The gist

asciivideo is an open-source Python library by GordenSun for creating terminal-style character animations. It lets developers programmatically build scenes with ASCII art, text, and effects inspired by the glowing phosphor-glow aesthetic of old terminals. The tool is designed for producing unique, code-centric visual content like animated logos, mascots, and kinetic typography for technical presentations or social media.

What it does

Render character animations to MP4 video or self-contained HTML files.
Animate text and sprites with built-in effects like typewriter, scatter-assemble, and fade.
Choose from a library of 78 pre-made ASCII art sprites or draw your own.
Create scenes with borders, loading bars, particle fields, and timers.
Generate deterministic output, ensuring the same script always produces the identical animation.

How it works

Users write a Python script to define animation scenes, specifying elements like sprites, text, colors, and timing. The script is run from the command line, using the asciivideo library to process the instructions. The tool can output a standard MP4 video file, which requires ffmpeg to be installed, or a single, self-contained HTML file that can be opened in any browser. It is a free and open-source library.

Best for

This tool is ideal for developers and creative coders needing to produce unique, retro terminal-style video clips for presentations, demos, or artistic projects.

Watch out for

Rendering animations to the MP4 video format requires the user to have ffmpeg installed and configured on their system's PATH.