still-motion 0.1.1

Ken Burns pan/zoom image-to-video with optional animated overlays.

still-motion

Ken Burns pan/zoom image-to-video with optional animated overlays.

Built from the CineForge episode-intro generator at Trollfabriken AITrix AB, where ffmpeg's zoompan expressions turned brittle the moment any parameter changed. Hand-rolled filter strings broke on aspect-ratio edge cases and produced judder at 1080p30 because zoompan operates at working resolution — not at output resolution. still-motion fixes this with a temporary upscale technique: it scales the source image to output × temp_scale_factor before the zoompan filter runs, then scales back down, turning ffmpeg's discrete pixel steps into sub-pixel motion at the final resolution. A 5-second 1080p30 Ken Burns clip with ease-in-out zoom renders in under 4 seconds on any modern CPU. Pairs with web-overlay for animated graphic overlays and video-arrange for multi-clip assembly.

---

What it solves

Previous problem	Solution
zoompan expressions broke when resolution or duration changed	filter_graph.py builds all expressions programmatically from typed Motion parameters
Pixel-step judder at 1080p because zoompan works at output resolution	Upscale to output × temp_scale_factor before zoompan; downscale after
No easing — linear zoom was the only option without custom expressions	Four built-in easing curves: linear, ease-in, ease-out, ease-in-out
Compositing HTML/SVG graphics required a separate ffmpeg pass	with_overlay() chains web-overlay PNG sequences into the same filter graph
Title text required a separate ffmpeg invocation	with_title() appends a drawtext= filter to the existing chain
Rendering a slideshow meant writing shell scripts to chain clips	Slideshow renders intermediates in parallel and joins them with xfade in one final pass

---

Installation

pip install still-motion

For faster image probing (avoids ffprobe subprocess):

pip install "still-motion[fast-probe]"

For HTML/SVG animated overlays via web-overlay:

pip install "still-motion[overlay]"

For direct video-arrange integration:

pip install "still-motion[arrange]"

Install everything:

pip install "still-motion[all]"

Runtime requirement: ffmpeg must be on PATH. Install via winget install Gyan.FFmpeg (Windows), brew install ffmpeg (macOS), or apt install ffmpeg (Linux). Or pass RenderConfig(ffmpeg_binary="<path>").

---

Quick start

from still_motion import KenBurns, RenderConfig

# Build a 5-second clip: zoom from 1.0x to 1.25x, pan from center to upper-right.
# ease-in-out removes the mechanical feel of linear zoom.
clip = KenBurns(
    image="poster.jpg",
    duration=5.0,
    zoom_start=1.0,
    zoom_end=1.25,
    focus=(0.5, 0.5),
    focus_end=(0.7, 0.3),
    easing="ease-in-out",
)

# Add a fade-in title — chained, not a separate pass.
clip.with_title("Episode 3", animate="slide-up", size=90)

# Control encoding separately from motion parameters.
config = RenderConfig(crf=18, preset="slow")

output = clip.render("intro.mp4", config=config)
print(output)  # /absolute/path/to/intro.mp4

---

The pipeline

┌──────────────┐
│  source img  │  ① load as looped still (-loop 1 -i)
└──────┬───────┘
       │
       ▼
┌──────────────┐
│  scale ×4    │  ② upscale to output × temp_scale_factor (default 4×)
└──────┬───────┘
       │
       ▼
┌──────────────┐
│   zoompan    │  ③ animate zoom + pan at working resolution
└──────┬───────┘
       │
       ▼
┌──────────────┐
│  scale ÷4    │  ④ downscale to final output resolution
└──────┬───────┘
       │
       ▼
┌──────────────┐
│  drawtext    │  ⑤ optional title with fade/slide/scale-in animation
└──────┬───────┘
       │
       ▼
┌──────────────┐
│   overlay    │  ⑥ optional PNG / SVG / web-overlay compositing
└──────┬───────┘
       │
       ▼
┌──────────────┐
│   encode     │  ⑦ libx264 / libx265, single ffmpeg invocation
└──────────────┘

Steps ②–⑦ compile into a single -vf or -filter_complex string. One subprocess. No temp files unless overlays involve PNG sequences.

---

Configuration

from still_motion import RenderConfig

config = RenderConfig(
    width=1920,            # output width in pixels
    height=1080,           # output height in pixels
    fps=30,                # output frames per second
    temp_scale_factor=4,   # internal upscale: higher = smoother motion, more memory
    video_codec="libx264", # ffmpeg codec name
    pixel_format="yuv420p",
    crf=20,                # quality: 0 (lossless) – 51 (worst); 18–23 is typical
    preset="medium",       # encoder speed vs compression: ultrafast … veryslow
    ffmpeg_binary="ffmpeg",
    parallel_workers=1,    # for Slideshow: number of concurrent clip renders
    verbose_ffmpeg=False,  # if True, ffmpeg stderr is shown
)

Field	Default	Notes
width	1920	Output width in pixels
height	1080	Output height in pixels
fps	30	Output frames per second
temp_scale_factor	4	Upscale multiplier before zoompan; values 4–8 work well
video_codec	"libx264"	Any ffmpeg video encoder name
pixel_format	"yuv420p"	Required for broad player compatibility
crf	20	Constant Rate Factor; lower = higher quality
preset	"medium"	Encoder preset; "fast" for CI, "slow" for final renders
ffmpeg_binary	"ffmpeg"	Name or absolute path to the ffmpeg executable
parallel_workers	1	Slideshow parallel clip render threads
verbose_ffmpeg	False	Show ffmpeg stderr output

RenderConfig is a frozen Pydantic model. All fields are validated on construction.

---

Inspecting what runs

KenBurns.export_command() returns the full ffmpeg argv without running it. Use this to audit the filter graph or log commands before rendering.

from still_motion import KenBurns, RenderConfig

clip = KenBurns("photo.jpg", duration=5.0, zoom_end=1.3)
clip.with_title("Paris, 2025")

config = RenderConfig(width=1280, height=720)

# Returns a list[str] — no subprocess is started.
argv = clip.export_command(config=config, output="out.mp4")
print(" ".join(argv))
# ffmpeg -loop 1 -i photo.jpg -t 5.0 -vf scale=5120:2880,zoompan=z='...'...,scale=1280:720,drawtext=... -c:v libx264 ... out.mp4

# Log it at DEBUG before every render:
import logging
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)
clip.render("out.mp4", config=config)

The dry-run CLI flag uses the same method — see the CLI section.

---

CLI

# Render a single image with default Ken Burns (1.0 → 1.2 zoom, ease-in-out, 5s).
still-motion ken-burns poster.jpg -o intro.mp4

# Pan from top-left to bottom-right with a fade title, 8 seconds.
still-motion ken-burns photo.jpg \
  --duration 8 \
  --zoom-start 1.05 --zoom-end 1.3 \
  --focus 0.1,0.1 --focus-end 0.9,0.9 \
  --title "Trollfabriken AITrix AB" --title-animate slide-up \
  -o panning.mp4

# Print the ffmpeg command without rendering (dry run).
still-motion ken-burns poster.jpg --dry-run

# Build a slideshow from multiple images with wipeleft transitions.
still-motion slideshow img1.jpg img2.jpg img3.jpg \
  --duration 4 --transition wipeleft --transition-duration 0.6 \
  -o show.mp4

# Check the installed version.
still-motion --version

---

Package structure

still-motion/
├── src/
│   └── still_motion/
│       ├── __init__.py          ← public API re-exports; ffmpeg startup check
│       ├── cli.py               ← ken-burns and slideshow subcommands
│       ├── config.py            ← RenderConfig Pydantic model
│       ├── exceptions.py        ← StillMotionError, FfmpegError, ProbeError, ZoompanError
│       ├── ffmpeg_runner.py     ← the only module that calls subprocess.run
│       ├── filter_graph.py      ← zoompan / scale filter string builder + easing functions
│       ├── ken_burns.py         ← KenBurns public class; chains filter stages
│       ├── models.py            ← Motion and OverlayElement typed models
│       ├── overlay_compose.py   ← PNG / SVG / web-overlay compositing
│       ├── probe.py             ← image dimensions via Pillow or ffprobe
│       ├── slideshow.py         ← Slideshow class; parallel render + xfade concat
│       └── title.py             ← drawtext filter builder with animation envelopes
├── tests/
├── benchmarks/
│   └── render_ken_burns.py      ← wall-time benchmark for the <4s target
├── docs/
│   └── zoompan_expressions.md   ← zoompan expression grammar reference
├── pyproject.toml
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

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© Trollfabriken AITrix AB — MIT licensed