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Donald Feury
Donald Feury

Posted on • Edited on • Originally published at donaldfeury.xyz

Add Fade In and Fade Out Effects With ffmpeg!

#ffmpeg #productivity #linux #video

I figured out that you don't need to use a full fledge video editor to apply some basic transition effects to video and audio.

Using ffmpeg, you can apply basic fade in and fade out to video using the fade filter. For audio, the afade filter can be used to achieve a similar effect.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf "fade=t=in:st=0:d=3" -c:a copy out.mp4
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This will start the video with a black screen and fade in to full view over 3 seconds.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf "fade=t=out:st=10:d=5" -c:a copy out.mp4
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This will make the video start fading to black over 5 seconds at the 10 second mark.

ffmpeg -i music.mp3 -af "afade=t=in:st=0:d=5" out.mp3
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The audio file will start at a low volume and fade in to full over 5 seconds.

ffmpeg -i music.mp3 -af "afade=t=out:st=5:d=5" out.mp3
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The audio file will start fading to zero volume over 5 seconds starting at the 5 second mark.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf "fade=t=in:st=0:d=10,fade=t=out:st=10:d=5" -c:a copy out.mp4
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You can apply both fade in and out effects at the same time, to avoid having to re-encode twice.

Enjoy

Top comments (10)

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pepa65 profile image
pepa65 •

Can you also combine the video & audio fade at the same time?

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dak425 profile image
Donald Feury • • Edited

Sure, just use the afade filter in your filtergraph with the same start and end times as your fade filters.

Check out the documentation for the afade filter if you get confused - ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#afa...

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pepa65 profile image
pepa65 •

Got it, thanks! I made this bash function to make things easier for myself:

clipvid(){ # $1:source $2:start(ti:me) $3:fadein(s) $4:end(ti:me) $5:fadeout(s)
  usage="Usage: clipvid <sourcevideo> <start(time)> <fadein(s)>"
  usage+=" <end(time)> <fadeout(s)>"
  [[ -z $1 || $1 = -h || $1 = --help ]] &&
    echo $usage && return 0
  [[ ! -f $1 ]] &&
    echo -e "$usage\nSource video not a file: '$1'" && return 1
  [[ ! $2 = [0-9][0-9]:[0-5][0-9]:[0-5][0-9] ]] &&
    echo -e "$usage\nStarttime '$2' not in time format hh:mm:ss" && return 2
  [[ -z $3 || ${3//[0-9]} ]] &&
    echo -e "$usage\nFade-in seconds '$3' not numerical" && return 3
  [[ ! $4 = [0-9][0-9]:[0-5][0-9]:[0-5][0-9] ]] &&
    echo -e "$usage\nEndtime '$4' not in time format hh:mm:ss" && return 4
  [[ -z $5 || ${5//[0-9]} ]] &&
    echo -e "$usage\nFade-out seconds '$5' not numerical" && return 5
  tmp=$(mktemp).mp4
  local -i len=$(date -d $4 +%s)-$(date -d $2 +%s) ce=len-$5
  ffmpeg -i "$1" -ss "$2" -to "$4" -async 1 $tmp
  ffmpeg -i $tmp -vf "fade=t=in:st=0:d=$3,fade=t=out:st=$ce:d=$5" \
    -af "afade=t=in:st=0:d=$3,afade=t=out:st=$ce:d=$5" "$1.mp4"
  rm $tmp
}
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dak425 profile image
Donald Feury •

Very nice! Your bash-fu is much stronger than mine 😉

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asbjornu profile image
Asbjørn Ulsberg • • Edited

Great script, thanks for sharing @pepa65! I took the liberty to expand on it a bit and created the following Bash script which will only fade in from the start and out from the end, the amount of seconds specified in the --fade-in and --fade-out arguments, respectively.

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joedotnot profile image
joedotnot •

It appears the s=0 in video fade-in filter is redundant? you are starting from the beginning anyway.
-vf "fade=t=in:st=0:d=3"
is the same as
-vf "fade=t=in:d=3"

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dapeng09 profile image
dapeng09 •

hi, is there a way to change the color from black to white while fading in/out a video?

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dapeng09 profile image
dapeng09 •

oh, I just figure it out, like below
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fade=t=in:st=0:d=3:color=white" -c:a copy out.mp4

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faroncoder profile image
Faron •

This is great!

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leigh_stace_d5f457d8f404c profile image
leighski •

Great video explaining how to add fades in ffmpeg - how would i use this to add fades to a large batch of clips at the same time?

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