FlashVideoBot 🎬⚡

Automated News Video Generator for YouTube Shorts

FlashVideoBot is a comprehensive Python application that automatically fetches the latest news from multiple sources and creates engaging, eye-catching videos optimized for YouTube-style retention. The bot generates short (15-30 second) videos with dynamic text animations, visual effects, and professional audio narration.

🚀 Features

📰 News Fetching

• Multiple Sources: NewsAPI, RSS feeds from major news outlets
• Smart Filtering: Removes duplicates and low-quality content
• Category Support: Technology, business, health, sports, and more
• Caching: Intelligent caching to avoid duplicate API calls

🧠 Content Summarization

• NLP-Powered: Uses transformers, sumy, and NLTK for intelligent summarization
• Engaging Hooks: Generates attention-grabbing opening statements
• Key Points: Extracts main points for bullet-point presentation
• Readability: Optimizes text for video consumption

🎬 Video Creation

• YouTube Shorts Format: Optimized 1080x1920 vertical videos
• Dynamic Text Effects: Typewriter, pulse, slide, and bounce animations
• Professional Transitions: Fade, zoom, and slide effects between segments
• Visual Effects: Ken Burns effect, vignette, progress bars
• Retention Optimization: Fast pacing with strategic visual hooks

🎵 Audio Enhancement

• Text-to-Speech: Support for gTTS and pyttsx3 engines
• Background Music: Automatic music selection based on content sentiment
• Natural Pacing: Strategic pauses and emphasis for better engagement
• Audio Mixing: Balanced narration and background audio

🖼️ Visual Assets

• Stock Images: Integration with Unsplash and Pixabay APIs
• Smart Keywords: Automatic keyword extraction for relevant visuals
• Image Processing: Automatic resizing, enhancement, and optimization
• Fallback System: Ensures videos always have appropriate visuals

📋 Requirements

System Requirements

• Python: 3.8 or higher
• Operating System: Windows, macOS, or Linux
• Memory: 4GB RAM minimum (8GB recommended)
• Storage: 2GB free space for cache and output files

Optional Dependencies

• FFmpeg: For advanced audio/video processing (recommended)
• ImageMagick: For enhanced image processing

🛠️ Installation

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/FlashVideoBot.git
cd FlashVideoBot

2. Create Virtual Environment

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv

# Activate virtual environment
# On Windows:
venv\Scripts\activate
# On macOS/Linux:
source venv/bin/activate

3. Install Dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Download NLTK Data

python -c "import nltk; nltk.download('punkt'); nltk.download('stopwords'); nltk.download('wordnet')"

5. Install FFmpeg (Optional but Recommended)

• Windows: Download from https://ffmpeg.org/download.html
• macOS: brew install ffmpeg
• Linux: sudo apt install ffmpeg (Ubuntu/Debian)

6. Setup Scripts (Optional)

For convenience, you can run the setup script for your platform:

# On Windows:
.\setup_windows.ps1

# On macOS/Linux:
chmod +x setup_unix.sh
./setup_unix.sh

⚙️ Configuration

1. API Keys Setup

Copy the example configuration file and add your API keys:

cp config/config.example.yaml config/config_local.yaml

Edit config/config_local.yaml with your API keys:

news:
  # Get free key at https://newsapi.org
  newsapi_key: "YOUR_NEWS_API_KEY"
  
  # Get free key at https://pixabay.com/api/docs/
  pixabay_key: "YOUR_PIXABAY_API_KEY"
  
  # Get free key at https://unsplash.com/developers
  unsplash_key: "YOUR_UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY"

2. API Configuration Guide

For detailed instructions on how to obtain all the required API keys:

1. Read our comprehensive API Setup Guide
2. The guide covers NewsAPI, Unsplash, Pixabay, and other services
3. Free tier options are available for all required APIs

3. Testing Your API Configuration

You can test if all your API keys are working correctly by running:

python test_apis.py

This will check all configured APIs and report their status.

4. Environment Variables (Alternative)

You can also set API keys via environment variables:

export NEWSAPI_KEY="YOUR_NEWS_API_KEY"
export UNSPLASH_KEY="YOUR_UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY"
export PIXABAY_KEY="YOUR_PIXABAY_API_KEY"

5. Configuration Options

Setting	Description	Default
news.max_articles	Number of articles to process	5
video.duration	Maximum video length (seconds)	30
video.width	Video width (pixels)	1080
video.height	Video height (pixels)	1920
audio.tts.engine	TTS engine (gtts/pyttsx3)	gtts
audio.music.enabled	Enable background music	true

🚀 Usage

Basic Usage

# Activate virtual environment
venv\Scripts\activate  # Windows
# source venv/bin/activate  # macOS/Linux

# Run the bot
python main.py

Custom Configuration

# Use custom config file
python main.py --config custom_config.yaml

# Set maximum articles
python main.py --max-articles 10

# Disable background music
python main.py --no-music

Programmatic Usage

from main import FlashVideoBot
import asyncio

async def create_videos():
    bot = FlashVideoBot()
    await bot.run()

# Run the bot
asyncio.run(create_videos())

📁 Project Structure

FlashVideoBot/
├── main.py                 # Main application entry point
├── requirements.txt        # Python dependencies
├── config/
│   └── config.yaml        # Configuration template
├── src/
│   ├── config_manager.py  # Configuration handling
│   ├── news_fetcher.py    # News source integration
│   ├── text_summarizer.py # NLP and summarization
│   ├── video_creator.py   # Video generation with effects
│   ├── audio_manager.py   # TTS and audio processing
│   ├── image_manager.py   # Image fetching and processing
│   └── utils/
│       └── logger.py      # Logging utilities
├── assets/
│   ├── fonts/            # Custom fonts (optional)
│   ├── music/            # Background music files
│   └── temp/             # Temporary files and cache
├── videos/               # Generated video output
└── logs/                 # Application logs

🎯 Video Generation Process

1. News Fetching: Retrieves latest articles from configured sources
2. Content Analysis: Extracts keywords and generates summaries
3. Hook Creation: Creates attention-grabbing opening statements
4. Visual Assets: Downloads relevant images based on content
5. Audio Generation: Creates TTS narration with natural pacing
6. Video Assembly: Combines all elements with dynamic effects
7. Optimization: Applies retention-focused enhancements

🎨 Customization

Adding Custom Fonts

1. Place font files (.ttf, .otf) in assets/fonts/
2. Update configuration to reference new fonts

Adding Background Music

1. Place audio files (.mp3, .wav) in assets/music/
2. Name files with mood keywords (e.g., "upbeat_news.mp3", "dramatic_breaking.mp3")

Custom Video Effects

Modify src/video_creator.py to add new:

• Text animations
• Transition effects
• Visual filters
• Color schemes

🔧 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Import Errors

# Install missing packages
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Update packages
pip install --upgrade -r requirements.txt

API Rate Limits

• Ensure API keys are valid and have sufficient quota
• Check API usage limits on provider websites
• Implement rate limiting in configuration

Video Generation Fails

• Check FFmpeg installation
• Verify sufficient disk space
• Review logs for specific error messages

Poor Video Quality

• Increase image resolution settings
• Use higher quality TTS engine
• Add better background music

Performance Optimization

Memory Usage

• Reduce news.max_articles for lower memory usage
• Enable image caching
• Clear temp files regularly

Speed Improvements

• Use local TTS engine (pyttsx3) instead of gTTS
• Increase performance.max_workers
• Cache images and audio files

📊 Output

Generated videos include:

• File Format: MP4 (H.264/AAC)
• Resolution: 1080x1920 (YouTube Shorts optimized)
• Duration: 15-30 seconds
• Naming: news_video_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.mp4
• Location: videos/ directory

📚 Documentation

Comprehensive documentation is available in the docs/ directory:

• Quick Start Guide - Get up and running quickly
• API Setup Guide - How to obtain all required API keys
• Configuration Options - Detailed configuration settings
• Full Documentation Index - Complete documentation reference

📝 Logs

Application logs are saved to:

• Main Log: logs/flashvideobot.log
• Error Log: logs/errors.log
• Rotation: Logs rotate automatically to prevent large files

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📄 License

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

🙏 Acknowledgements

• MoviePy for video processing
• gTTS for text-to-speech functionality
• NLTK for natural language processing
• Pillow for image processing
• Unsplash and Pixabay for image APIs
• NewsAPI for news content

🆘 Support

• Issues: Report bugs on GitHub Issues
• Discussions: Join discussions on GitHub Discussions
• Documentation: Full docs at docs/

🔮 Roadmap

• Real-time news monitoring
• Multiple video formats (landscape, square)
• Advanced AI voice generation
• Social media platform integration
• Custom branding and overlays
• Analytics and performance tracking
• Multi-language support
• Live streaming integration

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Made with ❤️ by the FlashVideoBot team for creators who want to automate engaging news content