Convert a Dancing Video into an ASCII Art Video with Python

This guide shows step‑by‑step how to turn a dancing video into a "code dance" using Python.

1. Download the video – Install you-get and run: pip install you-get Then download the B‑site video with: you-get -o <local_path> <video_url>

2. Extract GIF and convert to ASCII – Use a GIF cutter (e.g., the built‑in tool of the Xunlei player) to capture 20‑second clips, name them sequentially, and convert each GIF frame to ASCII using ASCII Animator, adjusting the character width to 100 pixels for desired density.

3. Rename GIF frames – Import required libraries and run the provided script to rename and sort the GIF files: import os, re, shutil, cv2<br/>from PIL import Image<br/>import moviepy.editor as mpy def rename_gif():<br/> file_list = os.listdir("./temp")<br/> # ... (renaming logic) ...

After renaming, all GIFs are ordered by frame sequence.

4. Convert GIFs to JPG images – Use the following function to read each GIF, extract frames, and save them as JPGs: def gif2img(gif_path):<br/> gifs = os.listdir(gif_path)<br/> gifs.sort(key=lambda x: int(x[:-4]))<br/> for gif in gifs:<br/> im = Image.open(gif_path+gif).convert('RGB')<br/> for i, frame in enumerate(iter_frames(im)):<br/> frame.save('./img/' + gif[:-4] + '.jpg', **frame.info)

5. Assemble the video – Install OpenCV and run the script to combine the JPG images into a video: pip install opencv-python def charts2video(img_path, video_path):<br/> images = os.listdir(img_path)<br/> images.sort(key=lambda x: int(x[:-4]))<br/> fps = 12<br/> fourcc = cv2.VideoWriter_fourcc('M','P','4','V')<br/> im = Image.open(img_path + images[0])<br/> video_writer = cv2.VideoWriter(video_path, fourcc, fps, im.size)<br/> for img_i in images:<br/> frame = cv2.imread(img_path + img_i)<br/> video_writer.write(frame)<br/> video_writer.release()

6. Add background music – Use MoviePy to extract audio from the original video and merge it with the generated ASCII video: def add_music():<br/> my_clip = mpy.VideoFileClip('asc.mp4')<br/> audio_background = mpy.AudioFileClip('dance.mp4').subclip(0, 60)<br/> audio_background.write_audiofile('bk.mp3')<br/> final_clip = my_clip.set_audio(audio_background)<br/> final_clip.write_videofile('char_video.mp4')

After completing these steps, the original dance video is transformed into an ASCII‑art video with background music, ready for sharing.