MoviePy

Overview

Edit video programmatically with MoviePy — the Python library for video compositing, cutting, effects, and rendering. Ideal for automated video pipelines: social media content generation, bulk video processing, slideshow builders, subtitle embedding, template-based video creation, and any workflow where you need code-driven video editing without a GUI. Built on ffmpeg.

Instructions

Step 1: Installation

pip install moviepy
apt install -y ffmpeg         # Ubuntu/Debian
# Optional for text: apt install -y imagemagick
# Or: pip install Pillow (MoviePy v2.x uses PIL for text)

Step 2: Basic Operations

from moviepy import VideoFileClip, AudioFileClip

clip = VideoFileClip("input.mp4")
print(f"Duration: {clip.duration}s, Size: {clip.size}, FPS: {clip.fps}")

trimmed = clip.subclipped(10, 60)            # 10s to 60s
resized = clip.resized(height=720)            # Maintain aspect ratio
resized = clip.resized((1080, 1920))          # Force size
cropped = clip.cropped(x1=100, y1=50, x2=1820, y2=1030)
fast = clip.with_speed_scaled(2.0)            # 2x speed
silent = clip.without_audio()

trimmed.write_videofile("output.mp4", fps=24, codec="libx264",
    audio_codec="aac", bitrate="5000k", preset="medium", threads=4)
clip.subclipped(5, 10).write_gif("output.gif", fps=15)
clip.close()

Step 3: Concatenation & Composition

from moviepy import VideoFileClip, concatenate_videoclips, CompositeVideoClip, ColorClip

# Concatenate clips sequentially
final = concatenate_videoclips([
    VideoFileClip("scene1.mp4"),
    VideoFileClip("scene2.mp4"),
    VideoFileClip("scene3.mp4"),
])

# Composite (overlay layers)
bg = ColorClip(size=(1920, 1080), color=(15, 23, 42), duration=10)
main = VideoFileClip("main.mp4").resized(height=800).with_position("center")
logo = (VideoFileClip("logo.png", duration=10)
        .resized(height=60).with_position((1820, 30)))

composite = CompositeVideoClip([bg, main, logo], size=(1920, 1080))
composite.write_videofile("composite.mp4", fps=30)

Step 4: Text Overlays

from moviepy import TextClip, CompositeVideoClip, VideoFileClip

video = VideoFileClip("input.mp4")
title = (TextClip(text="Episode 1: Getting Started",
                  font_size=60, color="white", font="Arial-Bold",
                  stroke_color="black", stroke_width=2)
         .with_duration(5).with_position("center").with_start(1))

subtitle = (TextClip(text="Welcome to the show",
                     font_size=36, color="white", bg_color="rgba(0,0,0,128)")
            .with_duration(4).with_position(("center", 900))
            .with_start(3).crossfadein(0.5).crossfadeout(0.5))

final = CompositeVideoClip([video, title, subtitle])
final.write_videofile("titled.mp4")

Step 5: Audio Operations

from moviepy import VideoFileClip, AudioFileClip, CompositeAudioClip

video = VideoFileClip("input.mp4")
video.audio.write_audiofile("extracted.mp3")

# Mix audio tracks
original = video.audio.with_volume_scaled(0.3)
music = AudioFileClip("bg_music.mp3").with_volume_scaled(0.15)
voiceover = AudioFileClip("narration.mp3")
mixed = CompositeAudioClip([original, music, voiceover])
final = video.with_audio(mixed)
final.write_videofile("mixed.mp4")

Step 6: Effects & Custom Filters

from moviepy import VideoFileClip, vfx

clip = VideoFileClip("input.mp4")
clip.with_effects([vfx.MirrorX()])           # Mirror horizontally
clip.with_effects([vfx.BlackAndWhite()])      # Grayscale
clip.with_effects([vfx.FadeIn(1), vfx.FadeOut(2)])

# Custom frame-by-frame effect
def add_vignette(frame):
    import numpy as np
    rows, cols = frame.shape[:2]
    X, Y = np.meshgrid(np.arange(cols) - cols/2, np.arange(rows) - rows/2)
    mask = 1 - np.clip(np.sqrt(X**2 + Y**2) / (max(rows, cols) * 0.5), 0, 1)
    return (frame * mask[:, :, np.newaxis] ** 1.5).astype("uint8")

vignetted = clip.image_transform(add_vignette)

Step 7: Batch Processing

import os
from moviepy import VideoFileClip, TextClip, CompositeVideoClip

def process_video(input_path, output_path, watermark_text="@mychannel"):
    clip = VideoFileClip(input_path).resized(height=1080)
    watermark = (TextClip(text=watermark_text, font_size=24, color="white")
                 .with_opacity(0.5).with_duration(clip.duration).with_position((20, 20)))
    final = CompositeVideoClip([clip, watermark])
    final.write_videofile(output_path, fps=clip.fps, codec="libx264",
                          audio_codec="aac", preset="fast", threads=4)
    clip.close()

input_dir, output_dir = "raw_videos", "processed"
os.makedirs(output_dir, exist_ok=True)
for f in os.listdir(input_dir):
    if f.endswith((".mp4", ".mov", ".avi")):
        process_video(os.path.join(input_dir, f),
                      os.path.join(output_dir, f.rsplit(".", 1)[0] + ".mp4"))

Examples

Example 1: Generate 30 Instagram story videos from a JSON config

User prompt: "I have a products.json file with 30 entries, each containing name, price, tagline, and image_path. Write a Python script that generates a 1080x1920 Instagram story for each product with the product image as background, name in bold white at the top, price in green, and tagline at the bottom with a fade-in."

The agent will write a script that loads products.json, iterates over each entry, creates a ColorClip background at 1080x1920, loads the product image and resizes it to fill the frame, creates TextClip layers for the name (72px, bold, top), price (56px, green #22c55e, center), and tagline (36px, bottom with crossfadein(0.5)), composites them with CompositeVideoClip, renders each to stories/{name}.mp4 at 30fps, and closes all clips.

Example 2: Concatenate interview clips with title cards and background music

User prompt: "I have 5 interview clips in /footage/ named q1.mp4 through q5.mp4. Create a script that puts a 3-second dark title card with white text before each clip showing 'Question 1' through 'Question 5', concatenates everything, adds background music from ambient.mp3 at 20% volume, and exports as interview_final.mp4."

The agent will write a script that builds title cards using ColorClip with dark background and TextClip for each question number, loads each interview clip with VideoFileClip, interleaves title cards and clips into a list, concatenates with concatenate_videoclips, loads ambient.mp3 as an AudioFileClip trimmed to the total duration at 20% volume, mixes it with the original audio using CompositeAudioClip, and writes the final video.

Guidelines

• Always call clip.close() after writing output to free ffmpeg processes and file handles, especially in batch loops
• MoviePy 2.x changed many method names from 1.x; use subclipped() not subclip(), resized() not resize(), with_position() not set_position()
• Set threads=4 or higher in write_videofile() for multi-core encoding, and use preset="fast" for batch jobs where speed matters more than file size
• For text rendering, MoviePy 2.x uses Pillow by default; install ImageMagick only if you need the method="caption" word-wrapping feature
• Large batch jobs can exhaust RAM since each clip keeps decoded frames in memory; process one clip at a time and close it before starting the next