Creating a shifting watermark overlay with FFmpeg

Create a dynamic, shifting watermark that moves around a video using FFmpeg.

This is similar to what TikTok uses and helps prevent the watermark from easily being blurred out or overlaid.

The moving aspect is adapted from here.

The command

The full command with the breakdown below:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i watermark.png -filter_complex "[1]colorchannelmixer=aa=0.8,scale=iw*0.8:-1[a];[0][a]overlay=x='if(lt(mod(t\,16)\,8)\,W-w-W*10/100\,W*10/100)':y='if(lt(mod(t+4\,16)\,8)\,H-h-H*5/100\,H*5/100)'" -c:v libx264 -an output.mp4

Breaking it down

Call FFmpeg and define the input video and the watermark image to use:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i watermark.png

Set the watermark image opacity to 0.8 and scale down 80%

-filter_complex "[1]colorchannelmixer=aa=0.8,scale=iw*0.8:-1[a];

The watermark movement, every 2 seconds move corner to corner (anti-clockwise):

[0][a]overlay=x='if(lt(mod(t\,8)\,4)\,W-w-W*10/100\,W*10/100)':y='if(lt(mod(t+2\,8)\,4)\,H-h-H*10/100\,H*10/100)'"

This is a position change of 2 seconds because it has 8 seconds for a full rotation cycle (corner to corner). 4 corners means 8/4 = 2. So 2 seconds per position change.

This is the example for 6 second changes:

overlay=x='if(lt(mod(t\,24)\,12)\,W-w-W*10/100\,W*10/100)':y='if(lt(mod(t+6\,24)\,12)\,H-h-H*5/100\,H*5/100)'

24/4 = 6 and 12/2 = 6.

This part defines the position from the edge on the width and height axis which is the width * 10 / 100 or height * 5 / 100.

W-w-W*10/100\,W*10/100 .... H-h-H*5/100\,H*5/100

Finally saving the watermarked video:

-c:v libx264 -an output.mp4

output.mp4 will have the dynamic watermark.