NyuFX - fancy karaoke effects and more

[Youkakun]

NyuFX is a karaoke effects tool, based on ASS subtitle format and scripting language Lua.

Description:

Originally developed to become the follower of Automation 4 with a similar structure, it becames an independet program.
It allows beginners as well as advanced karaoke effect creators to make fancy effects with elements like lines, sylables, characters, words, pixels, shapes/masks, ...
Editors for Lua and ASS files, a Lua interpreter with NyuFX environment for execution and something more is already implemented.
Enough documentation and examples won't let you "standing in the rain".

Special features:

• Infade & outfade duration (milliseconds between lines with same style)
• Automatically vertical positions (sylables, characters, words) by style alignment 4-6
• Pixels for antialiased texts or shapes
• Text-to-shape for masks or deforming or ???
• Outline shapes & border pixels
• and much more...

Preview:

Spoiler for videos:

Short insight
Text forms

Examples:

Spoiler for scripts:

Simple

function sub(line, l)
	l.start_time = line.start_time - line.infade/2
	l.end_time = line.end_time + line.outfade/2
	l.text = string.format("{\\fad(%d,%d)\\blur2}%s", line.infade/2, line.outfade/2, line.text)
	io.write_line(l)
end

function roumaji(line, l)
	for si, syl in ipairs(line.syls) do
		if syl.text ~= "" then
			syl.mid_time = syl.start_time + syl.duration / 2
			l.text = string.format("{\\an5\\pos(%.3f,%.3f)\\t(%d,%d,\\fscy150)\\t(%d,%d,\\fscy100)}%s"
									, syl.center, syl.middle, syl.start_time, syl.mid_time, syl.mid_time, syl.end_time, syl.text)
			io.write_line(l)
		end
	end
end

function kanji(line, l)
	for ci, char in ipairs(line.chars) do
		if char.text ~= " " then
			char.mid_time = char.start_time + char.duration / 2
			l.text = string.format("{\\an5\\pos(%.3f,%.3f)\\t(%d,%d,\\fscx150)\\t(%d,%d,\\fscx100)}%s"
									, char.center, char.middle, char.start_time, char.mid_time, char.mid_time, char.end_time, char.text)
			io.write_line(l)
		end
	end
end

for li, line in ipairs(lines) do
	if line.styleref.alignment >=7 then
		roumaji(line, table.copy(line))
	elseif line.styleref.alignment <=3 then
		sub(line, table.copy(line))
	else
		kanji(line, table.copy(line))
	end
	io.progressbar(li / #lines)
end

Text formats

local line = lines[1]
local l = table.copy(line)

--Original line
l.actor = "line"
l.text = string.format("{\\pos(%.3f,%.3f)}%s", line.x, line.y, line.text)
io.write_line(l)

--Line shape
l.actor = "shape"
l.text = string.format("{\\an7\\pos(%.3f,%.3f)\\p4}%s", line.left, line.top + line.height, convert.text_to_shape(line.text, line.styleref))
io.write_line(l)

--Line pixels
l.actor = "pixel"
l.style = "p"
for pi, pixel in ipairs( convert.text_to_pixels(line.text, line.styleref, line.left % 1, line.top % 1) ) do
	local x, y = math.floor(line.left) + pixel.x, math.floor(line.top) + pixel.y
	local a = pixel.a == 255 and "" or "\\1a" .. convert.a_to_ass(pixel.a)
	l.text = string.format("{\\pos(%d,%d)%s\\p1}m 0 0 l 1 0 1 1 0 1", x, y + 2 * line.height, a)
	io.write_line(l)
end

Download:

NyuFX on Sourceforge

Notes:

Other developers are always welcome to join this project.
I hope (maybe it's a bit naive) it ends the development of more ASS raping programs and new ones will distance from the ASS format as output.

[Quarkboy]

Only somewhat related... but what's the history of LUA and karaoke scripting anyway?

Why is it that LUA ended up becoming the language of choice for this and not something like, say Ruby or Pearl or Python?

[Youkakun]

From the FAQ:

...
Lua as language for effect description was chosen, because it's small, easy to use, fast in execution and has much functionality in standard environment. A good choice for programming beginners.
For more details, look here.
...

Discussing the benefits of different scripting languages is never peacefully.

[jfs]

Originally Posted by Quarkboy

Only somewhat related... but what's the history of LUA and karaoke scripting anyway?

Why is it that LUA ended up becoming the language of choice for this and not something like, say Ruby or Pearl or Python?

Basically, because it's a simple and embedding-friendly language.
The first karaoke generation tool I wrote was written in Delphi and using a (pretty bad) Lua wrapper, but it kinda got something done.

When I went to develop a scripting system for Aegisub, I first looked into Python and did begin developing some things for it, but it soon got quite hairy and it became more and more obvious how Python just isn't suited for embedding into another application. (Host native code in a Python program, don't host Python programs in a native one.)

I looked into a bunch of other languages (including Ruby and Mozilla's JavaScript engine) and eventually ended up with Lua again.

All in all, very few languages are designed for embedding into other programs the same way Lua is. Besides, Lua is a quite good language

[alchemist11]

On the contrary, (just to be informative (for Sam)), the Spanish speaking community have developed their own called Kick Ass FX (KAFX) written in Python. From what I gather, the last time I spoke with one of the devs is that it works very similar to Adobe's After Effects but also compatible with lua and the .ass format. So, I think people have come to use lua in preference is to keep it as close to Aegisub (.ass) compatibility.

[Youkakun]

I know nandes KAFX.
It's a plugin for Avisynth, like VSFilter, but doesn't render an ASS file, instead it loads python code (which also loads an ASS file internally) to draw on video frames, not really comparable with AFX.
ASS (which NyuFX generates) has style tags and objects (texts or shapes), KAFX uses Cairo as graphic library to draw.
Both produce 2D effects and nearly same effects are possible, but i mean NyuFX is much user friendlier (just look the GUI, english documentation and examples).
From FAQ:

ASS as output format for effects was chosen, because it's easy editable afterwards, fast to produce and sometimes playable as softsub.

If someone really wants to go so far, that ASS is not enough anymore, i wrote in past FLuaG [1] to draw with OpenGL on video frames and additonally have access to audio data, so 3D effects, audio waves and much more is possible, but for anime karaoke that's nonsense.

[Youkakun]

I wrote a tutorial last time to make learning NyuFX easier.
It's currently just in german, but translations will follow, so be patient.

NyuFX Einstieg

[HauntingShock]

*passes by*
*sees thread*
Okay.... this looks good. Imma try

[Youkakun]

NyuFX 1.6 beta is out.