Aviutl Tips, Tricks and Support thread

[PhotoCat]

Is Aviutl a key-frame based editor?

Just curious... when I cut in aviutl, does it cut on the key frames like virtualdub does? Thanks!

[racer-x]

If I understand your question, you are wrong in both counts. Both Aviutl and Virtualdub are frame based editors and can cut on any frame. A key-frame editor would only cut on key-frames. An example would be a stream copy trim using ffmpeg.

[PhotoCat]

oic... I was misinformed about Virtualdub... Tks for setting me straight racer! Any mode we can turn on to force aviutl to cut on key-frames only? Tks!

[MaverickTse]

For those who feel that the EP v1.9 got slow for the NLE operations, try replacing the lua*.dll with the attached lua51.dll.
Please report if there are any change.

[MaverickTse]

Is Aviutl a key-frame based editor?

Just curious... when I cut in aviutl, does it cut on the key frames like virtualdub does? Thanks!

In theory, they cut on any frame. BUT depending on the import plugin, the cutting may not be frame-accurate. You'd find A LOT of such threads for VirtualDub.
For AviUtl, if you feed in a VFR video, some oddball format, interlaced format or corrupted video, CUTTING/APPENDING may goes wrong.
(Always deinterlace the video first before other editing, or you're asking for trouble.)

[MaverickTse]

I'm trying to implement some dither algorithms in C/C++ without using any .NET library.
The source images:


First, the Error-Diffusion Dither:


<libimagequant, 32 color>

Is this better than the Stucki/Sierra/Floyd dithering effects in Animated GIF Export/AFDither plugins?

<Stucki 32 color>


<Sierra3 32 color>

Then, the area where I intend to make the most drastic change: Ordered Dithering.
Ordered dithering give better compressed GIFs


<AForge.NET Ordered 2x2 matrix, 32 color>

<ImageMagick Ordered 2x2 matrix, 32 color>


#---------------------------------------------------------
# ↓NEW↓
#--------------------------------------------------------

<Simple Palette-aware Ordered dither>


<A slight variation of above method>


<Photoshop 6.0 imitation (RGB)>


<Photoshop 6.0 imitation (CIE-Lab)>

Please give your view on which are better or unacceptable.

[racer-x]

For those who feel that the EP v1.9 got slow for the NLE operations, try replacing the lua*.dll with the attached lua51.dll.
Please report if there are any change.

I never thought EP v1.9 was slower, but I replaced lua51.dll to try it out. I imported 4k HEVC 4096 x 2160 @ 24fps Samsung NX1 clips. That is the toughest source I had on my Computer. It got a little choppy when scrubbing the Timeline with the cursor, but was pretty smooth when I used the arrow keys. I did a screen recording of it with the sysmonitor running. As expected, it pegged the CPU, but I was surprised the memory wasn't maxed out.

Here is the screen recording:

[poisondeathray]

RE: dithering

You did a switcharoo on the screenshots (left, right)

It's nice to have a few options, because on some types of content , one algorithm may be more suited than another

Motion is important to evaluate as well, for flicker, noise and compare against filesize or compression .

Ordered dithering is good for temporal compression (less noise, better compression, less flicker) , nice option to have as well

[MaverickTse]

The problem is, there are too many options... at least I want to drop those inferior methods.
Clearly, ImageMagick's ordered dither sucks at low color since it is not color-palette aware.

What I need advice at this moment is, should I
1> Keep Stucki and Sierra?
2> Are there any merit for the Photoshop imitations?(they're slower, but resemble E-dither despite being an O-dither )
3> Do you know any ordered-dither for color image that works really good? (with code/research paper/patent document)
4> Anyone manage to reproduce the results here?: http://bisqwit.iki.fi/story/howto/dither/jy/
(I can't reproduce ANY of the stated methods with similar output except the simplest one!)
5> Anyone knows how madVR/MPC-HC do dither? (if they do)

For flickering, you can assume ALL E-dither flicker.
For filesize, O-dither always compress better than E-dither.

Actual animation for comparison is not available yet since I'm still figuring out how to implement the file encoding process....
option1: use the imagemagick library (the old method, DLL dependency hell, bloated)
option2: make a plain non-optimized temporary GIF → send to external program for optimization(Gifisicle/ImageMagick)

[poisondeathray]

1) Stucki and Sierra look good

2) The "photoshop" fakery is bad

Ignoring the "fake" ones, the better looking ones in your examples are larger in filesize

I don't have a lot of experience with dithering for still images. Dithering for video is slightly different but many techniques use the same algorithms. You can have a look at some of the avisynth plugins, which have options to use many of the same ones like stucki, sierra, etc...

[racer-x]

I figured out an easy way to do Pop-up animation on text or objects. Here is the tutorial I added to post #1: https://forum.videohelp.com/attachments/29239-1419339725/PopUp_Animation_tut.mp4

Example.

[racer-x]

Interesting short example video of pop-up and shadows on an image.

[MaverickTse]

I figured out an easy way to do Pop-up animation on text or objects. Here is the tutorial I added to post #1: https://forum.videohelp.com/attachments/29239-1419339725/PopUp_Animation_tut.mp4

Example.

A follow-up for your nice video tutorial:


Project file:
3DText_Planar.zip

To create a "TRUE 3D", not bevel, use the "Planar 3D" effect.
This FX simply create depth by duplicating the image along the Z-axis.
To enhance the perception of depth, add the "Shadow Effect" to the Camera Control object and adjust the light source position.

[MaverickTse]

New L-Smash Works provides better support for VFR video:
A recent change in LSW allows it to convert VFR to CFR on-the-fly, thus alleviating the A/V-sync issue when reading VFR video.
You can grab my build here:

http://1drv.ms/1gZO0EU

You will need to check the "VFR->CFR" box for it to work.
Also, note that this option is incompatible with "apply repeat flag".

DO NOT overwrite the old lwinput.aui in your installation yet, as there may be unexpected issues.

Thanks mugen/VFRmanic for the hard work.

[El Heggunte]

Unavoidable off-topic........

http://1drv.ms/1gZO0EU

F.Y.I., Skydrive became "gorgeously"-useless without Internet EXPLODER during the second semester of 2011.

[MaverickTse]

Unavoidable off-topic........

http://1drv.ms/1gZO0EU

F.Y.I., Skydrive became "gorgeously"-useless without Internet EXPLODER during the second semester of 2011.

You need to make a reason for that to sustain your claim.
I'm not using IE as primary browser either, I'm using Chrome for most operations.

Without really strong reason, I do not want to sign-up for another service and maintain another account.

[MaverickTse]

あけましておめでとうございます。
Happy New Year.
新年快樂。

[El Heggunte]

どうもありがとうございました。

Earthlings are quite irrational indeed, the New Year happens 24 times during the same day

P.S.:

「Ｃｈｒｏｍｅ　ｉｓ　ｔｈｅ　ｎｅｗ　Ｉｎｔｅｒｎｅｔ　Ｅｘｐｌｏｒｅｒ。」 ^_~

[MaverickTse]

Chrome has its problem, most notably being a memory hog on Windows (relative to Firefox).

Homo sapiens are far from rational. Actually every day can be "New Year".... but nevertheless, it can be a signal for people to change/make up their mind.…　and a time for price-rise for many public utilities...OTZ

BTW, are you going to be a legend this year? (EVA ネタ w)

時に、２０１５…使徒、襲来

[MaverickTse]

Just rewritten the GIF plugin. Beta version now open for test:
http://mavericktse.mooo.com/wordpress/archives/2028

Optimization now use gifsicle, which you can get it at:
https://eternallybored.org/misc/gifsicle/

[poisondeathray]

I posted a write up and project file on typewriter animation in AVIUTL here
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/369402-Typewriter-title-sequence?p=2367825&viewfull=1#post2367825

You also have to download typewriter1.mp4 from post #37
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/369402-Typewriter-title-sequence?p=2367460&viewfull=1#post2367460






Here is a "Writing" project

The goal was to illustrate the "animated mask reveal" concept typically used in NLE's and FX type programs, but done 100% in Aviutl (except the background "paper").

Font is Signet Roundhand ATT (Free)
http://fontzone.net/font-details/signet-roundhand-att



This uses right click (on adv editing timeline)=> new media object => custom object => line motion track, and keyframing the line manually. You can switch to scene 2 to "see" it (it's relabelled "animate matte" in the project file)

Uses multiple scenes to organize the project (sort of like "precomps" in AE, or multiple timelines in a NLE). the reason for this is flexibility to change 1 thing and have it reflected across multiple layers / scenes. Easy to make changes and adjustments.

=> But I've discovered problem with "nesting". Sometimes there are problems when you link a scene to a scene to a scene. It only seems to go 1 level beyond. So you might have to render out some things and reimport. For example, the text on background in scene 1 wasn't able to function "live", with the "live" animated mask in scene 2, until you rendered it out and reimported it.

It's a bit of a "sloppy" job - If you look closely, you can see some lines are revealed before they are supposed to be. You could spend more time with the reveal precision (when lines come close together, you might need a smaller "pen" size, or combine multiple reveal layers). Aviutl doesn't allow you to keyframe the line size (diameter) in between segments, so you'd have to use "coverage" layers.

Animated GIF Preview


ZIP file contains project file, BG Texture (Paper), but NOT the rendered out Text on BG - Scene 1 "Writing0000.bmp". To do that , you just render out Scene 1 , and relink the file in the "Root" scene

Some other ideas - you could add a pen/quill/writing instrument and parent it to the mask movement (group control object or grouping)

[racer-x]

Excellent! It kind of reminds me of the intro to the old Bull Winkle Show...

[MaverickTse]

See if anyone needs the following script:
http://www.nicozon.net/watch/sm17366520

If there is demand for it, I will start porting it to English

[poisondeathray]

See if anyone needs the following script:
http://www.nicozon.net/watch/sm17366520

If there is demand for it, I will start porting it to English

This looks good. I didn't understand all the labels, but you were able to adjust the diameter between "midpoints". I wasn't able to do that with that line motion track object (each segment didn't keep the desired diameter, they would shift after each midpoint)

[racer-x]

See if anyone needs the following script:
http://www.nicozon.net/watch/sm17366520

If there is demand for it, I will start porting it to English

That looks very interesting...

As for the Line-Motion Mask, it also works for writing in the sand. This is just a quick job, but could be much better if I spent some time on it. I made the image in Paint.net from scratch.

[MaverickTse]

I have finished porting the script, and now struggling to understand how it works...

[poisondeathray]

Thanks Mav

It sort of reminds me of the "vegas" effect in AE. It basically allows you to circulate various shapes along a path. If you increase the density enough, they become solid lines. I was mistaken that you could control and change the diameter between points, that's part of the animation (you can sort of control it indirectly) . It can be used in some creative ways. Too bad you cant keyframe/add midpoints to the parameter settings in the 2nd box, only the standard drawing normal settings

[MaverickTse]

Mid points are usable, I just have not yet include such a demo yet.
In addition, that TrackingLine Custom Object requires a "hidden" setting in the "Setting" dialog box (OptionCount) in order for its associated "Animation Effect" to work.
1x AnimationEffect -> OptionCount=1
3x AnimationEffects -> OptionCount=3
...

[poisondeathray]

About midpoints not working - I mean for the hidden box. For example you can't alter "thickness" (thickness being the "density" or population of shapes along the path) with midpoints. Only the parameters on the standard drawing menu

[MaverickTse]

You need to stack the FX：Thickness_Option@TrackingLine or Thickness_Option2@TrackingLine to achieve such dynamic thickness change.