OpenShot Basics

    The developer of OpenShot has made a commitment to stick with three basic criteria for his application they are: easy to use, stable, powerful. Well Jonathon has done just that, I would recommend this program to an average pc user, it has been stable since before 1.0, and with the compositing feature and high definition capability it is just as powerful as any proprietary video editor. In fact I'd argue that it gets more power from the hardware seeing as it as a native Linux application.
    Fun fact; if you go to Pixar's website to purchase software for digital animation you can choose between Linux, Mac-OSX and Windows, and chances are the server farms are all running Linux. Although the real cool thing is that one of the artists (Windows clients) can connect to the server (Linux), and have it take care of its' processing needs.

     Here is a quick demonstration of using OpenShot. In the video you will see adding files to the time-line, zooming in and out in the time-line, using layers, adding transitions creating a title and credits, and exporting. This was made with version 0.8.2, the current release is 1.2 and has made exporting simpler, and added an easy way to add 3d text.

Screencast of OpenShot 0.8.2 from Jonathan Thomas on Vimeo.

     As seen above this software is really simple, but the use of layers and compositing the potential to create something amazing is there. Look forward to more on OpenShot

Latest from Nostromo

   By far Nostromo is one of the best AMV creators ever. He or she, has such an artistic touch, from the coloring to the syncing of a particular visual with sound, oh and don't forget the skills in so many apps. To make an AMV like this a photo manipulation program, audio editor, and a non-linear video editor is required. Any who it is a great video.

Anime: Bakemonogatari
 Music: Yuksek - Tonight (+Nostromix)
 Editor: Nostromo

To Be More Conscious

   To be more conscious is a pretty deep term, encapsulating philosophy and psychology. What are the actual benefits of becoming more conscious?  Why would anyone care to do this?  And what the heck does it even mean to raise your consciousness anyway?

    While raising your consciousness can certainly enhance your spiritual development, this isn’t really a spiritual issue at its core.  It’s really about hardcore mental development.

    What does it mean to become more conscious?  I have found that it is defined as the progressive realization of conscious mastery over your mind.  This includes all of the following:

• making careful, intelligent, and deliberate decisions
• maintaining a positive emotional state regardless of circumstances
• developing empowering beliefs while purging disempowering ones
• understanding your own thought processes, emotions, and behaviors
• staying focused on what’s most important while tuning out distractions
• building an accurate and effective model of reality

    All of these are skills that we develop across a wide spectrum.  Traditional education teaches us basic skills and basic knowledge, but it does little to show us how to develop our conscious minds.  We aren’t taught how to intelligently make the biggest decisions of our lives, how to cultivate a burning desire for what we want, how to know if our beliefs are inaccurate and need to be changed, how to concentrate, etc.  But over the course of your lifetime, these skills will prove far more significant than anything you learned in school.

     People whose conscious minds remain underdeveloped often suffer from cluttered and unfocused thinking.  Needless worries, trivial distractions, inaccurate observations, false beliefs, and negative emotions run rampant through their thoughts, and most of the time they aren’t even aware of it.  It’s like being stuck in a mental fog.  When you talk to such people, you can sense they aren’t fully there.  The lights are on, but no one’s home.  Ask them an important question like, “What overall purpose have you chosen for your life?” and you’ll likely get a blank stare in response.  Because they don’t really have control of their minds, they live reactively instead of proactively.  Such people are virtually powerless.  They essentially do what they’re told and try to stay out of trouble, mistakenly assuming this condition is the best they can expect of themselves.

    In contrast highly conscious people own their minds.  Their thinking is clear and focused, and they select and direct their thoughts deliberately.  They retain conscious control over their emotions, and they don’t easily succumb to distractions.  When you talk to such people, you can detect depth and clarity.  Ask them, “What’s the purpose of your life?” and you’ll likely get an intelligent and thoughtful response.  These people live proactively and are emotionally resilient, rising above their circumstances instead of being victimized by them.  They possess an inner strength that is undeniable.  They exhibit both courage and compassion, and they know that this level of being is how humans were truly meant to live.

    The difference between these two groups is that the first group has settled for the default mental operating system installed by their upbringing and social conditioning.  Call it Human OS 1.0.  They accepted whatever programming they initially received.  The second group, however, challenges themselves to continuously improve upon that initial programming, embarking on a lifelong quest to design a more intelligent mental operating system.  And they succeed.  So while group one is stuck with a shabby and outdated mental OS, group two continues to upgrade its version, enjoying compounding benefits year after year.  It doesn’t matter whether they’re currently using Human OS 1.1 or Human OS 7.0 — it’s the process of frequent upgrading that matters most, not the particular version number being used.

    For more reading on this topic follow these links.
10 Steps for Creating a More Conscious Life
10 Ways to Become More Conscious

BitterSweet Desire

    Member of animemusicvideos.org Tsusksin, has created one awesome AMV. The mood of the video was right up my alley, it is good old goth. The song goes amazingly well to the anime. Tsuskin's  editing skills and artistic eye really come out in this video. Made in 2007.


A few words from the creator, Tsuskin "Overall I have no clue how much time I spent working on this, because I kept putting it off, and sometimes I'd go a couple months without even touching it, but here it is, lol. I had the idea after listening to the song and I wanted to make a video for it. After looking through my anime collection I thought to myself "hey this would go really well with Petite Cossette", and after giving it some thought and watching it once through I realized just how perfect they were for each other.

This video is about the relationship Eiri and Cossette have. Cossette hates him because his soul belonged to the man that killed her 250 years ago and she believes he is the same man. His was the soul of a talented painter who adored Cossette's beauty, and he believed that she was perfect and loved painting pictures of her. But one day he realizes that she would not remain this way forever and so he kills her. When Eiri finds her soul in a valuable glass, her death is reenacted and he is left with the guilt of killing her. He becomes obsessed with her and she becomes his one true love, to the point where he no longer cares about anything else in his life and would go through any amount of pain to help her. Cossette also loved the man that killed her and takes out her anger towards him on Eiri, because nobody would want to be killed by the one they love. You could say their relationship is rather "bittersweet".

I think this fits well with the lyrics "I didn't want to hurt you but your pretty when you cry". Because as much as he loved her, he knew that her beauty would eventually change as she got older, and so he killed her while she was still beautiful.

And "if you knew how much I loved you, you would run away" goes with how she wants to leave him once she realizes he will live a painful and unhappy life unless he forgets about her"

Bleed the Sky

     Artist: Reveille- Bleed The Sky
Anime:

• Akira
• Armitage III: Polymatrix
• Blood: The Last Vampire
• Ghost in the Shell
• Hellsing
• Neon Genesis Evangelion (End of Evangelion)
• Ninja Scroll (Movie)
• Rurouni Kenshin / Samurai X - 1st OVA (Tsuiokuhen, Trust & Betrayal)
• Spriggan
• Street Fighter II:The Animated Movie
• Trigun
• Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

Editor: Tsukin --> AnimeMusicVideos.org

    I like this video, and it is a turn in the opposite direction attitude wise. The last AMV posts have been cherry and bright, and this one is dark and violent, but there is a quote that goes as so, " life is like a picture it takes the negative to develop.". Guess that's pretty accurate, although vague.

I Love The World

    Life is one hell of an amazing thing, the creators of this AMV would agree with me. This song is awesome, the AMV made me smile, and would like to pass that on.




    Life is Beautiful - a great video that does a pretty good job of displaying emotion. The creator of this AMV has recently started a new website. Premonition Studios On it she has allot of AMV and tutorials for proprietary tools such as, adobe after-affects. Unlike this site, where you'll find tutorials for open-source software (free).

Bersek - The Beast Within

    My favorite story of all time, which appeared for the 1st time in 1988 as a 45-page prototype. Being a follower of the manga, am currently waiting with much anticipation for chapter 313 to release.

    Berserk's setting is inspired by medieval Europe. It centers around the life of Guts, an orphaned mercenary warrior, and Griffith, the leader of a mercenary band called the Band of the Hawk (鷹の団, Taka no Dan). As he ages, Guts changes from a solitary boy into a man who realizes the value of camaraderie. The story contains elements of both fantasy and horror, as it explores both the best and worst of human nature.

    In regards to the AMV, the editing and visuals in this are seriously awesome, but the music and Metalcore influences absolutely kills it. Berserk is a *very* dark series, Metalcore doesn't fit it at all, it works well with Melodic Death Metal or dissonant music, like Nightwish, or other Symphonic bands.

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