ASCII Theater - AI-Powered ASCII Art Movie Generator

ASCII Theater

ASCII Theater is an innovative Python project that brings together AI-generated storytelling and ASCII art to create a unique animated movie experience in your command-line interface. This project showcases the creative potential of combining cutting-edge AI technology with the nostalgic charm of ASCII art.

Key Features

• AI-powered story and scene generation using OpenAI or local LLM (Ollama)
• Conversion of story scenes into ASCII art frames
• Command-line ASCII art movie player with scene information display
• Customizable frame rate for playback
• Movie selection interface for playing existing movies

How It Works

1. The project uses AI (either OpenAI or a local LLM via Ollama) to generate a story and scenes.
2. These scenes are then converted into ASCII art frames.
3. The ASCII art frames are played in sequence in the command-line interface, creating an animated movie effect.
4. Users can adjust playback settings like frame rate and choose from existing movies to watch.

Getting Started

To get started with ASCII Theater, you’ll need Python 3.7+ and either an OpenAI API key or Ollama installed for local LLM support.

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/jmcdice/ascii-movie-project.git
   cd ascii-movie-project
   

2. Set up a virtual environment and install dependencies:

   python -m venv .venv
   source .venv/bin/activate
   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

3. Configure your LLM settings:

   cp .env_example .env.sh
   

   Then edit .env.sh with your API keys or Ollama settings.

Usage

Generating a New Movie

You can generate a new ASCII art movie using different AI providers:

python scripts/generate_movie.py --provider anthropic --topic "Space exploration"
python scripts/generate_movie.py --provider openai --topic "Underwater adventure"
python scripts/generate_movie.py --provider ollama --topic "Time travel"

Playing a Movie

To watch an ASCII art movie:

python scripts/play_movie.py

You can adjust playback settings:

python scripts/play_movie.py --delay 0.5 --scene-delay 3

Contributing

Contributions to ASCII Theater are welcome! Feel free to submit a Pull Request on the GitHub repository.

ASCII Theater demonstrates the creative possibilities at the intersection of AI, programming, and visual art. It’s a perfect project for those interested in exploring AI-generated content, ASCII art, or unique ways of storytelling through code.