A small script written in python to convert videos/photos to their ascii counterparts.

asciiVideo.py

from PIL import Image
from PIL import ImageFont
from PIL import ImageDraw
import cv2,time,os
from moviepy.editor import * 
from tkinter import filedialog as fd


def im_to_ascii(im:Image,width:int=640,keepAlpha:bool=True,highContrastMode:bool=False,fontResolution:int=5):
    ratio:float = width/im.size[0]
    im:Image = im.resize((int(im.size[0]*ratio),int(im.size[1]*ratio)),Image.NEAREST).convert("LA")

    if highContrastMode: ramp:str = "@.    .:-=+*#%@"
    else : ramp:str = " .:-=+*#%@"

    c:list[str] = []

    for h in range(im.size[1]):
        row:list[str] = []
        for w in range(im.size[0]):
            col:tuple = im.getpixel((w,h))

            if keepAlpha and col[1]<=127: row.append(" ")
            else: row.append(ramp[int((col[0]/255)*len(ramp))-1])

        c.append(" ".join(row))

    w:int = im.size[0] * fontResolution * 5
    h:int = im.size[1] * fontResolution * 6

    font:ImageFont = ImageFont.truetype("monogram.ttf", 7 * fontResolution)

    img = Image.new("RGB",(w,h),(0,0,0))
    ImageDraw.Draw(img).text(
        (0, 0),
        "\n".join(c),
        (255,255,255),
        font=font
    )

    return img




def videoFileToAscii(path:str,skip:bool=False):
    if not skip:
        def extractFrames(path:str)->tuple[int,int,int]:
            print("Extracting Frames...")
            starttime = time.time()
            vidcap = cv2.VideoCapture(path)
            success,image = vidcap.read()
            count = 0
            length = int(vidcap.get(cv2.CAP_PROP_FRAME_COUNT))
            while success:
              cv2.imwrite("frame/frame%d.png" % count, image)
              success,image = vidcap.read()
              count += 1
              if time.time()-starttime>=2: print(int((count/length)*100),"%",sep="",end="\r");starttime=time.time()

            return count,length,vidcap.get(cv2.CAP_PROP_FPS)
    
        videoFrames, videoLength, videoFramerate = extractFrames(path)
        videoTargetWidth = 120
        videoTargetFramerate = 10

        print("Converting Frames...")
        for frame in range(0,videoFrames,int(videoFramerate/videoTargetFramerate)):
            starttime = time.time()
            with Image.open("frame/frame%d.png" % frame) as im:
                im_to_ascii(im,videoTargetWidth,fontResolution=4).save("frame/frame%d.png" % frame)
            
            if time.time()-starttime>=2: print(int((frame/videoFrames)*100),"%",sep="",end="\r");starttime=time.time()
                
    
    else:
        videoFrames = 359
        videoFramerate = 30
        videoTargetFramerate = 10

    
    clip = ImageSequenceClip([f"frame/frame{frame}.png" for frame in range(0,videoFrames,int(videoFramerate/videoTargetFramerate))], fps = videoTargetFramerate)
    clip.write_videofile(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),"output.mp4"))


if __name__ == "__main__":
    path = fd.askopenfile(initialdir=os.path.dirname(__file__))

    if True in [path.name.endswith(ext) for ext in [".mp4",".mkv",".avi",".mov"]]:
        videoFileToAscii(path.name)
    elif True in [path.name.endswith(ext) for ext in [".jpg",".jpeg",".png",".gif"]]:
        with Image.open(path.name) as im:
            i = im_to_ascii(im,width=516)
            i.save("output.png")
            i.show()