AMV

Out in the Real World, an AMV is an "anime music video" -- a fan-made music video where the visuals are made up solely of anime footage. (The term "AMV" was popularized during the North American fad for anime of the 1990s.)

That isn't what the term means here. Sorry about that.

Here on All The Tropes, an AMV is an "animated music video" or "Animash" -- a type of video somewhat comparable to a YouTube Poop except it's usually not made with the same kind of humor as those. They are normally more mentioned for entertainment than for 'fun'. They are made by using clips from Anime series, Animated movies and Animated TV-series set to a song to produce a music video,with the accent on animal characters. (Especially dogs, cats, wolves, foxes, horses and lions). AMV's are commonly made with Sony Vegas or Adobe After Effects. Also strange about AMV's is that there are never been any reports, bans or otherwise because of copyright violation. It has been suggested that companies see AMV's as free publicity for their movies.

An AMV can be called an AMV when it has the following:

More than one movie/anime being used. If only one has been used, It's an '<<name of movie>> music video'. Also see Fan Vid.
A song/soundtrack in the background. The most common are Pop, Rock, Techno and Soundtracks.
The selected media must have animals inside it (Like Bolt,Balto, etc.)

Differences between Animash and Anime Music Video:

Animash mosty uses Disney Movies and movies that are sometimes mistaken for Disney movies, like Balto and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (All Animation Is Disney, right?)
Animash normally have a more childish look than Anime Vids.
Video games like Halo do not appear in Animash.

The animash community has members from the entire world: you can find American, Brazilian, British, Dutch, Japanese and even Malaysian people. They are a friendly community and tend to have each other in their Youtube-friend list. Rivalries do barely happen. (Sometimes they even work together on a video.) Video's made as birthday presents for other people are quit common.

The movies they use are not original, however. Everyone seems to be using the same movies. Original movies that are not common seen in AMV's are rare to find.

Not to be confused with Anime Music Videos, also abbreviated "AMV".

A short list of movies that are commonly used:

Anime:

Wolf's Rain

Western TV-series:

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (these ones are called PMVs)

This does not mean, however, that everyone obeys these rules. For example, there are several AMV's around that do not feature animals.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of AMV makers out there.

Notable Animash Makers include:

(The links direct to their Youtube pages.)