SceneWeaver

SceneWeaver is a command-line tool for creating videos from a declarative YAML specification. Under the hood, it uses MoviePy to render and assemble scenes, allowing for repeatable and version-controllable video production.

For larger projects it supports modular composition and caching, and you can include other videos as well.

Installation

sudo apt install ffmpeg portaudio19-dev     # Ubuntu 24.04. May be different on other distros
pipx install sceneweaver

Usage

Starting

First, create a new specification file to define your video's structure.

sceneweaver create my_video.yaml    # creates a new template you can edit
sceneweaver generate my_video.yaml

Example specification

Here is a basic example of a my_video.yaml file:

settings:
  width: 1920
  height: 1080
  fps: 30
  output_file: "output.mp4"

scenes:
  - id: intro_card
    type: template
    name: title_and_subtitle
    with:
      title: Hello, SceneWeaver!
      subtitle: Using a built-in template
    audio: my/narration.wav
    transition:
      type: cross-fade
      duration: 1

  - id: main_image
    type: image
    duration: 10
    image: "~/path/to/your/image.png"
    stretch: false # Preserves aspect ratio
    width: 80 # As 80% of the screen width
    annotations:
      - type: text
        location: bottom
        content: This is a caption for the image.
    cache:
      max-size: "2GB"
    transition:
      type: cross-fade
      duration: 2

  - id: outro
    type: video
    file: something.mp4
    effects:
      - type: fade-out
        duration: 1

Other Commands

Rendering and Cache

• Render a single scene (for quick previews):

  sceneweaver generate my_video.yaml:intro_card
  

• Force re-rendering (ignoring the cache):

  sceneweaver generate my_video.yaml --force
  

• Clear the cache of all previously rendered scenes:

  sceneweaver clean
  

Managing Scenes

• Interactively add a new scene to your spec file. It will prompt for the scene type and required details.

  sceneweaver scene add my_video.yaml
  

• Add a new image scene non-interactively with a specific ID (new_intro).

  sceneweaver scene add my_video.yaml:new_intro image
  

• Record audio for a scene. It will prompt you to select which scene from the file.

  sceneweaver scene audio my_video.yaml
  

• Directly record audio for the scene with the ID main_image.

  sceneweaver scene audio my_video.yaml:main_image
  

Managing Templates

• List all available built-in and user-created templates.

  sceneweaver template list
  

• Show details about a specific template, including its parameters and a usage example.

  sceneweaver template info title_and_subtitle
  

• Create a new, empty user template in your local configuration directory, ready for you to customize.

  sceneweaver template create my_custom_title
  

Development

This project uses Pixi for environment and task management.

• Setup the environment:

  pixi install
  

• Run the app:

  pixi run sceneweaver my_template.yaml
  

• Common tasks (run with pixi run <task>):

  • test: Run the test suite.
  • lint: Run all linters (flake8, pyflakes, pyright).
  • format: Format the code using Ruff.