VideoLAN Client (VLC) media player has a nifty feature built in: it can play movies (and still pictures!) as color ASCII. This means visuals appear reminiscent of old BBS and terminal art. Since it's automated, it's not the most precise conversion, but I put some concert footage through it and was all grins. Here's how you do it, at least on the Mac side (since VLC is multi-platform):
- Go to VLC menu > Preferences.
- Click Video tab.
- Change Output module to Color ASCII art video output.
BEFORE
AFTER
Play a movie and get out the bitcrushed popcorn. To screengrab a still shot like this with Skitch, I had to drag it into the VLC playlist, play it for a sec, then quickly pause it.
A brief google shows me not many know about this, so spread the lofi word! Previously related is my "8 Inspiring Stories of ASCII Art" for Smashing Magazine.
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It's interesting, but the problem is that it isn't using the full range of ASCII characters. It's appears to be limiting itself to just 2. This really cuts down on the level of detail (even though it's just plain ANSI) What would be more interesting in addition to the full range of characters is if it could generate the ANSI file to go along with it that would run on renegade or other BBS's. For some really impressive ASCII animation, do a search for "the matrix ascii". It's just black & white text, but you'll see the extra number of characters available really give impressive results.