#avisynth

[wyllzel]

Avisynth Basics - Resizing and Sharpening for Gifs

Prerequisites

Avisynth (Wikipedia)

How to Use Avisynth For Gif Making by MichieTuts

Installing Avisynth by brandinator

Tumblr Dashboard Image Display Sizes by Unwrapping Tumblr

This post details my process for using Avisynth to resize a video file. The video file can then be edited and converted to a gif.

I learned how to use Avisynth through the posts linked above. I highly recommend reading through them; they're very detailed and easy to follow. By comparison, this is a basic guide as it only offers one method for using Avisynth.

In this post, I cover the following:

Why use Avisynth?

Using Avisynth to resize a video clip

This post assumes that you've already installed Avisynth.

💡 Why use Avisynth?

Avisynth is a frameserver that takes a video file as input and resizes it for editing. The width of a Tumblr post is 540 pixels (px); with Avisynth, we can resize video files so that they fit that criteria. (For context, a 1080p (HD) YouTube video is 1920 x 1080 px.)

While Photoshop is able to resize images (Image > Image Size), it's not as accurate as Avisynth is.

Here are two gifs that have been resized through different software:

The difference is subtle, but the left gif (Avisynth) appears more detailed to me!

However, please note that I didn't run any Photoshop sharpening on the right gif. When learning how to resize and sharpen gifs in Photoshop, I followed rubyredwisp's Gif Sharpening Tutorial.

🎥 Using Avisynth to resize a video clip

The following steps detail how I use Avisynth to resize videos. The final product, an .avi file, can be imported into your editor (eg. Photoshop) and edited there.

① Choose a video file that you'd like to gif.

For the purpose of this tutorial, I work with a screenrecording that I took of Dragon Age 2.

② Navigate to your Avisynth folder and locate the normalwebmrange script.

This may differ depending on how you installed Avisynth, but my Avisynth folder is located at \This PC\Windows (:C)\video.

normalwebmrange is a Windows batch file (.bat). I use this particular script because it allows you to clip out a few seconds of the video by specifying the start and end timestamps. These timestamps specify the video clip that will become your gif(s).

I recommend working with video clips that are 4-8 seconds long.

ⓘ This means that you may need to load your video file back into normalwebmrange to make a gif in a new timestamp range. While inconvenient, I recommend working with smaller video clips so that you're asking Avisynth to process multiple small videos rather than one large video. A larger video is more likely to crash the software.

③ Load the video file into normalwebmrange.

To do so, select and drag your video file into normalwebmrange.

④ Enter the timestamps of the portion of the video you want to clip out.

A pop-up window will appear that asks you for the "starting time in hh:mm:ss format."

For this example, I want my gif to start at about 3 minutes and 13 seconds into my video file. My start timestamp is therefore 00:03:13.

Enter this information, then hit the Enter key.

Next, enter the "ending time in hh:mm:ss format." (For this example, my end timestamp is 00:03:21.) Hit the Enter key.

normalwebmrange will then generate a bunch of log lines. After, it will automatically open two things:

A tab in your computer's default web browser.

An Avisynth window.

⑤ Specify the resizing details for your gif.

Navigate to the browser tab that normalwebmrange opened. There are several fields for you to fill out here.

GIF Size - This is the width and height of your gif. For more details on Tumblr post sizes, see Tumblr Dashboard Image Display Sizes. After filling this out, you may have to adjust your video clip in the preview box (below the white textbox).

Opacity - Leave this value at 100.

Preprocessor - I always use qtgmc 30 slow for the framerate and debilinear sharpening. "30" refers to how many frames per second (fps) you want your gif to display; I find that the alternative, 60 fps, is overkill for Tumblr gifs. "Slow" means that Avisynth will take longer to process your video, but this results in better quality.

Extra Sharpening - I don't use this field, but feel free to experiment!

After filling out all of the fields, copy all of the text in the white textbox.

⑥ Enter the resizing information in Avisynth.

Navigate to the Avisynth window that normalwebmrange opened.

Paste the text you just copied on line 17:

Your Avisynth window should now look something like this:

Select File > Save Script.

Close the Avisynth window.

This automatically launches another Avisynth window called VirtualDub. Here, you can watch Avisynth resize and sharpen your video clip in real time!

Once the VirtualDub window automatically closes, you'll know that your video clip has been fully processed and is now ready for editing.

? Where did my video clip save to? If you go back to your Avisynth folder (\This PC\Windows (:C)\video), open the \temp folder. The .avi file named "video" is your resized and sharpened video clip!

[krystalpepsi]

anyone know how to avisynth mp4's/mkv?

[chogiwow]

CHANGBIN | 240719 FACECAM

[courtneymill]

wizard courtney 🧙

[septfair]

In Grade seven… During the Saint Cassian Christmas Nativity pageant, Noel was suspended for suddenly breaking into this excerpt from “Waiting for Godot”.

[wanna-bee]

act like an angel, dress like crazy

[eyedi]

[zevrans]

BEFORE -> AFTER ・ GIF CHALLENGE

was tagged by @eurodynamic @stdismas @mercymaker @aesfocus @radioactive-synth @leopardmuffinxo , thank you sm everyone! 💖💖💖

i'm tagging (with no pressure and sorry if you've done already!) @gallusneve @xec @hawke @rusya-pics @bolina

@fashionablyfyrdraaca @alistairstheirins @raccoonscity @thequantumranger @tekehu

@minthara

[dramagifs]

Maiden Holmes | 2020

[love-filter]

Hot Mess 240803

[jiyoos]

pretty glittery gaeul ✨

[archonfurina]

[jaeminvore]

PAUSE how did you get vapoursynth working drop the tut 😭

I watched like plenty of tutorial videos on youtube tbh 😭 here’s one that watched that’s pretty simple and helped me a lot had vapoursynth installed on my pc for like about 1-2ish years but i didn’t get around to using it because it just wouldn’t work and have been using avisynth instead lol if you have any problems still, feel free to ask!

[itachis]

pov: u finally figure out how to gif a show 6 hours and 5 different ps methods later 💀🤡

[shinku-puddle]

i feel like 2023 mint really doesn’t align with my past self’s ideals anymore i need to find a new avisynth

[septfair]

Hey, can I ask where do you make your gifs if it is not a problem? ˆᵕˆ

HIII so sorry this took me so long to get to this!! but i use avisynth, ezgif, and photopea to make my gifs ^_^ i use avisynth to cut + crop + sharpen my gifs, ezgif to turn the clip into an actual gif (and optimize it down to fit tumblr's size limit when i'm finished with it..), and photopea to color my gifs. avisynth is a pc program as i use my laptop to gif but if you have something to cut and crop your clips then honestly you're good to go ^.^