Avisynth is a scripting language which can be used in order to setup non-linear video editing tasks on AVI files using one of the several filters which are also provided by Avisynth. Support for the filters can be installed using an executable file, like any other application, but the language itself you’re gonna have to learn by reading the documentation of this free video editing language.
On the image above you can see en example of the Avisynth code, which is gonna load a file, reduce it, add fade out effect and then trim the selected AVI video. All of these things are achieved with these 4 lines of code. To execute this code, you’re gonna have to use a video editor like VirtualDub. All of the filters come in file which is around 5MB in size, which is great because you get a lot of them. Here’s some of the more interesting ones:
- Media filters – extract frames as images, create clips from GIFs, etc.
- Color conversion and adjustment filters – levels, balance, invert
- Overly and Mask Filters – add alpha mask, layering of two videos
- Geometric deformation – add borders, letterbox, flip vert/horiz
- Pixel restoration filters – blur, sharpen, convolution matrix
- Timeline editing filters – loops, trims, reverse, change frame rate
- Interlace filters – setup and change interlacing – bob, weave
- Audio processing – remove audio, merge channels, mix audios
Dozens of more filters are available. As you can see, even though technically speaking with Avisynth free video editing scripting language you don’t get an actual graphical interface, that doesn’t make it less powerful. The key is to know how to use all of these awesome features that Avisynth has to offer. Here’s a few pointers to help you get started.
Similar software: AVS Video Editor, FlixMaster, VideoToolBox.
How to setup video and audio editing with Avisynth
Best place to start is by opening up the Avisynth start menu entry in Windows and from there selecting the link for documentation. There you’ll be offered with everything that you need to know in order to start writing the video editing scripts.
Scripts that you create can be written in any text editor. On the example above we used Notepad. Once that we filled out all the commands that we want Avisynth to perform, we saved the document with AVS extension. In order to run this script you now need to open up VirtualDub, like we already mentioned, or any other video editor that can run scripts. Load that script and just let it run. All the commands will be executed and applied to the AVI videos that you have opened up.
Conclusion
The fact that in order to use Avisynth you need to go through a bit of reading and that you need to learn how to write the commands manually, might frighten some from using this video editing task scripting language. We hope that the large list of filters and features which are offered might deter you from doing that, because they really are impressive. Scripts can be used to setup multiple tasks at once. Give it a try and see how it goes. Free download.
