Applying fades between images ffmpeg command - linux

Question

I am trying to create a video slideshow that fade out/in between each image solely from an ffmpeg cli command. After researching this for hours, the only way I discovered that this was possible was to use the -filter_complex argument and pass in all images and specify a complex filter that defines multiple fades out and back in that I could time to happen between frames. The command I have so far:
ffmpeg -y -framerate 1/5 \
-loop 1 -i img-1.jpg \
-loop 1 -i img-2.jpg \
-loop 1 -i img-3.jpg \
-filter_complex \
"[1:v]fade=out:4:d=1,fade=in:5:d=1[fad1]; \
[2:v]fade=out:9:d=1,fade=in:10:d=1[fad2]; \
[3:v]fade=out:14:d=1,fade=in:15:d=1[fad3];" \
-c:v libx264 -r 25 -pix_fmt yuv420p test.mp4
Here's the output from executing this command:
ffmpeg version 2.6.4 Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 5.1.1 (GCC) 20150618 (Red Hat 5.1.1-4)
configuration: --prefix=/usr --bindir=/usr/bin --datadir=/usr/share/ffmpeg --incdir=/usr/include/ffmpeg --libdir=/usr/lib64 --mandir=/usr/share/man --arch=x86_64 --optflags='-O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Werror=format-security -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-protector-strong --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -grecord-gcc-switches -m64 -mtune=generic' --enable-bzlib --disable-crystalhd --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libass --enable-libcdio --enable-libdc1394 --disable-indev=jack --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-openal --enable-libopencv --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libv4l2 --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-x11grab --enable-avfilter --enable-avresample --enable-postproc --enable-pthreads --disable-static --enable-shared --enable-gpl --disable-debug --disable-stripping --shlibdir=/usr/lib64 --enable-runtime-cpudetect
libavutil 54. 20.100 / 54. 20.100
libavcodec 56. 26.100 / 56. 26.100
libavformat 56. 25.101 / 56. 25.101
libavdevice 56. 4.100 / 56. 4.100
libavfilter 5. 11.102 / 5. 11.102
libavresample 2. 1. 0 / 2. 1. 0
libswscale 3. 1.101 / 3. 1.101
libswresample 1. 1.100 / 1. 1.100
libpostproc 53. 3.100 / 53. 3.100
Input #0, image2, from img-1.jpg':
Duration: 00:00:05.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 141 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: mjpeg, yuvj420p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 1280x720 [SAR 72:72 DAR 16:9], 0.20 fps, 0.20 tbr, 0.20 tbn, 0.20 tbc
Input #1, image2, from img-2.jpg':
Duration: 00:00:00.04, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 17789 kb/s
Stream #1:0: Video: mjpeg, yuvj420p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 1280x720 [SAR 67:67 DAR 16:9], 25 fps, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
Input #2, image2, from 'img-3.jpg':
Duration: 00:00:00.04, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 17764 kb/s
Stream #2:0: Video: mjpeg, yuvj420p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 1280x720 [SAR 62:62 DAR 16:9], 25 fps, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
[AVFilterGraph # 0xbc2a00] No such filter: ''
Error configuring filters.
All I am trying to do is create a video slideshow with fades/transitions between images. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

I found the best answer to this since it seems impossible to accomplish this in one command. First, you create an mpeg of each of your images applying the fades to the mpeg using video filters (-vf):
ffmpeg -y -loop 1 -i image-1.jpg -vf
"fade=t=in:st=0:d=0.5,fade=t=out:st=4.5:d=0.5" -c:v mpeg2video -t 5
-q:v 1 -pix_fmt yuv420p temp-1.mpeg
If you want to do this in one command, it's not the prettiest solution but you can concatenate your commands as "command1 && command2 && ...." assuming the above is 'command1'. Once, these intermediate mpegs are created, you can concatenate these nicely into a video:
ffmpeg -i temp-1.mpeg -i temp-2.mpeg -filter_complex '[0:v][1:v] concat=n=2:v=1 [v]' -map '[v]' -c:v libx264 -r 30 -s 1280x720 -aspect 16:9 -q:v 1 -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mp4
In the "concat=n=2" portion of this concatentation command, the '2' refers to the number of inputs you have. This will give you a video slideshow of images with a fade in of 0.5 seconds at the beginning and a fade out of 0.5 seconds at the end which gives the effect of fading between images.
Also, you can add panning/zooming to each image by adding the "zoompan" video filter to the first command when converting the image to the intermediate mpeg. For example, your first command would become:
ffmpeg -y -loop 1 -i image-1.jpg -vf
"zoompan=z='min(zoom+0.0015,1.5)':d=125,fade=t=in:st=0:d=0.5,fade=t=out:st=4.5:d=0.5" -c:v mpeg2video -t 5
-q:v 1 -pix_fmt yuv420p temp-1.mpeg