1.Intro to AVS


1.1	  The functions

In the "Winamp Avs editor" window you control all the things your preset will do.
The "+" mark is where you go to add new effects to your preset.
It has a menu that looks like this.

·	Presets->		- load presets but keep the old ones
·	Render APE->	- custom made effects
·	3D		- 3D render, preset, just select color and shape
·	Firewurx		- beat responding Firewurx
·	TV		- like a TV without an antenna
·	Visfrac		- fractal visuals
·	Misc->		- things that doesn't fit into another category
·	Buffer Save		- "save a buffer"
·	Comment		- add a comment to your preset
·	Custom BPM	- set another BPM
·	Set Render Mode	- set render mode, this includes additive render, ECT.
·	Trans->		- fade & morphing effects
·	Blitter Feedback	- the effect re-renders inside the old one, inside is a new render
·	Blur		- blur your preset
·	Brightness		- raise & lower the preset brightness
·	Bump		- create a bump effect
·	Color Clip		- cut color into another one at a set position
·	Color Fade		- select fade value for R, G & B
·	Dynamic-D-modifier	- Dynamic distance using frame, beat, ECT.
·	Dynamic Movement	- Dynamic movement, like movement with frame, beat ECT.
·	Dynamic Shift	- move the preset around in the window.
·	Fadeout		- fade the preset
·	Fast Brightness	- fast brightness, faster and less options, 2x brightness or 0.5x
·	Grain		- add a grain filter
·	Interferences	- interferences, split up 1 preset into several circling around.
·	Interleave		- add lines in a row across the preset
·	Invert		- invert your preset
·	Mirror		- mirror the whole preset
·	Mosaic		- give the preset a mosaic effect
·	Movement		- see section 4.
·	Roto Blitter		- rotate and/or zoom in/out.
·	Scatter		- split every pixel up into several pixels.
·	Unique Tone	- tone your preset into a color of your choice
·	Water		- like the whole preset was water floating around
·	Water Bump	- a water bump, like bump with water instead of light
·	Render->		- render scopes & lines
·	Avi		- insert a movie in the preset
·	Bass Spin		- add a bass spin that gets faster and bigger the more beat it is
·	Clear Screen	- clear the screen all the time or just the first rendered screen
·	Dot Fountain	- add a fountain that goes higher the higher music it is
·	Dot Grid		- add a dot grid on the preset
·	Dot Plane		- add a 3d like plane that moves to music
·	Moving Particle	- add a particle that gets bigger/smaller/same size on beat
·	OnBeat Clear	- clear the screen to a set color on beat
·	Oscilliscope Star	- a star that responds to music
·	Picture		- insert a picture into the preset
·	Ring		- a sound responding circle
·	Rotating Stars	- 2 rotating stars that gets bigger the higher volume it is
·	SVP loader		- load a pre-set motion/sound-responding effect
·	Simple		- the most simple scope
·	Star field		- travel through space in your preset
·	Superscope		- see section 5
·	Text		- add text to the preset
·	Timescope		- add a Timescope
·	Effect List		- add an effect list into the scope

If you added an effect that you don't want you can delete it with "-", you can duplicate an effect with "x2"

1.15 Menus

·	preset
Load preset	- load a preset.
Save preset	- save a preset.
New	- make a new preset.

·	Settings
Display	- go to overlay mode or set alpha blending.
Full screen	- go to full screen mode
Presets/hotkeys - select randomization time and select hotkeys for presets(randomization can be turned off)
Beat detection	- select advanced or simple beat detection
Transitions	- select how and when a preset fades into a new one


3. Making a preset

It isn't really that hard to make a preset, 
A preset can be complicated and use thousands and thousands of equations, or it could be simple and use the hard coded effects to make something unique.

For a start check through Trans for the "Fadeout" effect, add it and look at it.
This effect is a simple fading tool that can fade the preset to a color of your choice, but it isn't the only way to fade it. If you want to you could also fade the preset with a "blur" effect, the blur effect smoothens the preset so it gets nicer to watch but you can't select different "fade colors" with it, another way is to combine the 2 and get a blurring to another color, or make it fade faster ;)

After a while you might figure out other ways to fade the preset but these 2 are the easiest ways.

Some effects in trans are rather simple to use even when you have just started with AVS, some are very complex.
A simple effect to work with in the beginning is the "Roto Blitter", and the "Blitter feedback".
These effects can produce great effects when combined with mirrors and scopes.
Just try every effect you can findˇ!

Start making a simple preset at the beginning though, a tip is, 
keep the fps as high as you can while the preset looks good, because no one wants to look at a preset with 2 fps =/

When you start to work with Trans effects and scopes you might stumble onto the "Movement" effect, this is a very useful thing that you can play with, try all the different selections in the menu, at the last one you'll find something strange, nothing happens when you select it and some of the buttons that were blurred out becomes selectable…
You have just reached a milepost in AVS, this thing that you found is a "Custom movement"

4.Movements
Custom movements can be a real pain to make, but the result is good 90% of the time.
D is Distance and R… well I really don't know for sure but I think its "rotation", don't use X and Y yet.
I really can't say much more about movements, but I'll give a few simple examples.
For a start try to modify the movement using just +,-,* and /. These are the simplest things to use.
First try R = 3 * R; this "triples the preset", it's kind of hard to explain, try it yourselves.
As you see I started the variable with "=" and ended it with ";".
"=" is used to assign a variable to the letter before it, D, R, X and Y are preset and will be modified, others are free to change.
Example, Q=Q*0.9 won't do anything at all, but if you do Q=D*0.9; D=Q; then Q will be short for "D*0.9", some things has to use extra variables, such as Q=Q*D-R; D=Q; here it is almost a must to use extra variables, you don't have to but it saves space and makes it easier to edit the code later on.
";" is used to end a statement, at the end of the whole code you don't need it but in the middle of it, it has to be done or else the code won't work.
Example, 
d=d*0.9 r=r*3; - this is wrong.
d=d*0.9; r=r*3; - this is correct.
You can see the second code I showed you here, d=d*0.9; as "D" is distance and I use 0.9 the whole thing zooms up and gets closer. If I would have used d=d*0; it would be like I had a camera at 100x zoom on a black paper, not a damn thing. =p
To use X and Y you have to select "rect cords" also known as "rectangular coordinates".
This works about the same way, but I'll let you explore for yourselves here. q=/




5.Superscopes

Superscopes are much like normal scopes, and rings or timelines.
This scope is a scope that you code manually. There are some examples included in the Superscope so I won't go over this that much.
A Superscope has 4 windows to work with,
Init,
Beat,
Frame,
And Point
Init are values that are initiated on the start of the preset.
All values in "beat" are executed on a beat.
Values in "Frame" are rendered every frame, if a t=t+0.1; value is made in it that value would be 1 after 10 frames.
Point is where you set the location and look of the preset.


The pre-set values are X, Y, N, I, B, V, H, W, Red, Green & Blue
X and Y is the position of the scope.
"I" is used to "give the scope length", without it the scope is only a dot
B is 1 on beat, otherwise 0
V is the music response, use V to give the scope sound response.
H is the current height of the Avs window
W is the current width of the Avs window
Red, Green & Blue are used to set the colors of the preset, it's more customized than the normal way of doing it using the color bar.

I hope that this tutorial to AVS has helped you!

Linus
A member of AVSociety