts, being a transitional piece in many aspects.
It’s my first proper foray into the magical land of After Effects, though I’ve only scratched the surface of its potential. It’s now a permanent part of my workflow.
It’s my first time creating custom assets reminiscent of the show: trees, fore and background elements and animating them.
The first time directing these short, custom segments.
The first time using lossless AVI for editing purposes, which makes the video look fantastic and turning the footage into motion graphics a lot easier.
It’s the first time I’ve used two different songs in a video.

And there’s probably even more. It’s I feel the biggest leap I’ve made so far, certainly the most experimental and I’ve learned much about the technicalities of video editing, file formats and codecs, the workflows of many programs and the rules of filmmaking itself.

Overall Strive is a departure from the other videos in this series. This is partially thanks to the music, which has a much less electronic feel and pace to it, but also due to the fact that the visual identity of this was in development until very late in the project, as I experimented throughout.

Ultimately I would describe this video as “Sergio Leone scratched”, “a Spaghetti western remixed”, “AJ the modern cowgirl”.

I’m not sure what’s next, it could be Pink or Rainbows or Classical or something I haven’t thought of yet, what I do know that it’s going to be great.
This is the end of an era and the start of a new one

--

Special thanks to

Dr Dinosaur, for all the Virtual Dub help and getting me in touch with fantastic people.
http://www.youtube.com/user/DrTYHMG

Macchinainterna, for making me scream with laughter.
http://www.youtube.com/user/macchinaCS

Mandarinorange, for doing things differently.
http://www.youtube.com/user/mmmandarinorange

fenster, for the great conversations and helping me decide on the title.

adecoy95, for the After Effects insanity.
http://www.youtube.com/user/adecoy95

Party Grunt, for the future animation help

http://www.youtube.com/user/partygrunt

Ozone, for the imaginative work and the Ponygoons logo
http://www.youtube.com/user/omegaozone

Aramek, for the cigar I’m smoking right now.

The Artrix, omdat je Nederlands bent
http://www.youtube.com/user/theartrix

DJ Diss Order, omdat je óók Nederlands bent
http://www.youtube.com/user/DissOrderMedia

The people from the Ponygoons forum, you’re a fantastic bunch of people
http://mlponies.com/forums

John Freeman Synchtube, you were my first pony hangout and as crazy as ever
http://www.synchtube.com/r/johnfreeman

All the people who came to watch my Livestream sessions.
--

Music

Ennio Morricone - Night in the Desert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1lfLXuFZho

Kid Koala - Slew Test 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlPqWM36Yfw
--

This video makes use of the following vectors

http://midnite99.deviantart.com/art/App ... -264326392
http://pirill-poveniy.deviantart.com/ar ... -282868159
http://qsteel.deviantart.com/art/A-tree-262449585
http://maximillianveers.deviantart.com/ ... -253782909
http://grendopony.deviantart.com/art/Cl ... -259549106
--

Programs used

Adobe After Effects CS5
Adobe Illustrator CS5
Adobe Photoshop CS5
Adobe Media Encoder CS5

Sony Vegas Pro 10

Virtual Dub in combination with AVISynth.
--

Video Nerdisms

Source Footage:
720p Matroska Video, 5.1 audio, converted into Lagarith Lossless .avi with uncompressed audio.

Render:
Uncompressed AVI, PCM Uncompressed Audio (had trouble rendering in Lagarith)

Final Encoding:
MP4, h264
--

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is created by Lauren Faust, produced by DHX Media and owned by Hasbro.

(?) · by **Momar** (?) » Sat Feb 25, 2012 7:23 pm

Holy shit, Isaak. There are no words.

(?) · by **BattyBovine** (?) » Sat Feb 25, 2012 7:33 pm

I knew I wouldn't be disappointed! :awesomedash:

This is easily my favourite of them all.

(?) · by **drunkill** (?) » Sat Feb 25, 2012 7:38 pm

Awesome job :iiaaa:

now for the next big project :p

(?) · by **Isaak** (?) » Sat Feb 25, 2012 7:49 pm

Happy Birthday Battybovine

There will be a special behind the scenes stream in 15 minutes @ this place.

(?) · by **Momar** (?) » Sat Feb 25, 2012 8:23 pm

This just in: Stream now has audio :v:

(?) · by **Willsun** (?) » Sat Feb 25, 2012 8:31 pm

Wooooooooooaaaaaaaaah nelly! Isaak, consider my Christmas wish fulfilled! I loved it all, from the silent-film-ish opening to the dynamic camera travelling up and down and to the very credits, you've made everything super badass and reminded me why Applejack's my favorite character. It was worth the wait!

Hats off to ya. Again and again.

(?) · by **Glazius** (?) » Sat Feb 25, 2012 10:28 pm

I liked the log fence showing up in time to the train-crossing bell. That was inspired.

(?) · by **fenster** (?) » Sat Feb 25, 2012 10:45 pm

Momar wrote:This just in: Stream now has audio

fenster saves the day again. :smug:

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Sat Feb 25, 2012 11:12 pm

Unbelievable.

(?) · by **Ragnar** (?) » Sat Feb 25, 2012 11:41 pm

These are always pretty overwhelming to me. I'm going to have to watch this a few times to see it clearly. And then a bunch more because it's awesome.

(?) · by **Pingcode** (?) » Sun Feb 26, 2012 12:23 am

It's certainly lived up to the grand, no?

(?) · by **HuffyTheMagicDragon** (?) » Sun Feb 26, 2012 12:54 am

That is awesome. I'm still warming up to the main music track, but the video itself is just flawless.

The Introduction makes me want a real spaghetti western AJ episode. A Fistful of Apples.

You're an artist, Isaak.

(?) · by **fenster** (?) » Sun Feb 26, 2012 2:16 am

In case anyone was curious, Isaak might be putting up his Behind the Scenes stream (possibly with the Q&A session of his) on youtube tomorrow if you don't want to use livestream.

Oh yeah, that new video, huh? I dunno, pretty good I guess? :pinkieshrug:

(?) · by **Davyinatoga** (?) » Sun Feb 26, 2012 2:45 am

Isaak wrote:[Strive Like Applejack.mov]

That gritty posterization effect at the end section is phenomenal. I'm quite taken aback by how well it works in conjunction with the RGB-separated echo effect in that vid. Never would have thought to meld two thematically opposed effects like that. The zoom out-in between AJ scenes was impressive as well. Very, very, very well done.

Davyinatoga, p.5 wrote:Strive Like AJ

(?) · by **Artificer** (?) » Sun Feb 26, 2012 4:55 pm

Wow. That was fantastic, Isaak! Well done! I showed that to a girl who was firmly set against watching ponies and even she agreed that it was a great video......and then she watched all of the other ones too!

Still against watching ponies but we're working on that.

Can't wait for your next video, whatever it'll be. :awesomedash:

(?) · by **Tailspin** (?) » Sun Feb 26, 2012 5:13 pm

Fantastic work, Isaak. :golfclop:

(?) · by **Dodger** (?) » Sun Feb 26, 2012 6:33 pm

That was really fantastic. :-D

Now I gotta go back through and watch all the old ones over again, but man, that was mindblowing.

(?) · by **Isaak** (?) » Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:33 pm

Momar wrote:This just in: Stream now has audio

Remember when I said I was making a series of giant behind the scenes posts and a breakdown video of the entire project?
Well, turns out you can save Livestreams as an MP4, so have a feature length recording of the Behind the Scenes stream instead :v:

Click here to view video.

Willsun wrote:Wooooooooooaaaaaaaaah nelly! Isaak, consider my Christmas wish fulfilled! I loved it all, from the silent-film-ish opening to the dynamic camera travelling up and down and to the very credits, you've made everything super badass and reminded me why Applejack's my favorite character. It was worth the wait!

Hats off to ya. Again and again.

Merry Christmas Willsun! Fun fact: for a while Winona wasn't in the opening sequence, I added her later on which really completed it.

Glazius wrote:I liked the log fence showing up in time to the train-crossing bell. That was inspired.

Thanks! That sequence, the Tree Run, is inspired by Micheal Gondry's music video of the Chemical Brothers' Star Guitar. It's something I'll be basing an entire video on. Actually my next video!

fenster wrote:fenster saves the day again.

So Once Again, the Day Is Saved, thanks to the Power Puff Fenster!

Headless Horse wrote:

Unbelievable.

Thanks!

Ragnar34 wrote:These are always pretty overwhelming to me. I'm going to have to watch this a few times to see it clearly. And then a bunch more because it's awesome.

Thanks!

HuffyTheMagicDragon wrote:That is awesome. I'm still warming up to the main music track, but the video itself is just flawless.

The Introduction makes me want a real spaghetti western AJ episode. A Fistful of Apples.

You're an artist, Isaak.

Thank you! I'm happy I conveyed that western feel, it was a lot of fun to draw inspiration from a source I never drew from.

fenster wrote:Oh yeah, that new video, huh? I dunno, pretty good I guess?

Davyinatoga wrote:That gritty posterization effect at the end section is phenomenal. I'm quite taken aback by how well it works in conjunction with the RGB-separated echo effect in that vid. Never would have thought to meld two thematically opposed effects like that. The zoom out-in between AJ scenes was impressive as well. Very, very, very well done.

The RGB split is primarily used to emphasize the music's influence on the video and to denote transitions between sequences. It's I think the most apparent visual element of "Sergio Leone remixed" with the gritty footage literally being mixed up all over the place.

Davyinatoga, p.5 wrote:Strive Like AJ

Artificer wrote:Wow. That was fantastic, Isaak! Well done! I showed that to a girl who was firmly set against watching ponies and even she agreed that it was a great video......and then she watched all of the other ones too!
Still against watching ponies but we're working on that.

Sooooooooooon.

Can't wait for your next video, whatever it'll be.

Not sooooooooooon.

Tailspin wrote:Fantastic work, Isaak.

Thanks!

Dodger wrote:That was really fantastic. Now I gotta go back through and watch all the old ones over again, but man, that was mindblowing.

Thanks!

(?) · by **Snakebite** (?) » Mon Feb 27, 2012 12:44 am

Bumping this thread for the sake of awesome videos and effort.jpg, the last chapter of your character-specific PMV's was a worthy one. :awesomedash:

I don't have any words... I could analyze the video and express how cool each part is, and stuff... but... fuck, I'm just going to say it's really awesome and I really enjoyed it.

:v:

(?) · by **Rainbow Crash** (?) » Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:55 pm

Strive like AJ was frickin awesome! You are awesome. Easily my favorite one.

(?) · by **Isaak** (?) » Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:55 pm

Bedankt Snake! :yay:

--

Some time ago Brony musician Mogul Dash asked me to make him a small bumper for his Youtube uploads. After some conceptualizing I settled on doing something with stop motion. This was funny enough before the airing of A Friend In Deed, though seeing the sequence and the set up that Jayson tweeted last... October(?) put me over the edge.

Just now I hacked together a set up:

That's my Canon EOS 300D/Digital Rebel with the 18-55 on top of a cheap-o tripod hanging precariously over the edge of my bed. To keep it from crashing I put one of the tripod's legs through the top handle of my laptop bag which acts as a counterweight.
The light's currently terrible and I'll be doing it by day, possibly with some additional neutral lights so I can control the lighting conditions. I may be using my desk as it sits higher so I can use a longer focal length, but then again the distortion at 18mm may give it a cool effect.

I'll be printing out assets tomorrow, build a 'set', take pictures, process them in Lightroom and animate the thing in After Effects.
I'm pretty excited :crack:

(?) · by **kefkafloyd** (?) » Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:19 pm

You know they make legs with orientation-changing center columns, right? I happen to own a set...

(?) · by **kidcoelacanth** (?) » Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:30 pm

God DAMN I just saw Strive and that shit is FANTASTIC. Amazing work, dude.

I love the music you use in these videos, I want to raid your library.

Also make the next video a CMC one :allears:

(?) · by **Isaak** (?) » Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:31 pm

kefkafloyd wrote:You know they make legs with orientation-changing center columns, right? I happen to own a set...

I'd love a Manfrotto :allears:

, though am currently strapped for cash, so I sort of have to hack together things for now... wait... actually, that's not true. :crack:

Those are Benbo tripods, right?

kidcoelacanth wrote:God DAMN I just saw Strive and that shit is FANTASTIC. Amazing work, dude.

I love the music you use in these videos, I want to raid your library.

Also make the next video a CMC one

Thanks!

The next video won't be a CMC one, though you're not the first one to suggest it and I definitely like the idea.

(?) · by **fenster** (?) » Tue Feb 28, 2012 4:06 pm

Oh man, stop motion? That's going to be so great I can feel it. (And I felt it too in A Friend in Deed) Are you going to share any details about what your plans for that are going to be?

Davyinatoga wrote:Davyinatoga, p.5 wrote:
Strive Like AJ

Secret #ponygoons leak!

[14:46] <Isaak> hm, Buck seems like a fine choice
[14:46] <fenster> Or Strive
[14:47] <fenster> I like that word
[14:47] <Isaak> it rolls off the tongue nicely as well

And that's how I convinced Isaak to not use "Buck like AJ" and stole DarkMatter's/Glazius's credit. :vogue:

(?) · by **Dr.Dinosaur** (?) » Tue Feb 28, 2012 4:10 pm

I still liked Trouble Like AJ

:rainbert:

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Isaak’s Grand, Though Experimental, Animation Blog

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