Filters/plugins - I am an idiot

[Dejana]

I'm pretty new to the technical aspects of making videos, I've only recently gotten serious about image quality because I want to start entering contests at cons. I've been following the guides here and it's been going okay, but now I'm up to the post-processing stage and I keep hitting roadblocks when it comes to using the various recommended filters and plugins. I had a lot of the necessary software so I didn't install the AMVApp - big mistake - I keep finding out I'm missing things. I've been scouring the web for the bits and pieces I need, but try as I might I just can't figure out how to get some of this stuff to work...

Long story short, how exactly do you install Avisynth filters and plugins? I've managed okay with simple things like single .dll files, that's easy enough, just download it to the plugin directory... but now I'm running into big zip archives of dozens of files and I have no idea where they're supposed to go. I've been reading readmes and Googling like a madwoman, but even the Avisynth wiki is silent on exactly how these things are to be installed. I feel like a total idiot having to ask this, but all I'm getting on my own is frustrated.

For example, at the moment I'm trying to use vmToon. I got the vmToon .avs file, renamed it to .avsi, and put it in the Plugins directory... but I was also missing MaskTools, which is where I'm running into the problem. There are a ton of files for it on http://manao4.free.fr/ and I'm not sure exactly what I need. I saved the masktools dlls to my plugins directory but I got "there is no function named mt_lutxy" when I tried to use vmToon. I downloaded the archive masktools-v2.0a29.zip which seemed to be the newest version, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it. I tried unzipping it to the plugin directory, etc, but I keep getting that "no mt_lutxy" error. Am I putting it in the wrong place? There are tons of instructions for using MaskTools around, but nothing on how you actually install the thing!

Sorry for the long post, I've been struggling with this for a couple of hours now and it's driving me crazy. Have pity on this ignorant n00b ;_;

[dokidoki]

I'm running into big zip archives of dozens of files and I have no idea where they're supposed to go.

A number of these DLLs come with source code, which you don't need unless you want to compile the plugin yourself or see how it works. You can ignore any file with the extension: c, cpp, h, asm, vcproj... Focus on the dll and avsi and txt (documentation) files.

I saved the masktools dlls to my plugins directory but I got "there is no function named mt_lutxy" when I tried to use vmToon.

What exactly did you copy there? I get that error if "mt_masktools.dll" is not in the plugins directory. (in the actual directory, not a sub-directory)

I downloaded the archive masktools-v2.0a29.zip which seemed to be the newest version

There's a newer one:
http://manao4.free.fr/masktools-v2.0a30.zip

[Dejana]

Thank you so much for responding!

So I can ignore all the other files in the zip archive? I downloaded the zip you linked to and extracted mt_masktools.dll and the three .avsi files (LimitedSharpenFaster, mfToon and vmToon) to the Plugins directory and I'm still getting that "no function named mt_lutxy" error.

[dokidoki]

I downloaded the zip you linked to and extracted mt_masktools.dll and the three .avsi files (LimitedSharpenFaster, mfToon and vmToon) to the Plugins directory and I'm still getting that "no function named mt_lutxy" error.

What version of AviSynth do you have installed? (load an .avs file containing "Version()" to find out) Did you ever have a previous version installed?

Although AviSynth 2.06 and later are supposed to autoload plugins, you could try loading it yourself to see if it's having a problem automatically finding it.

LoadPlugin("[pathname]\mt_masktools.dll")

[Dejana]

It's AviSynth 2.55.

Tried the LoadPlugin line, no good. I still get the same error.

[dokidoki]

I'm not sure what the problem would be, sorry.

[Kariudo]

could be that mt_masktools.dll is meant for avisynth 2.56 or later
if you're not in the middle of a project you could try getting the latest from sourceforge

[Dejana]

Unfortunately I am indeed in the middle of a project. :\ I guess this one will just have to be a bit faded.

Thanks for trying to help. Maybe after I'm finished with this vid I'll uninstall everything and go with the AMVApp.