airclip 0.1.0

Convert any video to an ultra-lightweight WebM that blends seamlessly into web pages.

airclip

Convert any video to an ultra-lightweight WebM that blends seamlessly into web pages.

30 seconds of video → ~50-200 KB without visible quality loss.

Why

Embedding videos on the web usually means large files, slow loads, and visible player chrome. airclip solves this for animation and diagram content:

Metric	Before	After
30s video	~1-3 MB	~50-200 KB
Format	MP4 (H.264)	WebM (VP9)
FPS	60	24
Resolution	1080p	720p
Audio	Included	Stripped

The output blends into dark backgrounds — no borders, no player UI, just content that looks native to the page.

How it works

1. VP9 encoding — modern codec designed for web, much better compression than H.264
2. High CRF — animation content (solid backgrounds, vector shapes) compresses extremely well at CRF 35-45
3. Reduced framerate — 24fps is visually identical to 60fps for slides and diagrams
4. Downscale to 720p — on web, nobody notices the difference from 1080p
5. Two-pass encoding — analyzes content first, then allocates bits where they matter
6. No audio — animations don't need it, saves ~30% file size

Install

pip install imageio-ffmpeg

Or have ffmpeg available on your PATH.

Usage

# Single file
python -m airclip video.mp4

# Entire directory
python -m airclip videos/

# Custom settings
python -m airclip video.mp4 --fps 15 --crf 42 --height 480

# Fast mode (skip 2-pass, ~2x faster)
python -m airclip video.mp4 --no-2pass

# Output to a different directory
python -m airclip videos/ --outdir dist/

As a library

from airclip import convert_lightweight

result = convert_lightweight(
    "input.mp4",
    output_path="output.webm",
    target_fps=24,
    crf=38,
    max_height=720,
)

print(f"{result['input_kb']:.0f} KB → {result['output_kb']:.0f} KB")
print(f"{result['ratio']:.1f}x smaller")

Options

Flag	Default	Description
--fps	24	Target framerate. Use 15 for near-static content.
--crf	38	Quality level. Higher = smaller. 35-45 works well for animations.
--height	720	Max output height in pixels.
--no-2pass	off	Skip 2-pass encoding (faster, slightly larger output).
--outdir	same as input	Output directory for converted files.

CRF guide

CRF	Quality	Best for
30-34	High	Live action, complex motion
35-38	Good	Animations with fine detail
39-42	Small	Diagrams, slides, code demos
43-50	Tiny	Static content, simple shapes

Embedding on web

The output is designed to look native on dark-themed pages:

<video autoplay muted loop playsinline>
    <source src="animation.webm" type="video/webm">
    <source src="animation.mp4" type="video/mp4"> <!-- fallback -->
</video>

video {
    width: 100%;
    background: transparent;
    border: none;
    border-radius: 12px;
}

For autoplay-on-scroll:

const observer = new IntersectionObserver((entries) => {
    entries.forEach(e => {
        e.isIntersecting ? e.target.play() : e.target.pause();
    });
}, { threshold: 0.5 });

document.querySelectorAll('video').forEach(v => observer.observe(v));

Best results when

• Background is a solid or near-solid color (dark themes work great)
• Content is vector-like: shapes, text, diagrams, code
• Motion is smooth and predictable (not chaotic)
• No audio needed

Results

Across 6 test videos: ~1.2 MB → ~93 KB average (12x compression). No visible quality loss in browser playback.

License

MIT