Shadow the Hedgehog | ★✩ SMOKE IT OFF !!! ✩★
FLASH WARNING. i forgot to put that at the start of the video, sorry about that!
Finally completed another thingy. I started this back in september, and my inspiration was quite spontaneous and intense. I knew i wanted to use this song and try out my, at the time, newly-upscaled and interpolated footage. I found this song when it was relatively new too, but let's not support the first artist.
The first things i slapped down were the sections at 0:13 - 0:15 in like 3 hours, and i eventually, the next couple days, found myself sinking into a very fascinating clip flow. My intention was for the clips and effects to flow like deep breaths, but the shaky kind you have when you feel anxious, if that makes sense. Plus, interpolation helped in making the clips feel more flowy and smooth. From there, i wanted to play around with how i could connect each clip to one another and create potentially more and more creative effects that feel dusty, staticy, like they're playing off a pixelated, overly bright LED screen. (i edited this based off vibes alone, as we can see lol)
And honestly, that's how i would describe most of the experience. Sinking into some particular kind of realm and vibe, and trying my best to capture it even weeks or months after taking a break. Some attempts worked better than others.
Like- okay, let's talk about the worst offender of this whole project real quick to get it out of the way - the DIAMOND MASK. please- i- i hated the experience of making it XD I only made one tiny thing in AE, which was the saber outline overlay for the diamond mask - the rest was all done in Vegas. I underestimated the difficulty of moving around a diamond mask and transition syncing, all while waiting for Vegas to RAM preview 0,001 frames per second- It was too tedious. I sat there for maybe nearly a full evening trying to piece together the timing and positioning of the moving mask, and then the static mask with slides - i kept messing up the timing especially. The effect is cool and all, but i'm not sure if it was worth so much work.
Alrighty? We got that out of the way, now onto better things XD It was loads of fun bending together the s_wave effects plus ''quick pixelator'', and i love the result of the ghost zoomed clips. For anyone who is interested - i zoomed in one layer, set it to screen, pixelated that one (animated the vertical and/or horizontal pixelation separately), while i blurred the layer below, maybe with a touch of tv simulator. Mega pretty effect imo. A couple more awesome effects to mention - Ignite Noise (FINALLY a noise effect that DOESN'T pixelate the edit completely), and mixing together the two Ignite Action Camera effects! Super neat and moody effects c: Oh! And the flickering text was lots of fun to make ^w^
I pretty much moved on a basis of finishing one section before moving onto another, editing the parts on the timeline in a mixed order.
(the first two types of little transitions i used in the chorus here are a call-back to the edit that i first heard this song in - if you know what edit i'm talking about, you are either very cultured, or you have seen things XD)
Aaaand ye! Pretty dang happy with the result of this one overall c:
And according to my file explorer, this is the first edit i've made that features Only Shadow :o as i should - he's a great character ^w^
~
ah yea! First of all - happy new year, everyone! 💖 i don't think i mentioned too much of what my 2023 was like in my previous upload or the one before, so i shall briefly talk about it, for those who are curious~
hmmm! i had some pretty bad mental health at the start of the year, kindaa the worst it had been in a long time. was feeling really bad about my uni and my future, but around summer, i had a revelation and started to feel better, plus got on a creative grind which i loved. i had a super fun and productive summer, dropped out of my uni and entered a new one that suits me better, plus went on a SUPER fun family trip. I was vibing and feeling great around september and october, but then all of a sudden, i lost all of my motivation and will to do things again in november. December was stress central with all of my uni work that i HAD to finish up before my trip to Australia, but!! December was awesome in large part bc of my birthday and my trip to Australia, and meeting my girlfriend 💝 cx I'm gonna keep my 2024 hopes in my own head, but i hope you all have had a safe start to the new year 💜
and with that, i hope y'all enjoy this edit, and have a great day/night! Stay hydrated and get some rest if you need to 🙏
~
Time taken: 4 months on and off
Layers: 45 or 46