Filters & Effects

Learn how to sharpen or softly blur video with FFmpeg's unsharp filter. Covers luma/chroma matrix settings, how the unsharp mask algorithm works, and how to use it as a blur — with primary sources.

Use FFmpeg's signalstats filter to extract video signal statistics — luma/chroma min/max, RMS, and deltas. Covers broadcast QC, frame-level analysis, CSV export, and overlaying stats with drawtext.

Apply 3D LUT files (.cube, .3dl, and more) for color grading with FFmpeg's lut3d filter. Covers LUT fundamentals, application commands, intensity adjustment, and creating a film look, with primary sources.

Adjust the hue, saturation, and brightness of video with FFmpeg's hue filter. Learn what each parameter means, how to apply it to animated color effects and grayscale conversion, all backed by primary sources.

Learn how to apply tone curve correction with FFmpeg's curves filter: setting per-RGB and master curves, using built-in presets, and independently adjusting highlights and shadows, with primary sources.

Understand FFmpeg filtergraphs and how to write -filter_complex. Learn the difference between simple and complex filters, labels, chains, and practical examples of multi-input and multi-output filters with split, overlay, amix, and more.

Add fade-in/fade-out with FFmpeg's fade filter and crossfade between two clips with the xfade filter. Covers built-in transition effects, timing control with offset/duration, chaining multiple clips, and audio crossfades — with primary sources.

Learn how to adjust video brightness, contrast, gamma, saturation, and hue with FFmpeg's eq filter. Covers the meaning and value range of each parameter, combining multiple parameters, and dynamic time-based changes — backed by primary sources.

Learn how to burn text, timecodes, and scrolling tickers onto video with FFmpeg's drawtext filter. Covers font selection, position/color/size settings, and dynamic text expressions, with primary sources included.

Learn how to draw rectangular boxes and lines on video with the FFmpeg drawbox filter. Covers coordinate, color, line-width, and fill settings, combining drawbox with drawgrid, and applying it to visualize object-detection results — all backed by primary sources.

Speed up or slow down video with FFmpeg using setpts and atempo. Covers 0.25x–10x ratios, audio-sync without drift, pitch-preserving rubberband, variable-speed sections, and smooth slow-mo via minterpolate.

Auto-detect black bars with FFmpeg cropdetect, then strip them with the crop filter. Covers letterbox, pillarbox, even-dimension fixes, non-pure-black bars, and the reverse pad workflow.

Apply mosaic or blur to a specific region of a video with FFmpeg. Covers crop+overlay sandwich pattern, multi-region, animated tracking, face/license-plate privacy, and quality preservation.

Correct brightness, contrast, saturation, and color casts in video with FFmpeg's curves, eq, and colorbalance filters. Covers when to pick each filter, exposure tweaks, and white-balance adjustments.

Use FFmpeg's chromakey filter to composite green-screen or blue-screen footage. Covers key color, similarity, and blend tuning, compositing over a background video, and spill suppression.

Learn how to apply a uniform box blur to video with FFmpeg's boxblur filter. Covers radius and iteration count, independent control of luma and chroma, and privacy-masking techniques.

Use FFmpeg's blackdetect filter to locate runs of black frames in a video. Covers black_min_duration and luminance thresholds, plus applications to commercial breaks and chapter detection.

Change video frame rates with FFmpeg: fps filter vs -r option comparison and when each is correct, checking fps with ffprobe, 60→30→24fps conversion examples, timelapse creation, VFR handling, five error fixes, and five FAQ answers.

Convert video to high-quality GIF with FFmpeg's two-pass palettegen + paletteuse pipeline. Covers fps/resolution/dithering comparison tables, file size optimization, trimming a clip before GIF conversion, batch processing, and five common error fixes.

Rotate and flip video with FFmpeg: transpose filter values (0–3), hflip/vflip for mirror effects, fixing iPhone and Android portrait-mode videos that appear sideways, metadata-only rotation vs re-encoding comparison, five error fixes, and five FAQ answers.

Resize video with FFmpeg scale filter: aspect ratio auto-preservation (-1/-2), relative scaling, max resolution capping, and letterboxing with the pad filter.

Detect scene changes in video using FFmpeg's scdet and select filters. Covers tuning the detection threshold, reading scene-change timestamps, and extracting thumbnails at every cut.

Create video slideshows and timelapses with FFmpeg: sequential PNG/JPG to video, single image looping, frame-drop timelapse, and pix_fmt yuv420p compatibility.

Burn subtitles permanently into video with FFmpeg: subtitles filter for SRT/VTT, ass filter for styled ASS/SSA, font and position customization, hard sub vs soft sub comparison, libass installation, and five common error fixes.

Stabilize shaky video with FFmpeg vidstab filters: vidstabdetect + vidstabtransform two-pass pipeline, smoothing strength, crop modes, and libvidstab setup.

Add watermarks and logos to video with FFmpeg's overlay filter. Covers position variables, transparent PNG alpha support, opacity control, time-limited display, scrolling animation, multiple logos, and five common error fixes.