I went to the Eiffel Tower for new year celebrations. I was disappointed to learn that fireworks were forbidden in Paris but I saw some videos of the previous years and they had some light show on the tower.

I arrived 90 minutes early to look for a good point of view. There were so many people and cops everywhere that I had to walk away from the tower. The rain stopped around 23:00 and I decided to make a small timelapse with about 1000 pictures. I stopped at 23:58 to switch to video mode but for nothing. Indeed, I was very surprised to see that they actually didn’t do anything special for the occasion. Compared to other cities like London or Sydney, Paris seemed so cheap and boring.

Canon 60D + Tamron 10-24 f3.5/4.5

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Time-lapse

(click to display 30fps gif – 12 MB)

 ========== Download high definition pictures + 720p video ==========

Old AMV from 2005 : Ghost in The Shell + Benassi Bros

I watched Ghost in the Shell series and movies and had to use them for an AMV. This AMV was ok when I first released it but watching it now makes me want to change some stuff and correct mistakes like the very average quality of music editing. I named it Vectorman because I drew and used a lot of vector shapes (about 120). Vectorman is also a game on Megadrive which had excellent electronic/techno music. I’m thinking of doing a remake if I ever get the time.

Making Of is available, it looks cool and was fun to make but there’s actually not much to see.

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CAPTURES

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FOOTAGE

Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence

Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Ghost In The Shell: 2nd GIG

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AUDIO

Benassi  Bros - Light

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DOWNLOAD / WATCH

640*360 : 66 MB (divx)
640*360 : 50 MB (divx – Making Of)
Youtube
Vimeo

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Alex from AnimeRadio.su contacted me a while ago to organize an interview. It took a while to set up but we agreed on the 24th December. This was my first live interview and it was in English with Russian translation. Using 2 languages during the interview was a bit tricky and made it hard to keep a good dynamic but I think it went pretty well. Some questions were prepared but we also had some questions from the audience which I could answer live. This interview was an interesting experience and I realized how much my voice sounds boring… interesting, I’ll have to work on that.

Alex did a really good job on hosting the interview and Stefan, even though I couldn’t understand a word he was saying, was very reactive in the translation.

I made an edited version of the interview removing all the Russian translation which represented about 40% of the interview time. We also had a selection of 4 songs that I chose to put during music breaks. Here’s the list in the right order :

She - Chiptek

Air – Mer du Japon (Kris Menace Mix)

Capsule – Jumper

 Square Tune Magician – Puissance Saiyan

This interview also reminded me how I never really talked about myself on this site so if you have questions that you’d like me to answer, please leave a comment below and I’ll make a new post to reply once there are enough requests.

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DOWNLOAD / LISTEN

Unedited full interview inclusind russian translation
01h08m 64 MB Download audio file (Nostromo_Interview_animeradio.su-stream.2011-12-24_russ.mp3)
Download

Edited version english only
00h42m 38 MB Download audio file (Nostromo_Interview_animeradio.su-stream.2011-12-24_eng.mp3)
Download

2011-11-26

First AMV featuring the HypnoToad… old AMV. It’s a parody of the original awesome Benny Benassi genius music video.

This one was especially complicated to make. I had to draw all those vector objects and animate them. The project was so big (for my hardware at that time) that I had to cut the project into 3 separate pieces and each had between 10 to 20 video tracks! I had a lot of crashes that even corrupted the project file so I had to restore it with some old copy and backup exports that I had.

I managed to complete the project and it’s one of my favorite work.

I also made a special Epita 2005 AMV contest version. This contest was known at that time for its poor judging quality so me and other AMV makers from the french community decided to send the most nooby/weird AMV we could make. It turned out that my special Epita version got an award : the special AMV award

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CAPTURES

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FOOTAGE

Futurama, GTO, Abenobashi, Read Or Die TV

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AUDIO

Benny Benassi – Satisfaction

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DOWNLOAD / WATCH

640*480 : 57 MB (divx)
640*480 : 24 MB (divx – Epita SE)
Youtube
Youtube (Epita SE)
Vimeo

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2011-10-29

I know that I’m super slow on updating SVS. I have a lot of stuff that are keeping me busy but I’ll try to release a new version of the theme after I’m done with my current AMV project. For the moment, I just want to show you a bit how to play with Dexpot which is the program that I mentioned in my SULACO System post that I use to optimize my screen space (rollup windows) and to set behaviour of windows (transparency, click action, etc…).

As mentioned on this banner, Dexpot is a virtual desktop manager. Means that you can manage your windows on several virtual screens. Since I don’t use this function which is activated by default, I’m not gonna give much details about it.

DEXPOT IS :

- compatible with ALL windows versions (including 95)

- available in portable version (USB)

- more than 20 languages available

- frequently updated through auto update

- free! (but you can donate if you want to support)

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FIRST STEP

- Download Dexpot

- Install it

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ROLL-UP

Let’s start with the rollup function. If you don’t know what rollup is, here’s a simple example of use :

When you use several windows at the same time, the screen can get pretty messy. You have 2 ways of solving this problem : minimize or rollup. I know that a lot people only work with fullscreen windows and rollup can’t do much in this case. But if you work with windows that you resize according to your needs, rolling up can help improving your work space.

I configured my Dexpot to roll/unroll windows when I middle click on the titlebar. To do that, you have to go to Dexpot’s Settings (right click on Dexpot icon in the taskbar) :

- go to Controls menu

- select the Title bars panel

- select the area of the window you want to create an action on (in this case, Title bar)

- select the target of this action (in this case, Active window)

- select the action that you want to perform (Roll up)

- select the button that is gonna initiate the action (Middle mouse button)

- click Add, then Apply

Remember though that you might have problems with old programs that tend to get a bit messed up by the roll-up process (like Paintshop Pro 8 ) but in most cases it works perfectly. Also, if you don’t unroll your window before closing it, it’ll display in minimal format the next time you open it.

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DEFAULT WINDOWS TRANSPARENCY

This one is a bit more complicated to find and configure. Here’s what you need to do if you want to set a default transparency level for any kind of window like I did on this capture for my explorer windows :

Go to the Desktop’s Desktop Rules (right click on Dexpot icon in the taskbar) :

- click New and name your new rule “Explorer”

- select your new Explorer rule in the left panel

- tick “Apply rule automatically“

- go to the Conditions panel

- select “Window class” in Type

- grab the crosshair and drag it on an Explorer window that you have on your screen

- you should get your condition identical to my capture

- go to the Actions panel

- click on the “+” button

- select in the dropdown list “Set transparency value“

- set the transparency level that you want by dragging the cursor

- Click Apply and voila!

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If you do everything as described, you should be able to play with other Dexpot’s parameters and apply other actions and rules to any type of window you want. Dexpot can do a lot more stuff, but it’s not that hard to use and once you learnt how to play with the menus, you should be able to do anything you want. You can leave a comment if you need help with anything.

I spent 3 weeks in Lyon for a training course for my job. Since I was busy all day and I was back in Paris for week ends, I could only go out to take pics late in the afternoon/evening and I brought my camera only on the last week. I’ve already been to Lyon 3 times before with my compact camera, but when you have a DSLR, you don’t see things the same way.

I spent 2 evenings waling in Lyon. For the first one, I went to the old side of the city near the Fourvière Basilica where I could get panoramic view of the whole city at night. I was out for about 5 hours and walked more than 15 km. The 2nd evening, I went to the north side of the city and took some pictures in the Tête d’Or Park. It was already late and I didn’t have much time before the park closed. I walked about 10 km that day.

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For most of those pictures, I used my new ultra wide angle lens, the Tamron 10-24 f3.5-4.5. It gives awesome results for landscape. I had to buy a new camera bag that could contain an extra lens and I also had to buy all my filters again since this lens needs 77mm filters and my superzoom is 62mm.

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Failed timelapse attempt

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 ========== Download high definition pictures ==========

While watching Noein, I was always thinking about Stargate which I’m a huge fan of (Movie + SG1 + Atlantis + Universe). I thought it would be fun to try making a fake Stargate anime trailer. I first released it in English original version but then I got requests for a french version.

Unscheduled Offworld Activation !  –  That’s what you can hear Sergeant Walter say every time the SGC gets an unscheduled incoming wormhole. I actually started looking into video editing 8 years ago because I had the project of making a Stargate music video. I still want to start on this project, with SG1, Altantis and/or Universe. One day, maybe.

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CAPTURES

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FOOTAGE

Noein – Mou Hitori No Kimi E

I didn’t really like this one but I somehow managed to finish it probably because of the Stargate background or cause I was already thinking of using it as AMV footage. I don’t remember much of the story, just that the ending was mindfuck. Some episodes had very VERY different character design which was kinda confusing.

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AUDIO

Stargate Trailer

Troels Brun Folmann – Tomb Raider Legend Theme

Don Davis & Juno Reactor – Tetsujin

I cut some parts for which I couldn’t find matching lip sync. I mixed it with Tomb Raider Legend Theme for the first part and with Tetsujin (from Matrix OST) for the second part. It took me a while to find the right settings so that you can clearly hear music and voices. I also used filters to remove some sound effects from the original trailer.

The French version required to completely redo lip sync and audio mix.

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DOWNLOAD / WATCH

640*360 : 44 MB (divx – English)
640*360 : 44 MB (divx – French)
Ketsuryu (divx Mirror – French)
Youtube (English)
Youtube (French)
Vimeo (English)

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Always Hardcore is my first award winning AMV.

I think that I improved my editing skills a lot with this one. I spent a lot of time working on the lip sync and making the editing as flawless as possible. A few years ago, I heard from friends that they saw this AMV showing at some electronics store. Earlier this month, I actually did see it showing in the manga/anime corner of the biggest multi-media store near my place and I even took a picture.

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CAPTURES

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FOOTAGE

Fullmetal Alchemist

This is the first Fullmetal series (51 episodes) adapted from the manga in 2003. Back then, 4:3 format was still the most used standard for series and screens. Fullmetal wasn’t easy to use with this kind of music since this anime is mostly dark, depressive and the mood doesn’t really fit upbeat style. That’s why I had to use some lip-sync scenes more than once. Also, I thought it made the video look similar to Scooter usual music videos where you can see scenes from 3 to 4 locations repeating during the entire video. I used a lot of scenes from openings/endings since the best animation is usually there.

I made a making of video, my first one, but since there’s actually not much to see there, I decided not to release it.

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MUSIC

Scooter – One (Always Hardcore)

I discovered Scooter in 1995 with “Move your Ass” and I’ve been a big fan ever since. “One” is from their 2004 album “Mind The Gap”. I mixed 2 different versions of the song for this AMV.

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CONTESTS

Best of Show award at Kunicon Atlanta 2005 
Best Action award at Animethon 2005 
Best of Show & best Action award at Kumoricon 2005 
Best of Show grand prize at AWA XI 2005 
Best Dance Video at VCA 2006 

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DOWNLOAD / WATCH

 640*480 : 61 MB (divx)
Ketsuryu (divx Mirror)
Youtube
Vimeo

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