ErMaC Studios Front Page

2004.07.28 - So, people have been waiting to post my latest video Extraordinary World. There it is. I've posted it to AnimeMusicVideos.org, but I haven't bothered adding it to the videos page because all the info is there at the Org as well as the only download location, so why bother? But there you go, my opus. And also, my final video.

Yes, this is my final video. I am officially retired. I have withdrawn from the DDR Project, I have entered EW into my last contest, and I have deleted the tiny bit of the one project I was working on. I'm done.

Why? Because I feel like all the videos I really want to make, I can't make. My visions for videos have become more and more complicated, more involved, and more technically challenging than I could possibly devote the time or creative energy to in order to make. And it's depressing. I haven't had any creative energy to work on a video in months. The work on EW was the last bit of oomph I had left in me, and even then it almost felt like a chore to finish. Editing is no longer fun, because I've realized that I can never truly realize the visions I have with the resources currently available to me, and that frustrates me to no end.

So I'm done. I had a good run, and EW won Best of Show at FanimeCon, the con where I also won my very first award (for Closer to God back in 2001). I thought that was a pretty poetic way to end things. I have too many other things going on in my life now to keep this going. This website will remain for a long time, I assume, but do not expect new updates ever again. Maybe someday this site will be transformed to a new purpose, I don't know yet, but as far as AMVs are concerned, there will not be any more.

Thank you to everyone who's supported me and emailed me over the four years I've worked on AMVs. Thank you to everyone who's ever left an opinion or a star rating over on A-M-V.org. I'm happy that you've taken the time to watch and rate my work.

But now it's time for me to say goodbye. See you later, space cowboys.

2003.11.17 - Yea, it's been over a year since I touched this page. Hey, I've been busy.

Life's been taking up the majority of my time, and really I hadn't been doing a whole lot AMV related. I know the links are down, and have been down for quite a while. I've removed them, now they just point to the AnimeMusicVideos.org listings for the videos, which have links to download there, but you have to use the local download functionality which means you need an account. Sorry, this is best I can do. Hey, it's darn good speeds too. And don't forget to donate to the Org.

As for new AMVs? Well, I did a track for the DDR Project 3, which premiered at Anime Weekend Atlanta 9. I haven't made any other videos since April of last year when I completed Just Can't Take It, although I've been working on a video on and off for 13 months now. I'm actually making decent progress on it in the last few weeks, but it will still be a very very long time before anyone actually gets to see it, since the video most likely won't be done til next February at the earliest. After I finish this video, whether I continue to do more of them is up in the air. We'll see how I feel at that point.

Thanks to everyone who keeps visiting and supporting me, I appreciate it.

2002.10.23 - Now that I've finally got broadband at my new apartment, I've put my AWA Masters video Lonely Miracle online.

In other news, I've prepared a CD for the Anime Music Video Distribution Center, so if you would like to get a CD with all the videos currently listed on my downloads page (the CD doesn't have space for all the older ones, too) please get in touch with them. They do not have it yet as I need to finish arrangements for sending it to them, but once they have it you can get in touch with them to obtain CDs of my files.

One of the side effects of this is that I've re-encoded all my videos into XviD at higher quality and lower filesize! How, you might ask? Filtering. All my previous XviD encodes used little filtering at all, but video filtering technology has gotten so much better over the last 6 months (as well as the quality of the XviD encoder) that I just had to take advantage of them. This means that all my new files should be both higher quality and smaller to download. Since they're all smaller, it means I've added two more videos to the downloadable videos list, Hold On and Next Year.

Unfortunately it also means if you've downloaded my videos you'll probably either want to download them all again or obtain the CD from the AMV DC. My new encodes all have (XviD) at the end of the filename, whereas my old XviD ones do not. That means "ErMaC Studios - Tsugaru.avi" is an old encode while "ErMaC Studios - Tsugaru (XviD).avi" is a new one.

And finally, I'd like to plug a few more things. If you would like to support me, please visit my store at CafePress and buy merchandise. I don't feel right asking for donations for stuff which should be free, but if you would like to do the equivalent please buy my stuff. If there's something you'd like to see that isn't in my store, please let me know and I'll gladly add it. The other thing I'd like to plug again is my profile at AnimeMusicVideos.org. If you would like to leave me feedback on my videos, please click on the videos there and leave an opinion. I really get way too much email and despite all the praise that comes in, I feel bad that I just don't have the energy to reply to all of it properly. Leaving an opinion there is more likely to get a response as I really don't have to filter through spam opinions unlike my email.

2002.10.07 - I've put up my other AWA Pro video - Just Can't Take It - for download. You can check it out on the videos page. My Masters entry will be up in a week or so.

2002.10.01 - Well I'm back from AWA and settled in somewhat, so I'm going to post another one of my AWA videos. This time it's Tsugaru, a Rurouni Kenshin OVA video done to a song from the DDR 7th Mix soundtrack. As for AWA itself, I had an absolutely oustanding time and got to meet tons of other AMV creators. I didn't win any awards in the AMV competition, but I did win the DDR tournament which netted me $50 cash and the KOR TV DVD boxset from Animeigo, so I didn't make out too badly. =)

2002.09.15 - I've posted the first of the four videos to be posted during the period surrounding Anime Weekend Atlanta. The first one I'm releasing is Eva Reloaded which is a parody I made of the Matrix Reloaded trailer. It's currently in the Expo competition at AWA. Also, those of you who read my journal already know, but for those that don't I'm leaving Japan early so I will be back in the states soon, and I may be attending AWA as a result. Most likely due to the very short notice I will not have DVDs available to give away if I do go because I don't have any time to prepare them - sorry. Once I get home and get a new DVD Burner I may start doing a SASE thing for my DVDs. We'll see.

2002.08.18 - I've updated all the download links - they now point to a server that Doesn't suck. Enjoy, but please do not hammer the server too much.

UPDATE - Nope, site couldn't take the bandwidth and went offline. The old links have been restored to the videos page. Back to super-slow speeds! Sorry folks.

UPDATE 2 - OK new links are up yet again, instead of the crummy ones. These should last a bit longer, I hope.

2002.08.11 - The download links should work again - however a word of warning. These are being hosted off my laptop which is connected via wireless ethernet, and I have capped the number of users to 2 and the max upload rate to something which will not affect the rest of the people sharing this connection because that wouldn't be very nice. So if the downloads are slow, tough. And don't use download accellerators or you will be BANNED for 999 minutes. No multiple logins allowed, and hammering the server trying to login will receive similar treatment.

2002.07.19 - Unfortunately, due to massive bandwidth usage, the links that were working had to be taken down. I apologize, but the video links (and this time ALL of them) should be back next month sometime if all goes according to plan. They will have no bandwidth usage restrictions then, however the actual speed may not be the best, but it will have to do.

Part of the problem with this is I'm currently very busy as I'm leaving for Japan in 10 days and will not be back for over five months. That means I probably won't be updating this website and I certainly won't be making music videos (as there's no way I can fit my whole setup into a room the size of a Japanese apartment unless I stick the futon on top of the monitors and sleep there). I will be checking email but possibly not as frequently, although I'll admit I've been pretty bad about answering emails anyways. I get such a large volume of them and most of them are complaining about bad links which I'm perfectly aware of.

I will have several videos in Anime Weekend Atlanta's various competitions, however I will not be present as flying from Japan to Atlanta is not something I'm capable of nor willing to do. The videos not shown at AX along with a couple other new ones will be entered in that contest.

2002.07.02 - Well sadly none of my videos made the finals at AnimeExpo. One of them was disqualified for content (The Go Speed Go video) and it appears the other two just didn't make it. This means that I'll probably be saving these videos to be shown at Anime Weekend Atlanta, which means they probably won't be online for some time.

I have added links to all the videos which will be downloadable, however the links currently do not work. They should be working in a few days - I'm waiting for the person giving me hosting to move them into the proper directory.

I won't be back until after AnimeExpo, probably on the 8th, so I won't be able to check the site or check my email until I return.

I hope to see you all at AnimeExpo's AMV panel! Also, if you're interested in getting my DVD please come there as I will have lots of copies ready.

2002.06.29 - Hey, it's only been 3 months since I updated! I'm not that late, honest!

OK so I've been a very very bad ErMaC and left this place somewhat unattended to. Yes, the downloads have been down. If you'd been reading my journal at AnimeMusicVideos.org you'd know this. I have found new hosting and it should be coming back online shortly. My videos will be back by the completion of Anime Expo. However not all of my videos will be online. Check the new video page for a list of videos which will be online when the site returns. As for obtaining old videos I'm trying to figure out a way to distribute them that doesn't take a heavy toll on my resources, although you can always read down past the next paragraph for a way to get them. You can find many of my videos on Peer 2 Peer utilities such as WinMX and eDonkey2000 so I'd try those first.

When my videos do come back up, they will all be new encodes. I have gone back and taken the full quality source for all the videos (in some cases, busting out my old CD backups and re-rendering the old trimmed projects to get better source) and encoded them in higher-resolution AVI files using the new XviD codec. I don't recommend beginners trying this, but you don't have to worry about the technical details at all. Just go download the standard DivX5 codec from DivX.com and you can playback my files - in fact I recommend the DivX5 filters over XviD's native filters.

The resolutions for widescreen videos are 512x272 and the fullscreen videos are done at 480x360, with the exception of Soul of an Angel which is done in 480x256 because otherwise it would be over 100MB. The encodes have all been done in Variable Bitrate, which is why some very short videos, like the Evangelion Trailer, are larger than some much longer videos like Cowboy Blues. Certain videos are just more motion-heavy and require more bits. However, all of the encodes look better than my previous ones (even the two high-res encodes of Closer to God and Evil Light) and are playable on most machines without too many problems. However, as a consequence of this I will no longer be offering MPEG1 versions of my videos, or the older DivX3 versions. I apologize for this, but due to bandwidth concerns I decided on only having one format, and I wanted it to be the best compromise between size, quality, and compatability.

As for Anime Expo, I will be appearing at and participlating in the AMV creators panel which is being held Friday at 4:00PM in Live Programming 1, room 104 in the Long Beach Convention Center. I highly recommend attending, as Tim Park (Doki Doki Productions), Vlad Pohnert, Eric Kobet, and I will all be on the panel. Also, good old Brad DeMoss will also be in attendance, but don't say I told you. ^_^

At the panel I will also be distributing copies of my new 2001 AMV Reel DVD! It contains all 18 AMVs that I produced during 2001, as well as 6 bonus videos including the original versions of Soul of an Angel, Closer to God, and Evil Light. It also has the two videos I did in the year 2000 and the Eva Trailer I did that won Best Trailer at the AMV.org Viewers Choice Awards.

As for bonus features, every single video has an alternate audio track with commentary by me about how I made it, my thoughts on the video, things like that. Basically stream of conciousness stuff as I rewatched each video (some of them for the first time in months). There's also a text interview with me by Phade of AMV.org.

The DVDs themselves cost about $6 to produce after taking the DVD blanks, keepcases, covers, etc into account. I have a total price breakdown if you're that suspicious, but I'm actually losing money by charging $6 each for them, so please come out and get them so that I'm not left with a bunch of discs that I used money out of my own pocket to produce. They're well worth it!

As for the Anime Expo video competition, I entered three videos there. I sent two secret projects, as well as the same video that I sent to Fanime and Otakon - Go Speed Go. The information for this I have made available, and the download will be online as soon as my video downloads become available. The announcement of the finalists should be on the 30th (tomorrow) so I will make another update here if I wind up making the finals.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as I can at Anime Expo. If you want me to recognize you right away, please go support me and my efforts by buying my merchandise! If there's any of the CafePress merchandise that you'd like my logo on, please let me know. I already have my own shirt, sweatshirt, and cap and I can tell you that they're quite excellent, not shabby quality at all.

2002.03.31 - Well it's been quite some time since I updated this page, and after some prodding by a certain person I guess I might as well update what's going on.

I've been very busy with life in general (and this nifty game called Ragnarok Online) but I have managed to get a lot of stuff done. For instance, there will be a new video in FanimeCon's AMV contest, and I'm currently working on my DDR2 Project video, as well as other video projects...

Speaking of Fanime, I will be there in person and I will also be on the AMV creators panel. I don't know when it will be exactly but I'm sure it will be in the schedule so feel free to stop by the panel and say hello.

Here's the bad news - Video hosting may get very hairy in the next few months, especially after I go to Japan. In fact I'm not sure if I'll be able to have my videos hosted at all. So this is a warning - if you want my videos, download them now while there's still hosting. =)

2002.02.20 - Whoops, there was an audio dropout in the MPEG version of Closer to God 2. Uploading the fixed one now, if you downloaded it already in the last 8 hours or so please delete it and restart it tomorrow (I have to upload the whole thing again). Sorry about that folks!

2002.02.19 - Well the results of the AMV.org Viewers Choice Awards are in, and I wound up winning Best New Creator, Best Trailer, and the Helping Hand award. Thanks to everyone who voted for me.

As a treat for everyone, in honor of my Best New Creator award, I'm posting the remake of my very first real music video (the one I consider my first really good one), Closer to God. The old one will remain online as the new one is definately a new take on the whole concept, it's very different from the original. Hope everyone enjoys it. Again, like Evil Light, this one is also available in High Quality format (640x352 DivX).

2002.02.07 - OK, all the download links have been changed and they should work, however if you sent me email in the past 4 days I'd recommend resending it as I may have lost a buncha mail. Sorry =/

Better news - I've redone Evil Light from scratch with my DVD source for the End of Eva movie as well as changing a few things in the video to make it better, in my opinion. It's listed in the same position as the old version on the Videos page. Since this video was done in full progressive and DVD quality, this is the first video I'm going to be offering a High Quality Full Resolution DivX version. It's 640x336, and there are a couple scenes that slow down my computer on playback so the file's only recommended to those with very fast systems.

Another thing I'd been debating for a long time is whether I should ask for donations. I think donating money just so I make videos really isn't ethical considering how these things should be free. However, now that I have a new logo that isn't made in TitleDeko ;-) I decided to open an ErMaC Studios store at CafePress. Currently there's only one design and it's on a TShirt and a Sweatshirt. Send me an email if you'd like to see it on other things like a mouse pad, ladies T-shirt, etc. If you enjoy my videos and would like to support what I do, please feel free to buy stuff from the store as a way of compensating me. This way I'm not directly taking donations and you're actually getting a tangable product so I don't feel bad about it.

2002.02.06 - New Web Design for the new year is up. A little late, but it's for the next con season. New logo and everything. =)

OK, the web server has been moved but downloads may still be going up and down over the next few days. Nate of Jaganzoku has been kind enough to mirror a lot of my videos, so if you have trouble downloading from my links, try his page.

Also, many of my videos were nominated at AnimeMusicVideos.org's Viewer's Choice Awards. I'd like to thank everyone that nominated my videos, I'm really honored. Most of the ones nominated (except the Eva Trailer and the Anime Polka) are also hosted on Nate's page.

More stuff coming soon, stay tuned.

2002.01.11 - The FTP server was down for a few days while I change server programs. It should be back and working now. Sorry for the inconvenience, please email me with any problems that you encounter. Thanks.

2002.01.09 - It's the start of a new year and that means it's time for me to update all these pages which really could use updating. About Me, Equipment, and the FAQ are all updated. Also, my mirror is gone and will be gone for some time, so if you'd like to host my videos or are already hosting them please let me know so I can link from here.

2001.12.29 - Well it's the end of the year and it's time I update this page in preparation for 2002. I'm working on a totally new webdesign, along with new logos, matierals, etc. for the next year of videos. Year 1 was really interesting (I don't really consider 2000 really being a year that I edited AMVs in...), I'm really lucky to have done so well.

As for previous news which should have been posted here a long time ago... I tied for Best Action video at Ani-Magic 2001 with "Soul of an Angel" and The Anime Polka won Best Comedy and Best Video. Cool! Big should out to anneke for running a great contest. You can read more about my con report in my Journal at AnimeMusicVideos.org.

As for what's coming up next year... I've been accepted to the Education Abroad Program and will be going to Japan for basically the latter half of 2002, so AnimeExpo will be my big shot, again, unless I finish enough videos in time to enter Anime Weekend Atlanta really early. But until then I'm working on videos... I've already completed two which will count as part of next year's video stable, one of which will probably end up at AX unless I make something REALLY funny...

If you want to read more about what's going on, I suggest you check my journal, linked above, for more info. Thanks to everyone who has supported me these last 18 months that I've been doing this - it means a lot to me. Look forward to new videos after FanimeCon!

2001.09.25 - Whoops! Mistake on my part was causing File Not Found errors on the download links for Life is But a Dream. Fixed now, my bad.

2001.09.24 - AWA has come and gone, and I was fortunate to win Best Sentimental for "Cowboy Blues" in the Professional contest. I'm disappointed I did not win the Masters, but then again anytime you don't win something can be disappointing. I'm glad that so many people got to see my videos and hopefully enjoy them.

"Life is But a Dream" - my AWA Masters entry, is now available for download. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS VIDEO IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN COWBOY BEBOP. And I mean like all of it - it's a complete spoiler of the ending. Consider yourself warned.

Also - my mirror is currently down for a little while, he will be back ASAP. Please continue to try his links, they should be working soon. I will upload my latest video to him when he does come back up.

2001.09.20 - Welp seeing as how the cat's out of the bag as to who did the video, I'm posting "Cowboy Blues" - the third Cowboy Bebop video I did (the second one is in the Masters competition at AWA7). It's a video which some people may find uncharacteristic of me, but others who've seen my videos like "Hold On" or "Next Year" will realize it's not THAT far off from stuff I've done, but those are the kind of videos I'm not best known for.

If you've never visited the site, please visit AnimeMusicVideos.org and leave comments on my videos at my profile. I always appreciate fan feedback. I'd especially like more comments on Soul of an Angel - so if you leave any comments at all please leave them on that video. It doesn't take very long - but it's just something I'd appreciate. If you download and enjoy my videos please take a few moments to review my videos, and thank you.

Also - due to circumstances there may be some issues with downloading video from my site. PLEASE use my mirror!!! You will get faster downloads from him. He doesn't have Cowboy Blues yet but he will by tomorrow (he's out of space and it's 2AM so I can't get a hold of him because normal people are asleep right now).

Finally - DON'T USE DOWNLOAD ACCELLERATOR! That program is the tool of the devil. It will open multiple FTP connections to my site and block other users from getting on. This is BAD. Because of the way the firewall I have is setup I cannot block people from the same host without forcing the site to 1 person downloading at a time entirely, so please do not abuse the site by using Download Accellerator. If you must use it, at least turn the "accellerated" thingy off so it only uses up 1 spot on my FTP.

2001.09.16 - Today I've released my final Evangelion video "The End of Me" since sadly it didn't make it into any of the final categories in Anime Weekend Atlanta's Pro competition. Visit the video page for my thoughts on it.

Also - I will be attending Ani-Magic 2001 in Lancaster, CA on October 6th and 7th. I'll be in the AMV contest as well as on the AMV Creator Panel taking place Sunday at Noon (I think, the time's changed several times). If you would like to meet me, talk to me, or offer me money or sexual favors, please attend. =)

2001.09.12 - I don't think I need to mention that yesterday was a very long and arduous day. I woke up at 3:00 in the afternoon on the west coast, which means everything had happened already, and I was just scrambling to figure out WTF was going on. I went to go donate blood but they're taking appointments for a week from now, so I'll try back later. Needless to say, my heart goes out to any and all who have lost loved ones.

But like the President asked, I'm going to try and go about my business. We can't let this bulls@%^ get us down. So I'm releasing a new video today. It's done from the X OVA just released in Japan. You can read about it on the videos page. Yesterday will be remembered for a very long time, but today is another day. I hope you watch it, enjoy it, and maybe it'll lift your spirits a little. Peace.

2001.09.10 - OK, several topics to cover tonight.

First off please do not email me about Mindwarp's Closer video. I'm perfectly aware of its existance. He emailed me asking about using the effect and I said yes. He may have taken a few more liberties than I would have liked but the whole thing is no big deal and it being resolved peacefully and amicably. Please do not send me or him any more email - apparently he's been receiving an awful lot of negative mail and I don't think he deserves it. As I said in my original email to him - I do not have a patent on any effects I use.

Second, I'm also aware of Ryoushitsu Anime's video "Soul of an Angel." I'm not terribly happy about that one either, since I received no email prior to its release, and it seems that whenever the creator talks about it he indirectly insults mine, but anyways... I know about it, please stop emailing me. Feel free to email him though. =)

I guess you know you've made it big when people start making knock-offs of your stuff, eh? Heh just kidding...

As for the downloads, Site 2 has no timelimit anymore so you can download from it 24/7 without worry. His site might actually be faster than mine (since mine is capped) and his download links will always be current feel free to use either link.

Third, Soul of an Angel's DivX version has been re-encoded. There were some glitches with the last one in a couple spots, and I've upsized it a little to remove the overscan bars on the side (although I think it looks a little rougher now due to the resizing).

Oh yea - video # 21 is done, but I'm not too fond of it so until I get a reaction on it from some friends it may not be seen for a while. =)

Finally, AnimeMusicVideos.org has just added a Creator Journal ability, and I'll try to update mine regularly. My profile is here, and you can check out my journal here. It's a lot easier to update than this POS webpage I made. ^_^

2001.09.09 - Time for the final AWA Expo video that I promised, and some other good news. My last new entry in the AWA Exposition competition is Eurobebop, a fun little video which I did sort of as a warm up before I started getting into my more serious Cowboy Bebop videos.

Also - good news: dunno001 (the person who was mirroring my videos) is now back in college and so all the Site 2 links have been updated, so now you can get my AMVs from either source.

2001.08.26 - Well it's been two weeks, so like I said here's another video which will be entered in Anime Weekend Atlanta's Music Video Exposition Contest. This week it's "History Repeating" - the second to last Eva video I ever made. For those curious the final one is in the Professional competition - I'm sure people familiar with my work will recognize it when they see it. The other one is secret. =)

2001.08.13 - As promised, here's the first of the videos I've been keeping in reserve. I managed to finish THREE videos in the span of a week (summer school's first session had just ended so I had several days off). I gotta tell you, it was damn grueling. Last Saturday night I was up for 36 hours straight, but I managed to polish off 3 very good videos, which you'll be seeing posted up here eventually.

I will be entering videos to every competition at AWA, and the videos which I will be putting in the Exposition contest will all be posted here before the con. My two videos for the Professional competition and my video for the Masters will be available online the day after the competition.

I'm still making AMVs as we speak, so you may see more posted here than just ones going to AWA. At the very least, you'll see a new video posted every 2 weeks up until AWA7. It might be more depending on how creative I am and how much time I have to devote to AMV making.

I've also updated several of the other pages on this site, including a new picture from AX on the About Me page. Yay!

Finally, this is around the 1 year anniversary of my first video, Protect Your Kind, so I guess I've been making AMVs for a year now. My, how time flies. ^_^

2001.07.18 - Wow, two updates in two days? The world must be coming to an end.

Speaking of the world ending, I've uploaded my Otakon video to the server. Not surprisingly, it didn't make the finals as I wasn't really sure whether it would qualify as being an AMV. Apparently the judges thought it didn't really fit quite right, which was a shame but that's their decision. The video is a movie trailer for the Evangelion Movies. All footage was taken digitally from the Japanese Eva Movie DVDs. It's a quick little trailer, just under 3 minutes (counting my bumper so people don't think it's real).

2001.07.17 - Hot off the heels of AX is ShoujoCon, another smaller con out east where I sent one of my videos that I had been saving for that particular contest. It didn't win anything, but I'm glad I sent it there because I think it was shown to an audience who would appreciate it the most. It's the first one on the downloads page.

Oh yea - and new pics of me and my workspace will be a little delayed. Everyone's told me my picture online here sucks and makes me look ugly. I got comments at AX like "Oh you look so much better than in your picture," and I was thinking....ummm, thanks? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? ^_^

My last con this season is Anime Weekend Atlanta, and I'm currently finishing off a project and then will start another one. Hopefully I can get one or two more done in time for the deadline. After AWA is over expect to see a whole lot of videos posted that I've been keeping in reserves for a while. But after that there will probably be a lull until March or so (maybe February if I decide to enter at KatsuCon).

2001.07.07 - The moment I had been waiting for all summer finally came, and I'm very very happy to say that both my videos made the finals at Anime Expo 2001, and one of them WON for best action video!! I'm so incredibly happy!! I'll have a new personal pic online soon (my current one sucks and makes me look terrible, it was done with a DV camera at arms length) with me and my shiny trophy thingy. ^_^ I'm soooo happy! Please enjoy the two videos I entered to AX, I consider one of them my best video and the other one of my top 5 best.

2001.05.18 - Just a quickie, the MPEG version of "I Pray" on the server was bad, so I reencoded it and reuploaded it. If you downloaded it before today please re-download it, as there's a big chunk of video near the end which for some reason was stuck on a single frame (the audio kept going though, very weird). A new fixed version has been uploaded.

2001.05.14 - Well AnimeCentral is over, but I still haven't gotten any official results, but from a few scattered, incomplete quickies it looks like I didn't win anything there, which doesn't really surprise me that much, although I really was hoping to win something. Anyways, the two videos entered at AnimeCentral (including the won which won at SakuraCon, Ghostbusters) are now available on the videos page.

I've uploaded a new, remastered version of Hold On, as well. I spent 8 hours doing noise filtering and substantially cleaned up the picture for the disc that I'm going to distribute at AnimeExpo, and it looked so much better that I decided to reencode my web versions as well. The filesizes are different, so if you have ones that don't match the filesizes listed on the video pages now, I suggest re-downloading them as they look much, much better, fixing the one major gripe I have with that video. It still doesn't look perfect, but the video problems no longer distract me while watching it.

Also, if you like my videos, please go and comment on them at AnimeMusicVideo.org - just do a search for the video name or for videos by ErMaC Studios. I really do appreciate feedback from people on what they think of my videos.

One last thing - last Friday the great Douglas Adams, author of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, died of a sudden heart attack. I can't tell you how great his work was, and needless to say his death is a great loss to all humanity. So long, Doug, and thanks for all the fish. You will be missed.

2001.05.05 - I was informed several days ago that one of my videos won the Grand Prize at SakuraCon last week! I entered two videos, one of which is available on the site now (titled "Next Year") but the winning video is also an entrant at Anime Central which is being held next weekend. Once it has been shown there I will post that one as well.

2001.04.07 - Well, I know I said I'd post a new video or two, but I think I'm gonna hold off on that for a while. I will post this one video which I did 4 months ago - it's a very experimental piece I did with Mononoke Hime, which really isn't very interesting, but I thought I'd post it up just so people can see what a video that didn't quite work out looks like. Yes, there are bad frames in several places and the timing isn't tight - it's because I never finished it. I've posted it in DivX only - it's not worth spending all the time on MPEG encoding, and the thing is 8 minutes which means big filesize even for DivX. Anyways, if you want to take a look at it feel free, but remember it's just up there so people can see what sort of goes on behind the scenes sometimes. It's the very last entry on the Videos page.

Also - Mirrors for the 4 Fanime videos are now up!

2001.04.02 - I just got back from the Bay Area 5 hours or so ago, and I've finally got my strength back, although I really really really need sleep. Fanimecon went well, although there were a lot of problems. First off, Thursday night I get an email from the Fanime staff saying my tape was accidentally destroyed when a 12 year old VCR that was rewinding it decided to up and die, chewing up my tape. So at the last minute I had to take the MPEG1 copies I had with me and get them onto a tape to bring to the Con.

Then the preliminaries Friday night/Saturday morning lasted 6 HOURS, from 10:30PM Friday to 4:30AM Saturday. God it was GRUELING. And there were SO MANY bad videos. William of Aluminum Studios says it best with "For every 10 new AMVs that I see only 1 of them contains any creativity or effort. People are doing it not because they are artists or creative, but because it is cool and the resources are cheap." I second that.

Anyways - ALL my videos made it to the finals in their respective categories, and Closer to God won for best Technical/Innovation/Surreal video! I'm glad that was the one that won, since it's my personal favorite. It didn't win best overall, but there was a big chunk of the croud cheering for it, which made me feel really good.

Overall it was a lot of fun - I can't wait til I enter more cons!
Also, expect a new video or two to be up on the site in a couple weeks or so. I've made another couple of videos which I think is really good but I don't think could win at a con, simply because they're so artsy/non-standard. I'm trying to tread new ground here in AMVs, but I know it's not really going to appeal to a wide audience.

2001.03.31 - The FanimeCon Music Video Showing just took place. I'll comment on the results when I get back home on Sunday. Until then enjoy the videos.

2001.03.11 - I've added little previews for all the videos I entered at FanimeCon, which will be posted as soon as the AMV competition is shown there. Or at least, very shortly afterwards. I've also posted a new video (scroll down to 3rd from the bottom) to tide people over until then.

2001.03.06 - Site 1 downloads have changed from HTTP to FTP downloads, because I can better manage bandwidth using FTP daemons. If anyone knows a decent bandwidth throttling module for Apache (not mod_throttle, which doesn't do what I want, or at least I can't get it to do what I want) please let me know.

In the meantime, the links for video downloads at Site 1 have changed. Now you'll connect to an FTP server which has a 50 user limit and a bandwidth cap of 20K/sec per user. Sorry, the huge amounts of bandwidth was killing the network connection.

2001.02.14 - Happy Valentine's Day everyone. I know one a day like this I should probably be posting one of my Marmalade Boy videos, but I'll be entering those soon so I'm afraid I'll have to keep those under wraps. I have, however, posted the first Music Video I ever did. Now I'll warm you now, this isn't a very deep video. The timing's good and there's lots of action, but this wasn't meant as a dramatic video. Still, enjoy it and look forward to seeing my entries to Fanime when the end of March rolls around.

2001.02.10 - OK, I guess this is the real launch of the site this time. Now the URL actually works and I've told people about the URL. =) Currently email doesn't work but it should sometime later this weekend. Sorry for the inconvenience. In the meantime email me here. UPDATE: email works now, address in link changed....

2001.01.22 - Welcome everyone! Today I launch the site that no one knows about! Whoopie! Well maybe a few people, but hopefully someday this place will get a lot of visitors. This is the homepage of ErMaC Studios, a 1 man video and audio production crew which does assorted video editing projects, most of which are Anime Music Videos.

I've been doing Anime Music Videos for about 6 months now, but I've never distributed any of my work except to a few people to get comments. To start off I'll be putting up one of my videos, because honestly I have no intention of entering this one into any competitions. The video is entitled "I Just Got Home" and is available on the Videos page along with a description of the content.

Please note there's a reason I'm posting this Video to the site - I really don't think it's good enough to compete in any competitions. All of my other videos, however, I think are competitive quality. You'll see my Debut in March at Fanime (if their folks ever get back to me with their entry rules), then I'll be entering at SakuraCon (but probably not attending, unfortunately) and then I'll have a big shabang at AnimeExpo (I'm saving my 2 best videos for then).

My policy on posting videos is that unless I don't intend to enter them in any competitions or it's a REALLY LONG TIME til the next con I'm entering, I'm not going to post them until they've made their debut at a convention.

So please enjoy the video, and tell me what you think. Keep checking back as I'll probably be posting plenty other videos in the future (as I've already completed 8, with 4 more already planned) for you to enjoy. Watch for me at the Anime Convention circuit this year!