What I Did
- Edited five “cosplay spotlight” videos
- Uploaded the videos to YouTube and IGTV
- Animated a motion graphic bumper for Twitch streams
- Tools Used: Adobe After Effects, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, Instagram, YouTube
The Need: Dedicated Video Editing Staff
Each year, Animazement’s volunteer media team produces tens of videos to promote the annual anime convention online. These videos are typically interviews of cosplayers and other attendees who explain why they enjoy the convention. They also film livestreams for Twitch so otaku who can’t attend Animazement that year can still enjoy its major panels.
However, the media staff usually has to split their time between constantly filming the convention and editing their footage into videos, so they aren’t always able to post-produce and upload their promotional videos quickly. Also, the streams don’t always have motion graphic bumpers, so this is where I stepped in.
The Solution: An Extra Editor for the Interviews and the Motion Graphic Bumpers
As an Animazement volunteer since 2016, I happily applied and served as the dedicated video editor for their media team when the position opened up in 2019. During the Animazement 2019 weekend, I was first tasked with making motion graphic bumpers for the livestreams and then worked on “cosplay spotlight” interviews for the rest of the time.
The Process
I used Greg Baldwin’s Animazement 2019 badge art for the animated bumpers to keep them on-brand with the rest of the convention. I erased the background of the badge using Adobe Photoshop, recreated the sunburst pattern of the badge using Adobe Illustrator, and then recolored and animated everything in Adobe After Effects.
To create the videos for Animazement’s social media, Scott “Scott Partypants” Fowler and Rex Yau would film the b-roll and interview footage.
Once I received their cameras’ SD cards, I edited the videos in Adobe Premiere Pro based on a formula I wrote down. While doing so, I asked the other media staff to look over them before I they got uploaded to YouTube and IGTV.
The Result
The cosplay spotlight videos received 200 to 500 views across YouTube and IGTV with the Junko interview getting over 1,000 views across both platforms. The Animazement media team used the bumpers in many convention livestreams. One of these was the live piano concert by Kumi Tanioka, a musician who has worked on many Square Enix game soundtracks.
