Extract video frames as collection of images

Let's just say i was trying to learn how to better use ffmpeg, and started asking myself "What are the things i needed when working with video content?".

And this is one of the things that came to mind. A simple way to extract several video frames from a video file, and exporting those into a directory of my choice.

Very useful when making thumbnails from video content, and needing to choose the best one from a certain timespan.

Here are some ways on how i managed to do exactly that.

Using ffmpeg to extract multiple frames from a specific time point in the video

#!/usr/bin/env bash

INPUT_FILEPATH="${1}"
FRAME_TIME="${2}"
FRAME_COUNT="${3:-60}"
OUTPUT_DIR_FILEPATH="${4:-./extracted_frames/}"
OUTPUT_FILEPATH_TEMPLATE="${OUTPUT_DIR_FILEPATH}/%d.png"

mkdir \
--parents \
"${OUTPUT_DIR_FILEPATH}"

ffmpeg \
-i "${INPUT_FILEPATH}" \
-ss "${FRAME_TIME}" \
-frames:v ${FRAME_COUNT} \
"${OUTPUT_FILEPATH_TEMPLATE}"

The Bash script takes 4 arguments in total, with the third being optional:

The 1. one is the filepath to the video file.

The 2. one is the starting time, from which to extract the video frame. The expected input format is HH:MM:SS, meaning hours, minutes and seconds with exactly two digits.

The 3. one is the amount of frames to extract from the starting time onwards. If not set, will extract a total of 60.

The 4. is the output directory path. Gets created if it doesn't exist. If not set, will store the extracted frames in ./extracted_frames/ .

The output frames (saved as PNG images) are enumerated in the output directory, starting with 1 as their filename.

Other articles

Encoding videos to AV1

Published: 2026-10-01 00:00
Updated: 2026-10-25 00:55
By Žan Šadl Ferš

In Scripting.

tags: Bash Scripting Converting Converting Videos ffmpeg

Let's just say i was trying to learn how to better use ffmpeg, and started asking myself "What are the things i needed when working with video content?".

And this is one of the things that came to mind.

I had a bunch of videos, that used the H.264 …
read more
Converting images to WebP

Published: 2026-09-30 00:00
Updated: 2026-10-25 00:54
By Žan Šadl Ferš

In Scripting.

tags: Bash Scripting Converting Converting Images ImageMagick

Let's say i was looking for a way to convert images into a format, that is perfectly suited for webhosting. That means, decent enough quality and low file size.

The classics are .jpg and .png, which are also the most supported. But...there is another good one, that is getting …
read more
Extract clip from video file

Published: 2026-09-30 00:00
Updated: 2026-10-25 00:59
By Žan Šadl Ferš

In Scripting.

tags: Bash Scripting Python Scripting Video Processing ffmpeg MoviePy

Let's just say i was trying to learn how to better use ffmpeg, and started asking myself "What are the things i needed when working with video content?".

And this is one of the things that came to mind. A simple way to extract a clip from an starting point …
read more
Extract video frame as image

Published: 2026-09-29 00:00
Updated: 2026-10-25 00:58
By Žan Šadl Ferš

In Scripting.

tags: Bash Scripting Python Scripting Video Processing ffmpeg MoviePy

Let's just say i was trying to learn how to better use ffmpeg, and started asking myself "What are the things i needed when working with video content?".

And this is one of the things that came to mind. A simple way to extract one video frame from a video …
read more
Using GNU parallel to automate git pull of GitHub repositories

Published: 2026-09-29 00:00
Updated: 2026-10-25 00:59
By Žan Šadl Ferš

In Scripting.

tags: Bash Scripting GNU Tools Git

I personally have cloned hundreds of git repositories of various FOSS and FLOSS projects (for personal needs), and these, of course, should preferably have the latest changes available.

Doing manual git pull commands in each repository separately is insane, and my first effort to automate it proven to be to …
read more

Other articles

Links

Social