ASCII Player Video Creator

Convert any video into ASCII art — play it directly in your terminal or export it as an MP4.

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Made by Plankton

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Features

• Terminal playback — watch any video rendered as ASCII art in real time
• Color mode — preserve original colors using ANSI 24-bit escape codes
• Auto-fit — auto-scales to your terminal window size, or set a custom width
• Frame skipping — skip every N frames to reduce CPU load
• Loop mode — repeat playback continuously
• MP4 export — render every frame as a PNG and compile into an MP4 video
• Custom backgrounds — choose black, white, blue, or any custom hex color for export

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Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Dependencies:

pip install opencv-python pillow numpy

A monospace font (Consolas or Courier New) must be available on your system for export rendering.

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Usage

Run the script interactively:

python ASCII_VideoCreate.py

You will be prompted step by step:

Prompt	Description
Video path	Absolute or relative path to your video file
Character color	y to enable ANSI color, N for grayscale
Output width	Number of characters wide (blank = auto-fit to terminal)
Skip N frames	1 = every frame, 2 = every other frame, etc.
Loop	y to repeat playback until Ctrl+C

Press Ctrl+C at any time during playback to stop.

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Exporting to MP4

After playback ends, you will be asked whether to export. If you choose yes:

1. Create an empty folder on your system and paste its path when prompted
2. Choose what to keep:
   • 1 — MP4 only (temp PNG frames are deleted)
   • 2 — MP4 + all individual PNG frames
3. Choose a background color:
   • 1 Black  2 White  3 Blue  4 Custom hex (#RRGGBB)

The output file will be saved as ASCII_Player_Output.mp4 in the folder you provided.

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Tips

• Larger terminal = higher detail. Maximize your window before running for the best result.
• High-contrast videos (e.g. animations, cartoons) produce cleaner ASCII output than live-action footage.
• Grayscale mode is faster than color mode, especially on lower-end machines.
• Skip frames if playback feels choppy — try skip = 2 or skip = 3 first.
• On Windows, run in Windows Terminal for proper ANSI color support.

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ASCII Character Set

Characters are mapped from darkest to brightest:

 .'`^",:;Il!i><~+_-?][}{1)(|\/tfjrxnuvczmwqpdbkhao*#MW&8%B@$0QSXGZJKPHDAUYTRENVLCF

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Project Structure

ASCII_VideoCreate.py       # Main script — all logic in one file

Section	Responsibility
ANSI	Terminal escape codes and color helpers
VideoInfo, PlaybackConfig, ExportConfig	Typed data containers
frame_to_ascii_*	Frame → ASCII conversion (grayscale & color)
ascii_to_image	ASCII char map → PIL Image (for export)
play_engine	Terminal playback loop with threading
export_flow	PNG frame rendering + MP4 compilation
main	Interactive CLI entry point

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License

MIT