asciiVideo

A quick and easy open source python code to convert a video into a work of asciiVideo.

Example gif

Full render of single frame.

This is the equivalent of turning a picture into ascii art as but with video. I would like to thank Christian Diener for his ascii art algorithm asciinator which was the pillar of this project. For new comers ASCII is an abbreviation for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, which includes all the character the Americans deemed necessary for a PC when developing computers.

How to use asciiVideo.py

1. First run the asciiVideo.py file in the same directory of a video you wish to convert
2. Then create an object with the asciiArt initializer.
   1. cat = asciiArt("videoofcat.mp4")
3. This will then display a picture of the video frame and its ascii conterpart.
4. From here you can change the gamma of the asciiVideo for more or less details.
   1. cat.setGamma(1) to add more dark details.
   2. cat.setGamma(1.5) to get rid of dark details like shadows.
   3. 
5. You can also change the rotation of the video using.
   1. cat.setRotation(angle)
   2. cat.setRotation(180) can be used on upside down videos
6. When you're happy with your gamma and rotation you can render.
   1. cat.render("<outputfile>")
   2. For example cat.render("asciiCatVideo")
7. If you are satisfied with your video it is wise to close the object.
   1. cat.close()
   2. This gets rid of all unecessary memory used to make the video
8. Finally you can share the video with friends and loved ones.

How the code works

Terminology	definition
Video Frame	A single instances of video in the form of a picture
Ascii Text	A video frames ascii art text in the form of a string
Ascii Frame	An ascii text converterd into a picture
Ascii Video	All ascii frames compiled into a video