WebKit AviSynth Filter

EliSchleifer · 9th May 2012, 16:00

I am looking to sponsor development of a new plugin/filter for AviSynth. What I would like to have built is a plugin that will basically be a headless web browser (preferrably built on the Webkit stack) to output video of an HTML page.

The idea is basically to build a rendering pipeline for text and image effects that will be able to stand on the shoulders of all the innovation happening in JS/HTML5 land.

Think of the complexity of writing a credits trailer in avisynth today vs what you could do with a simple web page.

If you are interested in pursuing this project please let me know. I am not interested in owning the technology, I just want to support its development for the community and think it would be a very cool piece of technology to add to the AviSynth stack.

lachs0r · 15th May 2012, 10:21

So you want an AviSynth filter that uses the incredibly convoluted mess of HTML5 and JavaScript in order to render animations? Sorry, but this is about as far from sanity as it gets, and what you're calling "innovation" there is basically just making the entire thing that's supposed to be the damn standard for web content so complex that it's now pretty much impossible to write a 100% compliant browser (and you need to be able to handle invalid markup/JS too!).
It was hard enough before the days of HTML5 (ever wondered why pretty much every rendering engine has its own idea of what your content should look like?), but this just caps it all off. Not to mention that JavaScript is just plain terrible.

I could go on with the pointless ranting, but you get the idea. Let's keep this monster out of video processing. It was never meant to do that.

Rumbah · 15th May 2012, 18:24

The advantage would be that you could use Flash authoring tools for your animation as you can export to html5 there, too. Or use other tools with html5 export.

lachs0r · 15th May 2012, 19:41

I really don’t see that as an advantage, or how it would even make sense to do it that way. Flash authoring tools even come with video export functionality built-in. And if you’re not gonna write this stuff yourself anyway but rely on some tool to do it for you, well, might as well just use After Effects or Blender, which were actually made for this kind of work.
Honestly, that’s an incredibly dumb idea in my opinion.

rogerdpack · 17th May 2012, 18:02

You could have it take a directshow screen capture (take screen shots of the web browser), put that in a .grf file, then input that to AviSynth (ok a bit convoluted, and not what you had been hoping for, but...)

9th May 2012, 16:00	#1 \| Link
EliSchleifer Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 1	WebKit AviSynth Filter I am looking to sponsor development of a new plugin/filter for AviSynth. What I would like to have built is a plugin that will basically be a headless web browser (preferrably built on the Webkit stack) to output video of an HTML page. The idea is basically to build a rendering pipeline for text and image effects that will be able to stand on the shoulders of all the innovation happening in JS/HTML5 land. Think of the complexity of writing a credits trailer in avisynth today vs what you could do with a simple web page. If you are interested in pursuing this project please let me know. I am not interested in owning the technology, I just want to support its development for the community and think it would be a very cool piece of technology to add to the AviSynth stack.

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15th May 2012, 10:21	#2 \| Link
lachs0r eccentric Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 24	So you want an AviSynth filter that uses the incredibly convoluted mess of HTML5 and JavaScript in order to render animations? Sorry, but this is about as far from sanity as it gets, and what you're calling "innovation" there is basically just making the entire thing that's supposed to be the damn standard for web content so complex that it's now pretty much impossible to write a 100% compliant browser (and you need to be able to handle invalid markup/JS too!). It was hard enough before the days of HTML5 (ever wondered why pretty much every rendering engine has its own idea of what your content should look like?), but this just caps it all off. Not to mention that JavaScript is just plain terrible. I could go on with the pointless ranting, but you get the idea. Let's keep this monster out of video processing. It was never meant to do that.

15th May 2012, 18:24	#3 \| Link
Rumbah Registered User Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 480	The advantage would be that you could use Flash authoring tools for your animation as you can export to html5 there, too. Or use other tools with html5 export.

15th May 2012, 19:41	#4 \| Link
lachs0r eccentric Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 24	I really don’t see that as an advantage, or how it would even make sense to do it that way. Flash authoring tools even come with video export functionality built-in. And if you’re not gonna write this stuff yourself anyway but rely on some tool to do it for you, well, might as well just use After Effects or Blender, which were actually made for this kind of work. Honestly, that’s an incredibly dumb idea in my opinion.

17th May 2012, 18:02	#5 \| Link
rogerdpack Registered User Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 35	You could have it take a directshow screen capture (take screen shots of the web browser), put that in a .grf file, then input that to AviSynth (ok a bit convoluted, and not what you had been hoping for, but...)