art2ascii is a Visual Studio Code extension that allows users to select a GIF and play it in ASCII form directly within the Tree View tab of the workspace.
There is also a seperate Python CLI for rendering, playing, and saving your images and GIFs in terminal here!
Features
Converts selected GIF files into ASCII art and plays in Explorer tab of workspace.
Supports basic GIF animations.
Apply tint or gradient to image to customize how GIF is rendered.
Lightweight and easy to use.
Usage
Installation / Upload Media
Install the art2ascii extension from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace or through the extensions page on VSCode.
Open a workspace or create a new one.
In the Explorer view, press the Upload Image/Gif button or art2ascii.upload-art in Command Palette.
Your ASCII GIF will be compiling in the background and when completed it will reload the extension view.
Adding Tint / Gradient
Press the Color Menu button or art2ascii.color-menu in Command Palette.
Select Tint or Gradient respectively (you can also skip this step by running either art2ascii.update-tint or art2ascii.update-gradient).
Input selected hexadecimal color in the form #000000 or 000000, two colors need to be selected for gradient.
Requirements
Visual Studio Code version 1.74.0 or higher.
Known Issues
Some GIF files may be too big to render properly (usually anything under 10MB should be fine)
Extension cannot currently be bundled properly due to a dependency issue with sharp compiling on cross-platform builds (planning to continue working on this but will be a small performance hit for now...)
Working on a better way to interface with webviewView to improve performance
Release Notes
Version 1.2.0
Added color menu with tint and gradient options.
Added opacity option for tints and gradients.
Refactored how configs are loaded for better performance.
Fixed bug when closing extension webviewView.
Version 1.1.1
Completely rewrote renderer in TypeScript, removing Python dependency and moving rendering from terminal to client-side.
Improved efficiency by cutting out file read / writes entirely and only storing gifUri's and loading when neccesary.
Implemented auto-reload feature rather than having to reload entire workspace view.
Version 1.0.3
GIF to ASCII conversion.
Display ASCII animation in the Tree View tab.
Feedback and Contributions
We welcome feedback and contributions from the community. If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improvement, please submit an issue on GitHub.