ascii-video

Convert video and audio inputs into colored ASCII MP4/GIF outputs.

Updated May 4, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/Plaidmustache/hermes-nulab --skill ascii-video-plaidmustache
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: ascii-video
Source: https://github.com/Plaidmustache/hermes-nulab/tree/main/skills/creative/ascii-video
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/Plaidmustache/hermes-nulab --skill ascii-video-plaidmustache

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill includes references (resource) components.

What problem does it solve?

ASCII video rendering can be GPU-intensive and platform dependent; ascii-video provides a pipeline to convert video and audio inputs into colored ASCII MP4/GIF outputs, enabling expressive text-art visuals without specialized hardware.

Core Features & Use Cases

  • Video-to-ASCII: transform video frames into colorized ASCII art for cinematic, retro, or artistic looks.
  • Audio-reactive visuals: generate motion and color that respond to audio features like RMS, centroid, and beats.
  • Generative/overlay capabilities: support for generative visuals and text/lyrics overlays within the same pipeline.

Quick Start

Use the ascii-video skill to generate a colored ASCII video from a sample video by configuring inputs and output format, then run the pipeline.

Frequently Asked Questions about ascii-video

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I convert video to colored ASCII art without specialized GPU hardware?

Convert video to colored ASCII art by running a modular pipeline that performs per-frame feature extraction, multi-grid rendering, tonemapping, shader post-processing, and ffmpeg encoding to output MP4 or GIF files without specialized hardware.

Can I generate audio-reactive ASCII visuals that respond to music beats?

Generate audio-reactive ASCII visuals by extracting audio features like RMS, centroid, and beats to drive motion and color changes within the video-to-ASCII rendering pipeline.

Does the ASCII video pipeline work with ffmpeg for MP4 and GIF encoding?

The ASCII video pipeline uses ffmpeg for encoding, supporting both MP4 and GIF output formats to produce colorized text-art videos from your input media.

What is the best way to create retro text-art visuals from existing video frames?

Create retro text-art visuals by loading video inputs into the pipeline, which applies multi-grid rendering and shader post-processing to transform frames into colorized ASCII art outputs.

Are there limitations when rendering high-resolution ASCII video compared to GPU-intensive methods?

ASCII video rendering avoids platform dependency and GPU intensity by using a shader pipeline with tonemapping, though complex multi-grid rendering may still require optimization for high-resolution outputs.