I finally made a music video with the feel of an opening sequence for a baseball anime.
For Kono Isshun wo Hanate (『この一瞬を放て』), I put together a baseball club’s summer: a field under a blue sky, a pitcher and catcher, players swinging bats, and friends spending time together between practice and the end of the school day.
I had tried generating sports scenes before, and they rarely worked the way I wanted. This time, for the first time, I found myself thinking, “Maybe this actually feels like people playing a sport.”
There are still plenty of things that bother me. Even so, it was a big step for me.
Letting the baseball motions show
A baseball-anime opening was something I had wanted to make for a long time.
A pitch from the mound. A swing at home plate. A catcher setting his mitt. Between those moments, a player’s expression or some time with teammates. I wanted to make a sequence where those scenes could come together with a song.
The song talks about taking fear along with you and trusting your hands before you have every answer. I connected that feeling with the pitcher, catcher, and players practicing in their different positions.
I also included a classroom, the walk to school, and the field at sunset. I hoped the time spent together would make it feel like one summer.
Sports movement is still difficult
A still image can look promising, then become much harder to work with once it moves.
A pitching motion would become awkward halfway through, or an extra ball would appear. In another scene, the catcher’s hand seemed to merge with his mask. Getting a batter naturally from his stance through a swing was difficult as well.
I selected parts of the generated clips, starting later, cutting before something went wrong, or moving into another shot.
Cut too much, though, and the action becomes hard to understand. The pitch can be over in an instant, or the shot can change before the batter swings. I kept returning to that balance: avoiding the distracting parts while leaving enough time for the motion itself.
Borrowing a little help from Seedance
Most of the video generation was done in DomoAI’s Relax Mode. I had been trying to make my MVs within that workflow, and I wanted to keep doing that here.
Pitching and the batter’s swing at home plate were particularly difficult.
Within the attempts I made for this video, I couldn’t get those movements to a point I was happy with using DomoAI alone. So I used Seedance for some of the cuts.
Part of me still felt I had given in a little. Seeing how far I could get with Relax Mode alone had become a personal challenge.
But this time I was able to include the baseball movement I had wanted for so long. I’m glad I could bring it this far with some help from another tool.
A big step for me
Watching the finished video, I still see things I would like to improve: a player’s form, the movement of a ball, the transition between two shots. There are scenes I wish looked more natural.
Even so, I felt some progress with sports scenes for the first time.
I had wanted to make this kind of baseball-anime opening for so long, and I finally brought it together as one video. That was the part I was happiest about.
I hope DomoAI’s Relax Mode will become better at creating these motions, too. I’d like to try the parts I couldn’t quite manage again.
There is still a lot to work on. This time, though, I feel as if I might be able to get a little further next time.
pop-rock / modern Japanese pop-rockこの一瞬を放てOpen the song page for audio, lyrics, and notes.Explore this song →Thank you for reading.
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