Creating video from images using OpenCV

A detailed guide on how to create a video from images using Python and the OpenCV library. The article includes source code and line-by-line explanations.

This Python script uses the OpenCV library to create a video from images. By reading images from a directory, the script combines them into a video with a specified frame rate.

import cv2
import os

# Path to the directory containing images
image_folder = 'path_to_images'
# Name of the output video file
video_name = 'output_video.avi'

# Get the list of image files in the directory
images = [img for img in os.listdir(image_folder) if img.endswith(".jpg")]
images.sort()  # Sort the images in order

# Read the first image to get the frame size
frame = cv2.imread(os.path.join(image_folder, images[0]))
height, width, layers = frame.shape

# Define the codec and create VideoWriter object
video = cv2.VideoWriter(video_name, cv2.VideoWriter_fourcc(*'DIVX'), 1, (width, height))

# Loop through all images and add them to the video
for image in images:
    video.write(cv2.imread(os.path.join(image_folder, image)))

# Release the VideoWriter object
video.release()

Detailed Explanation of Each Line of Code

1. Import necessary libraries: cv2 for video processing and os for file system operations.
2. Path to the directory containing images: Specify the path to the directory containing the images.
3. Name of the output video file: Set the name for the output video file.
4. Get the list of image files in the directory: Use os.listdir to get the list of image files and filter the files with .jpg extension.
5. Sort the images in order: Use sort() to sort the images in order.
6. Read the first image to get the frame size: Use cv2.imread to read the first image and get the frame size.
7. Define the codec and create VideoWriter object: Use cv2.VideoWriter to define the codec and create the VideoWriter object.
8. Loop through all images and add them to the video: Use a for loop to iterate through all images and add them to the video.
9. Release the VideoWriter object: Use release() to release the VideoWriter object.

System Requirements

• Python Version: 3.6 or higher

To install the required libraries, you can use the following command in your terminal or command prompt:

pip install opencv-python

Tips

1. Check the Path: Ensure that the path to the directory containing images is correct.
2. Image Format: Make sure all images have the same format and size to avoid errors when creating the video.
3. Experiment with Frame Rate: You can change the frame rate (fps) value to create videos with different speeds.