What is AFGS1?
AOMedia Film Grain Synthesis 1 (AFGS1) is a standalone film grain synthesis (FGS) specification launched by AOMedia in January 2024.
AFGS1 presents a new way for filmmakers to preserve the textured, organic look of traditional film grain in their work. Film grain helps directors influence the mood of their visual media.
Despite its expressive potential, film grain poses challenges for video codecs that use conventional coding tools. Many video encoders struggle to maintain film grain integrity while compressing video to specific bitrates, often resulting in distortion or removal.
The AFGS1 technology can be used to compress video with film grain significantly more efficiently while preserving the film grain in the reconstructed video. It is ready to be used with most modern video codecs without modifications to the underlying codec, and it defines ITU-T T.35 registered user data to carry the FGS model parameters. This may be encapsulated in any container format that supports ITU T.35 signaling, such as SEI messages, for example. Devices that support AFGS1 can generate film grain according to the transmitted model and add the film grain to the decoded video.