AVISynth Plugin to Gaussian Blur Entire Video?

[Qiko]

Hi, I am still new to AVISynth but I am trying to blur an entire video clip 4:3 and use it to fill a 16:9. I am looking for heavy to medium blur. I came across VariableBlur /GaussianBlur but I don’t understand the parameters.

I am trying to the render between AVISynth and VirtualDub because my NLE render time is lengthy when doing gaussian blur.
.
Footage is yuy2 avi bottom field first interlace.

Or is there another plugin that works easily in avisynth?

[poisondeathray]

Hi, I am still new to AVISynth but I am trying to blur an entire video clip 4:3 and use it to fill a 16:9. I am looking for heavy to medium blur. I came across VariableBlur /GaussianBlur but I don’t understand the parameters.

I am trying to the render between AVISynth and VirtualDub because my NLE render time is lengthy when doing gaussian blur.
.
Footage is yuy2 avi bottom field first interlace.

Or is there another plugin that works easily in avisynth?

If the content is actually interlaced, you should either apply spatial filters such as those blurs to separated fields then weave, or bob deinterlace apply the filter, then re-interlace.

The strength of Gaussian blur is set by the varY parameter. Higher numbers are stronger. You can just use a number eg. GaussianBlur(1) or GaussianBlur(3)

[jagabo]

You can always reduce the frame size and increase it again to get something like a gaussian blur.

GaussResize(width/2, height/2).GaussResize(width,height)

You control the radius of the blur with the dimensions of the downsize. You can use any of the resize filters for different effects.

[Qiko]

Awesome, thx jagabo & poisondeathray. I will give these a try.

btw, How does one create the preview for the different levels?

[poisondeathray]

How does one create the preview for the different levels?

You can use stackhorizontal(), or stackvertical() to put images side by side or top/bottom

Here is what I used for the preview above, I broke it out to make it easier to understand

a=last

a
gaussianblur(varY=1)
subtitle("varY=1")
b=last

a
gaussianblur(varY=3)
subtitle("varY=3")
c=last

a
gaussianblur(varY=7)
subtitle("varY=7")
d=last

stackhorizontal(a,b,c,d)

In your script, you would open it with a=AVIsource("video.avi")



Another good way to compare is to use avspmod. You can switch between versions of the script by using the number keys (it's like different tabs in a browser) . Maybe not for your case here, but it's better for examining small details and differences , because the pictures are aligned (if it's the same video, same dimensions, the frames are aligned too)

[jagabo]

You could use Animate():

function ShowBlur(clip vid, float radius)
{
    GaussianBlur(vid, radius)
    Subtitle(String(radius))
}

ImageSource("gaussianblur.png", start=0, end=100, fps=23.976)
Crop(0,0,width/4, height) # just the unblurred image
ConvertToYV12() # GaussianBlur requires YV12
Animate(0,100, "ShowBlur", 1.0, 10.0)

[poisondeathray]

Which NLE are you using? In some NLE's , certain effects are GPU accelerated. Blurs usually fall in that category - the calculations used for blurs usually work well with GPU architectures. You can get anywhere from a 1-20x speedup depending on the GPU used.

[Qiko]

Running an old sony movie studio 11 with a 7970. I will take a look for any gpu accelerations.

thx for the quick guides.

[Qiko]

Thx everyone. This really helped a lot. This is what I was going for and the blur looks good.



Here is the code for future ref.

# Film Blur Build

#============================================================================================
# Credits:
# poisondeathray and jagabo "AVISynth Plugin to Gaussian Blur Entire Video?" (https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/374043-AVISynth-Plugin-to-Gaussian-Blur-Entire-Video?p=2409243)
# VideoHelp "Video graphics in Pillar bars with 4:3 video in a 16:9 project" (https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/322078-Video-graphics-in-Pillar-bars-with-4-3-video-in-a-16-9-project)
# lordsmurf's "Avisynth processing guide" (http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/news/5895-coming-lordsmurfs-avisynth.html)
#============================================================================================
LoadPlugin("D:\variableblur.dll") # Supported color formats: RGB24, RGB32, YUY2, YV12 

#--------------Load Video

    AVISource("F:\Tape3AVISynth.avi", audio=False) #Footage 720x480 4:3 FPS:29.97 Time:00:58.15 YUY2  Interlaced
    
#--------------YUY2 Color Space

    GaussianBlur(varY=90, varC=90, border=4, integrate=false, Y=3, U=2, V=2, gfunc=-1, gfuncc=-1, pcr=0, pcrc=0, nthreads=2)
    Levels(0,1.0,255, 15,175) 
    GaussResize(width/2, height/2,p=30).GaussResize(width,height)
    
#--------------YUY2 Color Space Final Export 
     
    ConvertToYUY2(interlaced=true) # Next Video workflow:NLE or VirtualDub or MPEG

Render time reduce from 01:48:00 using NLE to just 00:24:30 with avisynth. Definitely speeds up my workflow.

[poisondeathray]

Render time reduce from 01:48:00 using NLE to just 00:24:30 with avisynth. Definitely speeds up my workflow.

Running an old sony movie studio 11 with a 7970

Gaussian blur is GPU accelerated in Vegas . In the FX list, there should be category labelled GPU accelerated - it might not be available in vegas movie studio 11 , I think they introduced it the next version. One instance of Gaussian Blur should be about 3-4x faster on an typical GPU when measuring render times. When you have multiple filters stacked, the GPU accelerated operations can make a big difference. But they are sometimes prone to crashes and other bugs