Text Match Cut Video Generator Web App

A Flask web application that generates short "match cut" style videos featuring highlighted text. The app centers a specific phrase, surrounds it with related or random text, applies optional blur effects, and allows customization of colors, dimensions, and duration. It can optionally use the Mistral AI API to generate contextually relevant surrounding text.

Features

• Web-Based Interface: Easy-to-use form built with Flask and HTML.
• Custom Highlight Text: Specify the exact phrase you want to highlight.
• Configurable Video: Adjust video width, height, duration (seconds), and frames per second (FPS).
• Color Customization: Set colors for text, background, and the highlight box using a color picker.
• Blur Effects:
  • Gaussian Blur: Apply a standard blur to the background text.
  • Radial Blur: Keep the center sharp and increasingly blur towards the edges.
  • None: No blur effect.
  • Adjustable blur radius.
• Dynamic Text Generation:
  • Mistral AI: (Optional, requires API key) Generates multiple lines of text thematically related to your highlight phrase, ensuring the phrase is included naturally.
  • Random Text: Falls back to generating random words if AI is disabled or unavailable.
• Font Handling: Uses fonts from a local fonts/ directory or falls back to system fonts. Randomly selects fonts for visual variety frame-by-frame.
• MP4 Output: Generates a downloadable .mp4 video file.
• Error Handling: Provides feedback for font issues or generation errors.

Requirements

• Python: 3.8+ recommended.
• pip: Python package installer.
• FFmpeg: Essential for video encoding/writing by Moviepy. You MUST install FFmpeg separately and ensure it's accessible in your system's PATH. Download from ffmpeg.org.
• Mistral AI API Key: (Optional) Required only if you want to use the AI text generation feature. You'll need to sign up at Mistral AI to get one.

Installation & Setup

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone https://github.com/lrdcxdes/text-match-cut.git
   cd text-match-cut

2. Create a Virtual Environment (Recommended):

   python -m venv venv
   # On Windows:
   .\venv\Scripts\activate
   # On macOS/Linux:
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install Dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set Up Mistral AI API Key (Optional):

   • Create a file named .env in the project's root directory (text_video_app/).
   • Add your API key to this file:

     # .env
     MISTRAL_API_KEY=your_actual_mistral_api_key_here

   • The application will automatically load this key. If the key is missing or invalid, or if the mistralai library isn't installed, the AI feature will be disabled, and the app will use random text generation.

5. Add Fonts:

   • Place .ttf or .otf font files into the fonts/ directory. The application prioritizes fonts found here.
   • If the fonts/ directory is empty or no valid fonts are found, it will attempt to use system-installed fonts (which might be less reliable across different environments). Having fonts in the fonts/ folder is highly recommended.

6. Ensure Output Directory Exists:

   • The script automatically creates an output/ directory where generated videos are temporarily stored. Ensure your application has write permissions for this directory.

Usage

1. Run the Flask Application:

   python app.py

2. Access the Web Interface:

   • Open your web browser and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:5000/ (or the address provided in the terminal, especially if running on a different host/port).

3. Configure Video Parameters:

   • Fill out the form with your desired settings: highlighted text, duration, dimensions, colors, blur options, etc.
   • Check/uncheck the "Use Mistral AI" box (it will be disabled if the API key is not set up correctly or the library is missing).

4. Generate Video:

   • Click the "Generate Video" button.
   • The process might take some time depending on video duration, resolution, and your system's performance. A loading indicator will be shown. Check the terminal running app.py for progress logs and potential errors.

5. Download:

   • If generation is successful, a download link for the .mp4 file will appear on the page.
   • If errors occur (e.g., font issues, FFmpeg problems, AI errors), an error message will be displayed on the page.

Project Structure

text_video_app/
├── app.py # Main Flask application, includes video generation logic
├── requirements.txt # Python dependencies
├── templates/
│ └── index.html # HTML template for the web UI
├── static/
│ └── style.css # Optional CSS for styling
├── fonts/ # <--- Add your .ttf/.otf font files here
│ └── (example.ttf)
├── output/ # Generated videos are saved here temporarily
├── .env # Store your MISTRAL_API_KEY here (Create this file!)
└── README.md # This file

Technology Stack

• Backend: Flask
• Video Processing: Moviepy (relies on FFmpeg)
• Image Manipulation: Pillow (PIL Fork)
• Numerical Operations: NumPy
• AI Text Generation (Optional): Mistral AI Python Client (mistralai)
• Environment Variables: python-dotenv
• Font Handling Fallback: Matplotlib (font_manager)

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a pull request or open an issue if you find bugs or have suggestions for improvements.

Acknowledgements

• Inspired by kinetic typography and text-based video effects.
• Uses the powerful Mistral AI models for creative text generation.