How to Make an ASCII Edit for TikTok, Reels and Shorts

An ASCII edit swaps some or all of your footage for moving text characters, usually timed to the music. Making one is mostly about planning: picking footage that converts well, deciding where the ASCII appears, and fitting a 1280×720 export into a vertical video. This guide walks through the full process.

Choose footage that converts well

ASCII turns brightness into characters, so it needs clear differences between light and dark.

• High contrast: strong lighting, silhouettes and bright subjects against dark backgrounds read best.
• A clear subject: one person, object or face that fills a good part of the frame.
• A simple background: busy backgrounds turn into noise that competes with the subject.

If a clip looks muddy, raise contrast, adjust gamma, or try edge detection, which draws outlines instead of shading.

Vertical 9:16 and the export size

ASCII Art Generator exports video at up to 1280×720 on desktop and 854×480 on phones, which is smaller than a full 1080×1920 vertical frame. Plan around this in one of two ways:

1. Scale it up: place the export in your 9:16 timeline and scale it to fill. Characters look softer, and a larger font size or lower width helps them hold up.
2. Use ASCII as a layer: keep your original footage at full resolution and add the ASCII as an overlay on part of the frame, or only for short moments. This keeps the edit sharp.

Either way, crop or frame your source so the subject sits in the area that will be visible in the vertical crop.

Popular structures

• Hard cut on the drop: play the real footage through the build-up, then cut to the ASCII version exactly on the beat drop.
• ASCII to real transition: start in ASCII and cross-fade or wipe to the original footage. Because the ASCII clip follows the same motion, the two line up.
• ASCII on the subject only: export on green screen, key it, and mask it so only the subject is ASCII while the background stays real. See Green screen keying basics.
• Matrix-style intro: open with the Matrix Digital Rain preset for a second or two before revealing the clip.

Match settings to the mood

• Matrix Digital Rain: green katakana and digits for a hacker or sci-fi feel.
• Amber CRT Terminal: warm, retro monitor look.
• Braille High-Res: the most detail per character, good for faces.
• Unicode 8-Bit Blocks: chunky and bold, readable on a small screen.
• Original colours mode: each character keeps the source colour, which suits colourful footage such as music videos or anime.

Step by step

1. Trim your clip to the section you need. Exports can be up to 60 seconds (20 seconds on low-memory devices).
2. Open Video to ASCII and load the clip.
3. Pick a preset, then adjust the width, contrast and font size while the preview plays. You can slow the preview down to 0.5× to check detail.
4. Choose a background: solid black for a full-frame look, or green screen to use it as a layer.
5. Export as MP4 for the main edit, or GIF for a short loop.
6. Import it into your editor and line it up with the original clip.

GIF or MP4 for loops

GIF is fine for short loops you want to share as a file or sticker, but it is limited in colour and gets large quickly. MP4 is smaller and better quality, and it is what you should use inside a video edit. MP4 export needs WebCodecs support, which current Chrome, Edge and Safari 16.4+ have.

Keep the original audio

The exported video has no audio track. Keep the original clip, or your music track, on the timeline in your editor and place the ASCII clip above it, starting at the same frame as the original, so the movement stays in sync with the sound.

Pacing and safe zones

• Short-form viewers decide quickly, so put the ASCII moment early or make the build-up obvious.
• Hold the ASCII section long enough to read as an effect. A few beats usually works better than a single flash.
• TikTok, Reels and Shorts cover the bottom and right edges with captions, buttons and the username. Keep the subject and any ASCII text in the centre of the frame.

Live clips with the ASCII camera

For a selfie-style edit, the ASCII camera converts your webcam live and exports a short clip of about five seconds. It works well for intros, reaction cuts or quick transitions.

Editor guides

For keying, blending and timing in a specific editor, see the guides for CapCut, Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve. There is also an After Effects guide in the guides section.

Troubleshooting

• ASCII looks like noise: the footage is too busy or low-contrast. Raise contrast, lower the width, or try edge detection.
• Characters are blurry after scaling to 9:16: increase font size or lower width before exporting, or use the ASCII as a smaller layer.
• ASCII is out of sync with the music: align the start of the ASCII clip with the same frame of the original, and use the original audio.
• Export is cut short: your clip is over the length limit for your device. Trim it first.