VIDPIX

Turn any video into ASCII animation — MP4 or GIF, right in your terminal.

VIDPIX is a single portable binary that converts a video file into a stylized animation made entirely out of characters like 0 1 : ; *. Drop it next to your videos, run it, pick a few options — get a ready-to-share .mp4 or .gif in seconds. No installers, no Python, no ffmpeg setup. Just one file.

Русская версия · Changelog

Features

• One binary, three platforms — Windows, Linux, macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon)
• Portable by design — works from any folder, scans next to itself
• Fully offline after first run — downloads ffmpeg once, then never again
• Two output formats — MP4 (H.264) and GIF (optimized palette)
• Four character sets — 0 1, : ; 0 1, *, or all together
• Bilingual UI — English and Russian out of the box
• Custom font rendering — crisp ASCII frames with an embedded typeface
• Zero runtime dependencies on the target machine

Quick start

1. Download

Grab the archive for your OS from the latest release:

Platform	File
Windows (x64)	vidpix-windows-x86_64.zip
Linux (x64)	vidpix-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
macOS (Intel)	vidpix-macos-x86_64.tar.gz
macOS (Apple Silicon)	vidpix-macos-arm64.tar.gz

2. Put it next to your videos

MyVideos/
  vidpix.exe
  clip.mp4
  concert.mov

3. Run it

vidpix

4. Answer the menu

Language? / Язык?
> Русский
  English
  Cancel / Отмена

Привет! Какое видео конвентируем?
> clip.mp4
  concert.mov
  Отмена

Отличный выбор! Из каких символов хотите анимацию?
> 0 и 1
  : ; 0 1
  *
  Все вместе (0 1 : ; *)
  Отмена

В каком формате сохранить?
> MP4 (видео)
  GIF (анимация)
  Отмена

5. Get your result

clip_vidpix.mp4

That's it.

Supported input

Container	Extension
MPEG-4	.mp4, .m4v
QuickTime	.mov
Matroska	.mkv
WebM	.webm
AVI	.avi
Flash Video	.flv
Windows Media	.wmv

Any codec that ffmpeg can decode will work.

CLI

vidpix              launch the interactive menu
vidpix --help       print help text
vidpix --version    print version

The interactive menu is the main path — there is nothing to remember.

How it works

1. ffmpeg extracts frames, scales them to 80 columns, converts to grayscale
2. Each pixel's brightness is mapped to a character from the chosen set
3. Every ASCII frame is rendered into a PNG bitmap using an embedded font
4. ffmpeg encodes the PNG sequence into H.264 MP4 or an optimized GIF

Every stage runs locally. No upload, no telemetry, no cloud.

Requirements

• Windows 10+, Linux (glibc 2.31+), or macOS 10.15+
• About 5 MB for the binary itself
• About 80 MB free space for ffmpeg (auto-downloaded on first run)
• Internet access on first run only — afterwards the tool works completely offline

Build from source

Requires Rust 1.75+.

git clone https://github.com/datekt/vidpix.git
cd vidpix
cargo build --release

The binary lands in target/release/vidpix (or vidpix.exe on Windows).

Run the test suite:

cargo test

Project structure

src/
  core/          video decoding, ASCII conversion, rendering, encoding
  i18n/          localized strings (EN / RU)
  ui/            interactive menu and progress bars
  utils/         path helpers
  args.rs        command-line flag parsing
  cli.rs         top-level flow
  main.rs        entry point

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/amazing-thing
3. Commit your changes
4. Push to the branch
5. Open a Pull Request

License

Licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgements

• FFmpeg — the backbone of every stage
• ffmpeg-sidecar — seamless ffmpeg delivery
• image + imageproc — frame rendering
• ab_glyph — font rasterization
• dialoguer + indicatif — terminal UX

Made with Rust by datekt