Working with MoviePy and FFmpeg for Video Output: Naming Clips Based on DataFrame Columns

As a technical blogger, I’m excited to share this in-depth guide on how to work with MoviePy and FFmpeg for video output, specifically focusing on naming clips based on text in DataFrame columns. In this article, we’ll explore the process of creating clips from a moviepy-FFmpeg output and customizing the file names.

Introduction

MoviePy is an open-source Python library used for video editing and processing. It provides various features to manipulate video files, including trimming, splitting, merging, and adding audio tracks. FFmpeg, on the other hand, is a powerful command-line tool that can be used for video encoding, decoding, and manipulating. In this article, we’ll use MoviePy to create clips from an existing video file and then customize the output file names based on text in DataFrame columns.

Prerequisites

To follow along with this tutorial, you’ll need:

Python installed on your system
MoviePy library installed (you can install it using pip: pip install moviepy)
FFmpeg installed on your system (download from https://ffmpeg.org/)
A video file that you want to work with

DataFrame Creation and Data Preparation

First, we need to create a sample DataFrame with text data. In this example, we’ll use the following data:

import pandas as pd

data = [["Park","Road",4, 10], ["Road","Street", 80, 95], ["Street","Park",120, 132]] 
df = pd.DataFrame(data, columns = ["Origin", "Destination","Start", "End"])

This DataFrame has four columns: Origin, Destination, Start, and End. We’ll use this data to create customized output file names.

Creating Clips with MoviePy

Next, we need to import the necessary libraries and create a MoviePy object:

import moviepy.editor as mpy

# Load the video file using MoviePy
video_file = "input.mp4"
clip = mpy.VideoFileClip(video_file)

In this example, we load an input video file named input.mp4 using the VideoFileClip class from MoviePy. We can then use various methods to manipulate the clip, such as trimming or splitting.

Naming Clips Based on DataFrame Columns

Now that we have our DataFrame and MoviePy object set up, let’s create a script to name clips based on text in DataFrame columns:

import pandas as pd
import moviepy.editor as mpy

# Create a sample DataFrame with text data
data = [["Park","Road",4, 10], ["Road","Street", 80, 95], ["Street","Park",120, 132]] 
df = pd.DataFrame(data, columns = ["Origin", "Destination","Start", "End"])

# Load the video file using MoviePy
video_file = "input.mp4"
clip = mpy.VideoFileClip(video_file)

# Create a list to store output file names
output_filenames = []

for i in range(len(df)):
    # Extract text from DataFrame columns and create a filename string
    origin = df.iloc[i, 0]
    destination = df.iloc[i, 1]
    filename = f"video{origin}{destination}{i+1}"
    
    # Add the output file name to the list
    output_filenames.append(filename)

# Print the output file names for verification
print(output_filenames)

In this example, we create a loop that iterates through each row of the DataFrame. For each row, we extract the Origin and Destination text using the iloc method and create a filename string by concatenating these values with an incrementing number (i+1). The resulting output file names are stored in a list called output_filenames.

FFmpeg Output and Naming Clips

Now that we have our output file names generated, let’s use FFmpeg to create the corresponding video files:

# Create a script to generate output video files using FFmpeg
import subprocess

for filename in output_filenames:
    # Use FFmpeg to generate an output video file with the customized name
    ffmpeg_cmd = f"ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf \"select='gt(n\\(i\\)({filename})/10)'\" -c:v libx264 -crf 18 output_{filename}.mp4"
    subprocess.run(ffmpeg_cmd, shell=True)

In this example, we create a loop that iterates through each output file name in the output_filenames list. For each filename, we use FFmpeg to generate an output video file with the customized name.

Conclusion

In this article, we explored how to work with MoviePy and FFmpeg for video output, specifically focusing on naming clips based on text in DataFrame columns. We created a sample DataFrame with text data, used MoviePy to create clips from an existing video file, and customized the output file names using FFmpeg.

Additional Considerations

When working with video files and FFmpeg, keep the following considerations in mind:

Make sure you have the correct version of FFmpeg installed on your system.
Use the ffmpeg command-line tool to generate output video files, rather than relying on MoviePy alone.
Be mindful of file names and paths when generating output video files using FFmpeg.

By following this tutorial, you should now have a solid understanding of how to work with MoviePy and FFmpeg for video output, specifically focusing on naming clips based on text in DataFrame columns.

Last modified on 2024-02-05