I use this trick a lot so I can have full control over the overlays I'm about to draw on top. We start with an empty 1920x1080 canvas of pixels, setting “/dev/zero” as our data stream and RGB32 as our pixel format.

# mask input.mp4 with square.png input maskįfmpeg -y -f rawvideo -pix_fmt rgb32 -s 1920x1080 -i /dev/zero -r 30 -filter_complex 'movie='square.png' overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2 chromakey=0x008000:blend=0:similarity=0.15 overlay movie='input.mp4',scale=1920:1080 overlay overlay overlay' -map '' -c:v libx264 -crf 31 -frames:v 300 masked_video.mp4

We start by creating the Round Rectangle we going to use to mask the video: I probably could have created this shape using an FFmpeg filter, but I was lazy and thought it will be useful to have a method to generally mask any video with any shape, even if this shape is a video file! We start by creating a square to mask the video input to get that old round rectangle video feeling. Also, it helps to compare with the original 1906 footage. Shout out to Denis, your work is remarkable! I remember seeing this amazing AI regenerative work recently done by Denis Shiryaev San Francisco, a Trip down Market Street, Apbased on the original video. Wofff… There is a lot to unpack here, but let's start with the assets.

So, the challenge is to create a retro video filter using FFmpeg only for a given video. Are you currently hiring or have any interesting project proposals? Get in touch with me! 🌻 I am currently looking for a new project as an Audio/Video software engineer or project manager and it was a nice break away from interviews. I miss working with FFmpeg, so when I came across this interesting challenge on Reddit, I could not say no.

Ffmpeg filter complex scale