AVMutableComposition Not Orienting Video Properly

Question

I've been digging around StackOverflow for most of the day on this, and while there are lots of great posts on the topic, I have yet to find a solution to my issue.

I am writing a video file using an AVAssetWriter with no problem. My video file, if I save to my camera roll, plays back properly and with expected orientation. Here's how I'm setting that up;

init(fileUrl:URL!, height:Int, width:Int) {

    // Setup the filter writer instance
    fileWriter = try? AVAssetWriter(outputURL: fileUrl, fileType: AVFileType.mov)

    // Setup the video settings
    let videoOutputSettings: Dictionary<String, AnyObject> = [
        AVVideoCodecKey : AVVideoCodecType.hevc as AnyObject,
        AVVideoWidthKey : width as AnyObject,
        AVVideoHeightKey : height as AnyObject
    ]

    // Setup the attributes dictionary
    let sourcePixelBufferAttributesDictionary = [
        String(kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey) : Int(kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA),
        String(kCVPixelBufferWidthKey) : Int(width),
        String(kCVPixelBufferHeightKey) : Int(height),
        String(kCVPixelFormatOpenGLESCompatibility) : kCFBooleanTrue
        ] as [String : Any]

    // Setup the video input
    videoInput = AVAssetWriterInput(mediaType: AVMediaType.video, outputSettings: videoOutputSettings)

    // Data should be expected in real time
    videoInput.expectsMediaDataInRealTime = true

    // Perform transform
    videoInput.transform = CGAffineTransform(rotationAngle: CGFloat(CGFloat.pi / 2.0))

    // Setup pixel buffer intput
    assetWriterPixelBufferInput = AVAssetWriterInputPixelBufferAdaptor(assetWriterInput: videoInput,
                                                                       sourcePixelBufferAttributes: sourcePixelBufferAttributesDictionary)

    // Add the input
    fileWriter.add(videoInput)
}

I then want to use an AVMutableComposition to save the video with an image overlay applied, which works properly, except the video orientation is incorrect;

func postProcessVideo(toFPS: Double, sourceVideo: URL, destination: URL, filterImage: UIImage?, completionHandler: @escaping (_ response: Bool) -> ()) {

    // Log
    print("Received call to begin post-processing video at:", sourceVideo)

    // Instantiate the AVMutableComposion
    let composition = AVMutableComposition()

    // Setup the video asset
    let vidAsset = AVURLAsset(url: sourceVideo, options: [:])

    // Get video track
    let vtrack = vidAsset.tracks(withMediaType: AVMediaType.video)

    // Setup the first video track as asset track
    let videoTrack: AVAssetTrack = vtrack[0]

    // Setup the video timerange
    let vid_timerange = CMTimeRangeMake(kCMTimeZero, vidAsset.duration)

    // Setup the composition video track
    let compositionvideoTrack:AVMutableCompositionTrack = composition.addMutableTrack(withMediaType: AVMediaType.video, preferredTrackID: CMPersistentTrackID())!

    // Insert expected time range
    do {
        try compositionvideoTrack.insertTimeRange(vid_timerange, of: videoTrack, at: kCMTimeZero)
    } catch {

    }

    // Setup the preferred transform
    compositionvideoTrack.preferredTransform = videoTrack.preferredTransform

    // Update time scale
    let finalTimeScale: Int64 = vidAsset.duration.value * 3

    // Adjust video track duration
    compositionvideoTrack.scaleTimeRange(CMTimeRangeMake(kCMTimeZero, vidAsset.duration), toDuration: CMTimeMake(finalTimeScale, vidAsset.duration.timescale))

    // Setup effect size
    let size = videoTrack.naturalSize

    // Setup the image
    let imglogo = UIImage(named: "gif1.png")
    let imglayer = CALayer()
    imglayer.contents = imglogo?.cgImage
    imglayer.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: size.width, height: size.height)
    imglayer.opacity = 0.0

    // Setup the video layer
    let videolayer = CALayer()

    // Setup the video layer frame
    videolayer.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: size.width, height: size.height)

    // Setup the parent layer
    let parentlayer = CALayer()

    // Setup the parent layer frame
    parentlayer.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: size.width, height: size.height)

    // Add video layer
    parentlayer.addSublayer(videolayer)

    // Add filter layer
    parentlayer.addSublayer(imglayer)

    // Setup the layer composition
    let layercomposition = AVMutableVideoComposition()

    // Setup the desired frame rate
    layercomposition.frameDuration = CMTimeMake(1, Int32(toFPS))

    // Setup the render size
    layercomposition.renderSize = size

    // Setup the animation tool
    layercomposition.animationTool = AVVideoCompositionCoreAnimationTool(postProcessingAsVideoLayer: videolayer, in: parentlayer)

    // Setup instruction for filter overlay
    let instruction = AVMutableVideoCompositionInstruction()

    // Setup the desired time range
    instruction.timeRange = CMTimeRangeMake(kCMTimeZero, composition.duration)

    // Setup video track
    let videotrack = composition.tracks(withMediaType: AVMediaType.video)[0]

    // Setup layer instruction
    let layerinstruction = AVMutableVideoCompositionLayerInstruction(assetTrack: videotrack)

    // Setup layer instructions
    instruction.layerInstructions = [layerinstruction]

    // Setup layer composition instructions
    layercomposition.instructions = [instruction]

    // Instantiate the asset export
    let assetExport = AVAssetExportSession(asset: composition, presetName:AVAssetExportPresetHighestQuality)

    // Setup the video composition
    assetExport?.videoComposition = layercomposition

    // Setup the output file type
    assetExport?.outputFileType = AVFileType.mov

    // Setup the destination
    assetExport?.outputURL = destination

    // Export video
    assetExport?.exportAsynchronously(completionHandler: {
        switch assetExport?.status{
        case .failed?:
            print("failed \(assetExport!.error)")
        case .cancelled?:
            print("cancelled \(assetExport!.error)")
        default:
            print("Movie complete")
            completionHandler(true)
        }
    })
}

My apologies for the length, but are there any stand out factors that may help to explain the orientation change during export?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I had this issue regarding orientation and this is how I solved it :

AVMutableCompositionTrack *a_compositionVideoTrack = [mixComposition addMutableTrackWithMediaType:AVMediaTypeVideo preferredTrackID:kCMPersistentTrackID_Invalid];
[a_compositionVideoTrack setPreferredTransform:CGAffineTransformRotate(CGAffineTransformMakeScale(-1, 1), M_PI)];

By rotating and scaling it. It was in objective-C but you can convert it easily. You just need to change this :

// Setup the preferred transform
compositionvideoTrack.preferredTransform = videoTrack.preferredTransform

Instead of preferredTransform Give transformation manually.