FlashCut Video Generator

Overview

FlashCut is a Python script that automates the creation of video slideshows from a folder of images. It supports adding background audio from a YouTube or Soundcloud URL, customizing video resolution and duration (limited options), and the ability to randomize the order of images.

Features

• Generate videos from a folder containing .jpg or .png images.
• Customize video format to either a standard 4:3 aspect ratio or a 16:9 HD resolution.
• Set video duration as either short (30 seconds) or long (60 seconds).
• Include background audio by providing a YouTube URL.
• Randomize image order in the video if desired.

Requirements

• Python 3.7 or higher
• Libraries: opencv-python, numpy, moviepy, yt-dlp
• Additional tools: ffmpeg (required by moviepy and yt-dlp for video and audio processing)

Installation

1. Install Python dependencies: Run the following command to install the required Python libraries:

   pip install opencv-python numpy moviepy yt-dlp

2. Install FFmpeg: Ensure FFmpeg is installed on your system. Visit the FFmpeg download page for installation instructions.

Usage

To use FlashCut, navigate to the directory containing flashcut.py and run the script with the following command format:

python flashcut.py <image_directory> <output_video_name.mp4> <long|short> <delay_ms> <format_type> [randomize] [<audio_url>] [timestamp (mm:ss)]

The paramater parsing is bad, so recommended to include every argument.

Parameters:

• <image_directory>: Path to the directory containing your image files (.jpg or .png).
• <output_video_name.mp4>: Desired output filename for the video.
• <long|short>: Duration of the video - 'long' for 60 seconds, 'short' for 30 seconds.
• <delay_ms>: Delay in milliseconds between each frame. Adjust this value to change speed of video and number of images used.
• <format_type>: 'square' for 640x480, 'hd' for 1280x720. Defaults to 'square' if not specified.
• randomize: Optional. Include this flag to randomize the order of the images.
• <audio_url>: Optional. YouTube URL to download background audio. The audio will be trimmed to the video length.
• <mm:ss>: Optional. Timestamp for audio start point.

Examples

• Create a short video with randomized images and HD format:

  python flashcut.py ./images myvideo.mp4 short 35 hd randomize

• Create a long video with background audio:

  python flashcut.py ./images myvideo.mp4 long 60 square https://youtu.be/YOUTUBE_VIDEO_ID 1:15

Troubleshooting

• Ensure all image files are accessible and have the correct file extensions (.jpg, .png).
• Verify that ffmpeg is correctly installed and accessible from your command line or terminal.

For further issues or contributions, please refer to the project repository.