main menu

• Members Main Page
• Search for AMVs
• Forum
• How-To Guides
• Site FAQ
• About us
• Login

Information

• Member: VegettoEX
• Title: RVG Project 2004 - Track 10 - QCF + P
• Premiered: 2004-09-24
• Categories:
  • Action
  • Character Profile
  • Fun
• Song:
  • Alfh Lyra Ryu's Theme (Instrumental Mix)
• Anime:
  • Street Fighter II: V (TV series)
• Participation:
  • Anime Weekend Atlanta 10, Anime Weekend Atlanta 10 (2004-09-24)
• Comments: OPENING::
  
  This is a video I've been wanting to make for at least two years now. Before I even start talking about it, I'd like to thank the "Retro Video Game Project" as a whole for existing as an outlet for me to create this video. It would look very silly as-is without being a part of such a neat project (but I still would have had fun making it :P). I'm glad I held off making it, too, because I've learned quite a bit in that time, and hopefully that shines through in the video.
  
  The goal of this video is very simple... to be a fun Ryu tribute. I've been a fan of Street Fighter for almost as long as I can remember, and Ryu's theme (composed by Alfh Lyra) from the Street Fighter II series of games is probably one of the most memorable themes to come from the series (in fact, so memorable and loved that it even showed up in many of the VS. games and the first two Zero/Alpha games). Ryu + Ryu's theme? Seems to work quite well! I went with Street Fighter II V, mostly because it contained far more raw footage than either the feature film or the Zero/Alpha OVA. And even with the 29 episode TV series I was running low on quality footage :P
  
  I wanted to make this video a little different than what I had seen for videos in the NES project a year earlier; I wanted there to be a coherent (maybe even dramatic?) storyline to go alongside the traditional action. Sure, there's the typical obligatory moments of dorky fandom comedy that pop up (explained in a bit), but for the most part... I wanted it to be a "dramaction" video.
  
  THE VIDEO (CONTENT):
  
  The opening to the video is simply a fun intro. There's so many beats that I knew I just had to hit them all... so I did. The first part had exactly 16 beats, which fit the 16 playable characters in Super Street Fighter II, so I used its character select screen and cycled through all the characters. After the showcasing of three title screens, the beats double up (kinda like a guitar/bass coupling), so I began cycling through two-player grudge matches. I picked as many obvious ones as I could (Ryu/Ken, Guile/Bison) or some that made sense from the Street Fighter II V TV series (Ken/Vega), but most of them are just arbitrary to fill up the necessary beats :P. Ryu throws his Hadoken at the screen, and we're on to the story...
  
  Somewhat like the TV series, I wanted Ryu to start off as a not-quite-strong fighter, plowing through foes but ultimately not having the strength to make it through. Even after one defeat, he thinks he can still make it. There we've got the fun "Continue?" with game- and anime-Ryu both sparkling as they press onwards! Ultimately he's defeated again, though, and decides to better himself before tackling another fight.
  
  Determined to master the Hadoken (which... err... amusingly blows up in his face at least once :P... people always laugh at it, which is great), Ryu is spotted by Bison/Vega and kidnapped. In comes more of the great gaming in-jokes with the dialogue between the two characters. We've got Ryu's classic "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance!" followed by quite an obvious response that no-one ever seems to ask: "Who the Hell is Sheng Long?"
  
  Of course, there's some great answers to that question, so I suggest you do some research if you'd like to know! :D If you want some guidance, do some Googling on "EGM April Fools" ^^.
  
  Ryu calls out his friend's name as he is put under Bison's/Vega's "Psycho Power," and the inevitable battle of friend-vs-friend is soon to come...! Ryu and Ken begin to concentrate and "power-up" their new-found abilities (let's pretend Ken has his own tribute video in which he learns the Shoryuken, kplzthx :P) to some pretty dramatic timing break-down, which I had a lot of fun doing, going back and forth between the two in similar poses. Luckily, Ken is able to get through to Ryu and bring him back from the brain-washing, and it's off to battle Bison/Vega!
  
  The friends team-up against the Shadowloo/Shadowlaw leader, but of course it's going to be Ryu that clinches it for the good guys... he is Ryu, after all!
  
  THE VIDEO (BEHIND THE SCENES):
  
  There's not a whole lot to say about what went into the video; it's lots and lots of Photoshop work, really. The lifebar consists of 144 consecutive images with one-frame's-worth of red increasing to the left (which, btw, is going the wrong way! My bad! No-one pointed it out to me until the darn thing was done :P). I know I could have done it a lot more easily, but whatever! ^^;;
  
  All in-game text is actually recreated from scratch. The red/orange/yellow gradient on the text was relatively easy. The blue shadow on the text was a pain to get to show up! For some reason, the dark color blue would not show up against a black background in Photoshop. It would show up against any and every color... except black, which is what I needed. Blah. In order to make it appear, I created a blank layer underneath the text layer and physically merged the two layers together (the text and its drop shadow to the blank layer below it). It worked. Yay!
  
  Various layers and key-framed clipping was the process for the "writing" of the text on-screen, which turned out pretty nicely. There's a little bit of slowed-down footage from here to there in the video, which I generally hate to do (and vehemently recommend against). Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough footage, and I had to. In order to make it a little better, I threw "Ghosting" on most of these. In some cases it merely looks "OK," while on others (Ryu and Ken flying away from each other after the Shoryuken/Hadoken battle) looks freakin' awesome!
  
  Also, keep in mind that when there's a black/grey border around some of the in-game footage, it's due to "safe-zone" considerations; it would be cut-off and look ridiculous when played back on a television/projector unless this was done.
  
  That's pretty much all there is! I had a crapload of fun working on the video, especially since it's something I wanted to edit for such a long time anyway :D. I've been getting a ton of unsolicited overwhelmingly positive feedback on the video, which is quite flattering. Again, big thanks to the "Retro Video Game Project" as a whole for being such a phenomenal outlet for this video, and props to the inclusion of the Japanese commercial which preceeds my video (the fifth actual track) during the project as a whole!