avsFilmCutter

Video Editor

In order to use AviSynth or avsFilmCutter you need a script.  The proceeding sentence could easily be the first sentence of the first paragraph of all the guides I might write for FilmCutter.  In this instance where we wish to use FilmCutter's video editor we will need a "source script".  The "source script" will need to be one long video.

The script above is, of course, very simple.  The script needs to be saved or unmodified, never the less FilmCutter will use the script file on your hard drive not the one in the script editor window.  You may jump over and edit your "source script" at anytime, just save the changes you make and FilmCutter will reload the "source script" into the video player (if you change the number of frames the "source script" produces then any scenes you have already selected could be inaccurate).

The script is loaded and the first frame "0" should be showing in the view window.  The frame counter is next to the play button.  Click the play button and let a few frames go by then click the play button again to stop.  The two buttons just to the right of the play button are frame forward and frame reverse (you may alternately use the left and right arrow keys (holding the right arrow down will almost play the video on quicker systems, reverse is much slower).  The two buttons again to the right are the jump forward and reverse buttons, each time a jump button is clicked the video will jump 300 frames in the direction selected (the number of frames jump buttons jump can be changed, edit filmcutter.ini).  Continuing to the right pass the two dead buttons is the cut button or the start/end toggle button.

Ok let us navigate to the first frame of the scene you wish to select, let's say frame 300, click the cut button then move on to frame 900 and click the cut button.

The cut button becomes disabled and the "Add" button becomes enabled.  I hope you have noticed that the trim frame start and end text boxes have grayed out, the gray out is provided as a guide to what is next in the process, that being sending frame numbers down to the scene list show below in the next picture.

This steps are:

1. Start frame
2. Cut
3. End frame
4. Cut
5. Add or cancel

Simple.  When you click "Add" to the scene list, total frames and total time should be showing the scene you just selected as your first row (you should understand without me explaining that 900 minus 300 equals 600 except that all frames shown are part of your scene so add one for the first one).  You may right click the scene list window to bring up the write script dialog box or you can right click on a row number button to delete that row or insert a new row above or below.

You may also click the row number button to edit that row.  You'll notice that the first column of the scene list labeled "Transition Frames" shows "-        -" which are place markers noting that nothing is there no transition and no transition frames or no start/end frames when following a transition like dissolve that includes frames from the scene before and scene following.  This should make sense looking at the following snapshot showing the transition selection list box and the transition duration box.   Click the little down arrow and select a transition from the list.  When a transition is selected a default transition duration shown in frames will appear.  Click in the box and change to your desired value.  It is most important to understand that until you click the "Add" button anything can be changed, the transition / effect or start / end  frames, just click on it and change it.

Before we get much farther along let me speak about transitions and effects.  FadeIn, FadeOut and FadeIO are effects.  Dissolve is a transition.  The fade effects act on the beginning and or the end of a scene and dissolve acts on the ending frames of the proceeding scene and the beginning frames to the next scene.  You can see the difference displayed in the pictures below.  Because a dissolve overlaps the two scenes the result is shorter by the overlap or 60 frames in the example below.  Fades have an effect on frame count as well, the versions of fade FilmCutter supports adds a total black frame to the end or beginning of the scene they are applied to (FadeIO adds one to each end).

Editing with FilmCutter is easy although not automatic, the data for any action is stored in it's window, clicking "Add", "Save edited row", or "Insert row" send the data from the windows to the list.

Now let us back up a little and get simpler.  Looking to the lower right corner of the main window you see an encode button, the Icon for the default encoder (if you have one set up) and a box labeled View / Encode with two radio buttons in it.  The source / project radio buttons are by default disabled and are activated when you save or open a project.  The user will need to create (save) a project to enable this portion of the program.  When we have a project name to work with FilmCutter will generate an output script that follows the data in the scene list.  Although you can have a scene list full of many scenes and transitions you can't view or encode your work until you are working in a project.  Don't be fooled into thinking that FilmCutter will continue to save your project as you work along, you must save the project to save your data.  FilmCutter needs a project to have a file name for the output script that will be generated each time you select project from the source / project radio buttons.

With the project radio button selected the viewer switches to the project script.  You may change the view to "script editor window" to see the the text of the output script (current versions of Filmcutter allow you to save the edit and then save the project file just remember that switching between source and project views will erase your saved project output file unless you change the name) or select the preview window to see a larger version to the video.  You may also click the external viewer button which will launch the external viewer with the source or project script depending on the state of the radio buttons.  And of course you may encode the source or project script using the encode button.

Your Project file:

c:\video projects\myproject.jfc

Your Project output script:

c:\video projects\myproject_fcprj.avs

Below shows a simple project output script generated by FilmCutter:

###  Project Script Created by FilmCutter  ###
##############################################

Import("c:\video projects\your source script.avs")

t01 = trim(1393,2099)
t02 = trim(2131,3340)
t03 = trim(4542,6056)

t01++t02++t03

Below shows a very complex script with fades and dissolve used:

###  Project Script Created by FilmCutter  ###
##############################################

Import("c:\video projects\your source script.avs

t01 = FadeIn(trim(21727,29587),60)
t02 = Dissolve(trim(29588,29688),trim(29865,29965),90)
t03 = trim(29966,37089)
t04 = Dissolve(trim(37090,37190),trim(37191,37291),90)
t05 = FadeOut(trim(37292,42934),90)

t01++t02++t03++t04++t05

Some things to remember and make note of:

• When you have selected the project radio button you may switch to the script editor and edit or save the output script, just make sure that you save your works as the next time you switch between source / project the project output avs scritp will be overwritten.
• To change the splice function type (+,++) used to write the script, right click the scene list window.  Please note thought that the window is disabled when empty or when you have the project radio button selected (disabled means no dialog box to access the AlignedSplice settings for script writing).  The current version of FilmCutter has this dialog window available in the main menu popup. (Project / Script Writing Options)
• If your source script has a number of filters which slow the output of AviSynth, you may wish to comment them out (#) until you have finished your scene editing.  Some filters don't backup very well, some are very slow.
• avsFilmCutter appears to behave, but backup your source scripts and I'll keep working on issues like the the one addressed in the first item in this list (at the time of this writing version 0.9b allows saving the project output script without bugging up the programs file name tracking).

To wrap this up.

Not much more I can say except enjoy and thanks for looking the project over.  Of course if you would like to report a bug or add your opinion on how FilmCutter should work, please contact me.  There is much more to do to.