Decided to pursue a Datamosh idea I had. Since the test video I put out yesterday, I wondered if changing the color map of each cut would trigger a pseudo-psychedelic effect. Well, I just tried, and it did not. Rather disappointingly, it came out dull and I wish I got more out of it. I decided to just retire the idea for now, but I thought I'd post the video and process anyway.
Process
I'm pretty sure this is a terribly inefficient way of doing this, but I'm on GNU/Linux and I don't really know better.
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Start with some footage in a designated project folder. Cut it up into a sequence. You can use any video editor for this step, I recommend Blender because I found it to be the best for GNU/Linux. Then export each cut with these settings:
- Output to wherever your project folder is;
- Encoding: MPEG-4;
- Video Codec: H.264;
- Output Quality: Lossless;
- Encoding Speed: Slowest.Make sure to save the Blender file for later. Name it something like "Colormosh.blend" and put the cuts in a folder called "source" and name each cut "p{number}.mp4" with {number} representing a successive value.
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One at a time, import each cut into Gifcurry and convert it to GIF. While in Gifcurry, make sure to:
- Set the width value to the width of the video;
- Set the starting value to 0;
- Set the ending value to the end of the cut;
- Decide on whether to limit the color further than 256;
- and whether or not to enable dithering.Put these GIFs in a folder called "gifcurry-output" and name them "p{number}-gifcurry.gif" with {number} representing a successive value.
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Again one at a time, import each GIF into Aseprite and make sure the color palette mode is set to indexed. Change the color palette to whatever you like and then reindex the color palette. Export each of these GIFs. Put these GIFs in a folder called "aseprite-output" and name them "p{number}-aseprite.gif" with {number} representing a successive value.
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Stitch these cuts back up as one sequence in Blender using the previously saved Blend file as reference. Then export the sequence with these settings:
- Output to wherever your project folder is;
- Encoding: MPEG-4;
- Video Codec: H.264;
- Output Quality: Lossless;
- Encoding Speed: Slowest.Make sure to save the Blend file with the GIF cuts for later. Name the MP4 "stitched.mp4" and put it on the root of the project folder.
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Import the MP4 into Avidemux and export with the following settings:
- Video Output: Mpeg4 ASP (xvid4)
- Video Output > Configure > Number of B Frames: 0
- Video Output > Configure > Gop Size: 500
- Output Format: AVI Muxer
Name the AVI "stitched-prepped.avi" and put it on the root of the project folder. [1, 2:39]
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Close Avidemux and then open it up again to clear previous settings. Import the AVI into Avidemux and delete every I-Frame. Export again with the following settings:
- Video Output: Copy
- Output Format: AVI Muxer
Name the AVI "stitched-moshed.avi" and put it on the root of the project folder. [1, 2:39]
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Then reimport the moshed AVI into Blender using the project blender file. Sync the video to the soundtrack because from my experience, the cuts you make in Avidemux don't cut the audio with it, so it's going to be off track. Export the video to MP4 because no one likes AVI. Name the MP4 something like "final-moshed.mp4" and put it on the root of the project folder.
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Watch the video, I guess.
Aftermath
This isn't a viable method since it took me three hours with a five minute video. So it doesn't work out, which is a shame. If I were to keep exploring, I would focus on different methods of obtaining the Datamosh effect. There is software other than Avidemux, such as a browser-based application called Supermosh, which I have thought about trying. Otherwise, I found the experience fun just to play around with different software. I'll probably experiment more at a later opportunity.
Sources
- Steps five and six are sourced from Zaqstoner's video tutorial on Datamoshing.