Step-by-Step To Make An Anime Music Video

This tutorial will give you the essential ingredients on how to create a killer Anime Music Video (AMV) to share with your friends. The process of creating your own anime music video consists of four primary steps:

1. Planning Your Videos
2. Selecting Your Lyrics and Videos
3. Preparing your Clips
4. Tying everything together and Publishing your masterpiece

NOTE: This "How To Make Your Own Anime Video" tutorial is for Windows XP, and it uses Windows Movie Maker and videos network sites such as Download Anime Videos.

Planning Stage

As with any project the urge to jump in and get started is both natural and counterproductive. Very few people get things right naturally the first time. In fact the most important attribute of creating an Anime video's is not the artistic ability, rhythm or technical know-how, but patience. The patience start in the planning. The more time you put into this stage, the less time you will spend fixing things in the following stages.

The first thing to do is pick your song. This might seem obvious, but there are very specific qualities you should be looking for. Firstly you need to find a song you really enjoy. There's two reasons for this.

To start with you want a final product that people that share your tastes will love. If you pick a song you hate then you don't know too much about the people you are creating your artwork for. Secondly, you are going to be hearing this song A LOT while you move things around, and you don't want something that will drive you nuts.

The second essential element in your lyrics is that it 'fits' with the theme or message you are trying to portray in your anime music video. If you are creating your video for a bit of fun then you want a fun song, but if you are making a serious statement then you need an equally serious piece of music.

The next part of the planning stage is to listen through your song a few times and map out different beats in it. Make a note of what parts of the video the tempo speeds up and what parts it cools off. Before you ever look at a movie clip to match this song you should have a good idea of how much of each 'type' of footage you need.

For instance, is there a sudden crescendo in your song? That's a great place for an explosion. Is there a slow steady calming passage - think of footage that fits that mood - perhaps a shot of two lovers staring into each others eyes. If you have an idea of what animes you are using you may even get right down to the specific scenes at this point, but more likely you just record the broader theme you are going for in each passage of the song.

Selecting your Lyrics and Videos

Okay, now we have the dull drudgery of planning out of the way it's time to look for those clips. There are a few ways to get the clips - one way is to get it directly from DVDs of the anime you already own, the another is to download it (legally) from Download Anime Videos. (THE BETTER AND LEGAL WAY TO GET FULL QUALITY CLIPS, WITH NO CHANCE OF ERROR.)

You should have a list of different tempos of music and what you want to show alongside it. Now go through your target video's and look for clips that match the moods you've written down. These days your average song length is around 4 minutes long, so that is how much footage you need. To begin with you should find either a short song or a shorter version of the song you are working with (Most songs have cd length, radio length and live versions - it's just a matter of finding the correct one).

Be sure to make a note of each piece of footage, where it fits in your compilation and where it is in the current video (So you can come back and rip it out). To make this step worth doing you need to keep a good record of what you have and what you plan to do with it.

Preparing Your Clips

Depending on whether you are technically or artistically minded, this can be the most fun, or the least fun, part of the entire procedure. It's now time to go back and cut all those 'bits' of video footage out of your existing video's so we can place them in our new clips.

It's better to slice the clip too big than too small. You can always cut it down again later.

Make sure you name your 'bits of clips' with something that is obvious. This will make it easier both to put in this time, and for movies you may want to make with the same footage in the future.

Remember to remove the audio - you don't want it because you are providing your own music, and it also takes up file space.

Tying It All Together

You now have all the 'bits' that you need and it is time to bring it all together and create the anime music video that will wow your friends. First you need to get your music in place. Find the music you want on your computer and convert it to WAV format (uncompressed PCM). It is easiest to work with it in WAV format, and it is easiest to get WAV format by ripping it straight from a CD into that format. The file will be big, but don't worry about that just yet.

Now you need to use your video editing software. In most cases this will be Windows Movie Maker. Open up your Windows Movie Maker. To get your clips, click Import Video, and open your file. For your music, click Import Music, find your file, and open it. Drag and drop your sound file into the "timeline," and then drag and drop your clips into the clips window. Split and organize them as necessary, then drag them into the storyboard to put together your movie. If needed, you can add special effects by going to View Video Effects, or View Video Transitions under the Edit Movie heading.

Don't worry that this seems to take you forever - that's how it works. It's far better to spend more time here and get the transitions between clips and lyrics spot on than to rush the job and produce a clip that no-one wants to watch.

Once you have completed your video, click File -> Save Movie File, and set the properties for your video. You are strongly recommend to saved into MP3 format. This compresses everything nicely and produces a final product that is easily played by most everyone.

Congratulations!

You have just learn how to make your own Anime Video and produced your first ever AMV. Now all that remains is getting it out to the world. You can upload it to YouTube, burn it to a CD and hand it out, or upload it directly to your own site. Well done, you are now a movie producer!