Category Archives: Programming

(FFmpeg) How to Use Green Screen to Mask a Video Into Another Video?

The use of a green screen is the most common way to add a subject to a scene in video production. By setting the scene at the purest green (not commonly found in nature) objects can interact on the green screen while computer generation can replace a new image in the background. With FFmpeg, this […]

“FFmpeg For Beginners” is now on Amazon! (Paperback & Ebook)

Today I am extremely excited to announce that “FFmpeg For Beginners” is now on Amazon. Cover over 112 different concepts, this is the ultimate FFmpeg programmers guide for users at any level. Readers at the novice level can gracefully learn FFmpeg and become upper-intermediate in no time. Soon you’ll be able to edit audio and […]

(FFmpeg) How to Add Color Normalization to a Video?

Normalization is a color correction filter that standardizes the RGB values in each frame of a video. With the use of histogram and contrast stretching, FFmpeg can quickly fix issues like rapid brightness changes and flickering. Below is an example of normalization at the highest strength: Tip: If this filter is applied to an MP4, […]

(FFmpeg) How to Blend Two Videos Together?

Blending has an interesting effect when two inputs are used. The blend filter has the potential to create outstanding artistic results, so let’s try it out.  Tip: In order to blend two files, they must contain the same resolution. blending two videos In this example, using the difference filter applied to both video inputs gives […]

(FFmpeg) How to Concatenate Multiple Videos?

Using concat with a txt file has one catch, all the MP4s must have the exact codec, framerate, resolution, etc. An example text file is shown below (file.txt):  Then run the following command to load the txt file to create a single file from the list: But how can you join multiple MP4 files that […]

(FFmpeg) How to Loop a Section of Video Multiple Times?

Looping a section of a video can be useful for presentations or advanced video editing. In this example the input.mp4 is a 5 minute long video with the requirement that after the 1 minute mark, the video will loop 10 times. In the requirements for this example, it was stated after the 1 minute mark […]

(FFmpeg) How to add a motion blur to a video?

I saw this question on Reddit and started messing with the effects recommended and totally liked the effect seen in the video below: Here’s the full script using the tmix filter: What you’ll notice here is the more frames you set the more motion effect is applied. The weights must equal the same number of […]

(FFmpeg) How to Stitch Segments to One Video?

Stitching videos generated by the segment filter is accomplished using the concat filter. See Question, “How to Splice a Video into Segments?”, for more details on segmenting video output. Imagine you’ve generated a bunch of segments for a stream and now you need to combine them back together as the packages arrive at the client. […]

(FFmpeg) How to Splice a Video into Segments?

Splicing a video (or dividing a video into multiple segments) is a common way to break large files into smaller parts. This is commonly found in streaming but can also be used to break up a video into smaller clips.  Here is a basic example where the input is a 20 second clip with the […]

(FFmpeg) How to Trim ‘x’ Seconds From the Start and End of a Video?

The last two questions covered trimming the start of a video and trimming the end of a video, but what does the command look like combined?  In this example, the input file is 5 minutes long with the requirement of 15 seconds to be removed from the start and 1 minute to be removed from […]