Pick your subject. First off, you have to pick a fandom that you'll be doing the AMV for. Your AMV subject could be one of several things. You could choose to focus on a particular character (Character AMV), a pairing (Shipping AMV), a group of characters (Multiple-Character AMV), the entire anime (perhaps pride for that fandom or a particular theme?), or you could get creative and do a crossover AMV featuring characters from more than one anime. Whatever you want! The choice is yours. However, you'll probably want to chose a fandom, character, or pairing that you are familiar with and is popular enough to be noticed by others in the fandom.
Pick your song. A good AMV uses a song that fits closely with the subject and describes it almost perfectly, Otherwise the video itself will have to be put together in such a way that IT fits the song. If someone can react by saying "wow! This song is practically his/her/their/its theme song!", then you have chosen a song well. Sometimes, you might simply be listening to or thinking about a particular song, and suddenly have a Eureka moment in which you realize that that song would be perfect for a particular fandom/pairing/character. Use your judgement. Once you have your song, it would help to listen to that song on repeat (consider listenonrepeat . com) for long periods of time. This will help inspire you and give you ideas for what you want to do for the AMV.
Get the video components. This includes the song's audio and the images/clips. Look up a good website or program that can (legally!) allow you to download the audio for the song you plan to use. You will want to do the same for episodes of the anime, if you plan to use actual video clips from the anime itself. Besides video clips, you can also use still images for the AMV, such as screenshots of episodes, portions of the manga (if the anime has one, which most animes do), fanart, official designs, or, if given permission, screenshots of others' AMVs. Save these all to your computer in a place where you will be able to access them later.
Make a file for your AMV. Again, you will have to decide for yourself what you want to do here. Find a program on which you can make and edit slideshows and videos. Create a file on that program and title it whatever you plan to name your AMV.
Start adding stuff! This is where you add the song audio and video clips and/or images that you plan to use. Pick images/clips that you feel fit the theme and subject of the AMV, as well as those that match the lyrics and mood of the song. Again: use your judgement. You should have figured out by now what effect you are trying to go for, and should select images and clips accordingly.
Edit edit edit! This might be the hardest step. This is where that skill and patience and practice comes in. Now, you should edit the duration and order of the different images/clips you have selected to correspond with the effect you're trying to go for. Timing is everything. A good AMV will have images corresponding well with the song. A great AMV will have good timing and correspond the images with the lyrics and rhythm of the song. That takes practice. Your first AMV will probably be poorly put-together. But your following AMVs will get better and better. This step is also where you put in transitions and motions and all that stuff to make your video fun and enjoyable and nice to watch.
Watch your AMV over and over. When you feel like everything is the way you want it to be, watch your AMV all the way through several times, without editing it. Do this several times. Chances are that you're going to notice a few things that you don't like, something you want to change, something you forgot to include, or something that needs to be fixed. Take note of these things, then when you've watched it all the way to the end, go back and fix those things. Every time you fix the AMV, watch it again at least two more times to see if anything else needs fixing. Repeat as often as necessary. When you've watched it all the way through about five or more times in a row without changing anything, then it's time to....
Upload! Now that you're satisfied with your AMV, you can upload it. YouTube is probably the best option. But if there is another site that you like to upload videos to, then go right ahead. The uploading processes vary from site to site and from program to program, so read up on how uploading works for your site and program of choice.
Finish up. This last step varies slightly from site to site. But it's mostly the same: choosing a title, editing tags and the description. One thing to be sure to include in your video description are credits and disclaimers. If you used artwork that isn't yours, say so and give credit to artists that want to be credited. Include the name and artist of the song.
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