Mixed visual media combination

[demigodscum]

Hey folks! I'm making a vid with mixed live-action and animated canon, and I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for how to integrate those cohesively. I'm a little worried that it'll end up looking really weird.

Thanks!

Comments

[colls]

I had a similar concern a while ago and just dove in and tried it. I found that I just concentrated on the normal things (motion, rhythmic editing, etc) and feel the result ended up cohesive.

It helps that my canon source is mixed live-action and animation - so anyone familiar with Star Wars is probably familiar with the mixture. Maybe (based on your icon) you're in the same boat?

Anyway, this was my result:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/22280416

Here's another one seekingferret made recently that combines Clone Wars and Prequel footage:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/40781472

[demigodscum]

Heh, yeah, I'm doing Star Wars as well. Those are both great vids, thanks for linking me! And I think you're right that the key is in the montage — you certainly make it work that way in your vid. I'm new to this vidding thing, so this will be an extra exciting challenge, I think.

[colls]

Yay for vidding! It's such a fun and painful hobby - heh. :)

Best of luck! Keep in mind there really aren't any rules, just go with what your gut is telling you or with what your heart wants - whichever is applicable. polish in post-edit (or something like that).

[demigodscum]

God, yeah. Sometimes literally painful *snort*. Thanks for the advice!

[brainwane]

I agree that looking at examples is probably really helpful! I made a list of vids I learned from a few years ago, with notes on specific techniques I noticed in each one, and I remember some of them mixed stills and animation, or animation and live action, in case that's helpful.

[demigodscum]

Ooh, nice! Thank you kindly. I will take a look at it :D

[seekingferret]

I've mixed animation and live action source twice- in the Star Wars vid colls listed above, and in The Sequel. Technically, "Mystery Tour" mixes animation and live action, too, but that's animation from the original source.

In the first two cases, I maintained very clear delineations between the live action section and the animated section, rather than freely mixing the two clip by clip. In "Mystery Tour" I jumped back and forth freely.

The answers ultimately have to do with what your aesthetic agenda is. I think animation has a sense of unreality that can pull the viewer out of the verite of a live action shot, and often that's a problem for me- that's the reason I chose NOT to include stuff from Star Wars Rebels in my gritty, serious vid about the Rebellion.

In "Mystery Tour", though, that's what I wanted, because I was going for a silly, slightly trippy aesthetic. To give a non-me example, in jetpack_monkey's Wrecking Ball, the contrast between the multiple types of source is the point- he's developing an argument about how no matter what version of Magneto and Professor X you look at, the same emotional resonances exist.

In "Hella Good", the whole project was trying to connect the complicated Obi Wan/Grievous storylines of The Clone Wars with the single fight scene in Revenge of the Sith to give closure to their storyline, and so while I could've jumped back and forth and included other Grievous or Obi Wan source from the films, it seemed like the best way to get the viewer to come along on the journey with me was to only ask them to follow one animation->live action transition.

This also depends a lot on the source. Mixing CGI-heavy live action with CGI-driven animation feels easier than mixing some highly realistic drama with cel-based animation. I also rejected using the Tartakovsky Clone Wars in "Hella Good" because I think the Filoni Clone Wars, especially later seasons with refined animation technology, makes an easier visual transition to the live action material.

Also, in general, my techniques for working with animation as a vidder tend to be different than my techniques for working with live source. Just to name a few factors, often animation is a lot more visually static and you need to do more work (zooming, panning, manipulating) to make it move with the music, often animation is more visually flat and offers opportunities for kinds of manipulation that would be worlds more time consuming and difficult with live action source (I've masked away talky face on animation several times, I can't imagine ever spending the time to try to make that look visually okay with live source.), often animation exists in color spaces that only show up in the most visually aggressive live action sources. So for these reasons and others, if you are going to mix live action with animation I think you need to figure out strategies for how to mix source that you're working with differently.

But ultimately the answer is to listen to your aesthetic instincts and make the vid that you think works best, and not worrying if others will think it looks weird. Good luck!

[demigodscum]

The answers ultimately have to do with what your aesthetic agenda is. I think animation has a sense of unreality that can pull the viewer out of the verite of a live action shot, and often that's a problem for me-

Oh, yes, *this* is the thought I'd been trying and failing miserably to form in the back of my mind. You put it into words.

This is an incredibly thoughtful and helpful answer, thank you *very* much. I will be munching on it for a while.