[trying to figure avisynth out]

Asj · Post by **Asj** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 2:52 pm

Um... I have a question.
Someone sent me a message, linking me to http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/ ... tqual.html and so, I download AMVapp and try to follow the light noise section, but I can't figure it out. I don't even know for sure if I should do this to my video, or my footage... Can someone give me some step-by-step directions? ^_^"

Kariudo · Post by **Kariudo** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 3:05 pm

In my opinion, all videos should have at least some smoothing applied to them (this helps make your final filesize smaller)

for more help on avisynth, I'd look at this page which is also in the guide you were linked to. Also, the avisynth main page is a good resource.

To help us help you, please post a few screenshots of various parts of your video (or footage if the video is still in progress) and the avisynth script you have so far

Asj · Post by **Asj** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 8:04 pm

Hmm... The only way I know of to take pictures of a running video is to load it into Movie Maker. It usually takes pretty good screenshots, but it just doesn't look the same to me... 1 2 3 4
I have the finished video on here, if you want to look at that. Vid

I've been looking at that first link and it makes a little more sense, but what I've read so far sounds somewhat pointless. ^_^"

Krisqo · Post by **Krisqo** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 11:08 pm

Pointless... not really. Confusing... at first, yes but the more you do it, the better you understand it. Every source I've encountered I've added some type of smoothing to it just in case there are some slight problems. Even the new Code Geass DVDs have a very light Deeding added to it.

It's when you get into low quality DVDs that you really have to use the stuff. Take my CCS script from two years ago. Took me a month to get the quality halfway decent because of the older source and cruddy DVD transfer.

Looking at your video it could have used a little work. Some smoothing, sharpening, and a lot of your edges are jagged.

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 10:13 am

Asj wrote:Hmm... The only way I know of to take pictures of a running video is to load it into Movie Maker.

Load your video into VirtualDub(/Mod), scroll to the frame you want, and hit Ctrl+1 to copy that frame to the Windows clipboard. From there, you can paste it into the image editing program of your choice (heck, even MS Paintbrush will do).

Asj · Post by **Asj** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 10:25 am

what would you suggest I type? I type some words in a thing and do something right?
I do it to the finished amv, right?

Asj · Post by **Asj** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 10:31 am

MS Paintbrush...?
ack. I need to resave the video first. Premiere saves every file super big except for wmv's - what file size would be too big? (it'd be several gigabites that way. would virtualdubmod really cut the size down that much?)

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 12:24 pm

Asj wrote:ack. I need to resave the video first. Premiere saves every file super big except for wmv's - what file size would be too big? (it'd be several gigabites that way. would virtualdubmod really cut the size down that much?)

The method that's generally accepted as a best practice around here is to <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/ ... ml">export a full-quality, lossless file from Premiere Pro</a> (and yes, it will be huge -- 1-2 GB is common), then <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/ ... ostprocess with AVISynth</a>, and THEN compress it to a reasonable size for distribution using VirtualDub(/Mod) or whatever.

When trying to diagnose video quality problems, it's best to keep the images/video as lossless as possible, so that we can be sure that any problems are in fact inherent in the video and not caused by lossy compression.
That means .PNG files for screenshots and HuffYUV/Lagarith AVIs for video clips (just a few seconds). Or, if you ripped your footage from DVDs, then cutting clips straight out of the MPEG-2 streams in the VOB files would also work.