Brew

use vcs to generate thumbnail previews¶

Workflow app: change to pass input as arguments!

brew install vcs

ffmpeg
ffprobe

.vcs.conf

footer=off

bg_heading=White
bg_sign=White
bg_contact=White
fg_sign=White
fg_heading=Black

format=jpg
disable_shadows=1

bottom_margin = 0
padding=0

user=U0
verbosity=$V_ERROR
height=240
columns=3

Automator workflow receives current: movie files -> Action

~/Library/Services/Generate VCS Sheet.workflow

#!/bin/zsh

export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
exec </dev/null

# ===== SETTINGS =====
NUM_FRAMES=32
COLUMNS=4
THUMB_HEIGHT=240
FONT_SIZE=24
TS_MARGIN=6
SOUND="/System/Library/Sounds/Glass.aiff"

for input in "$@"; do
dir="${input:h}"
file="${input:t}"

# Flexible filename handling:

# Try to extract ID with regex; fallback to basename without extension

id=$(echo "$file" | sed -E 's/^([A-Za-z]+-[0-9]+[A-Za-z]?)( |\.|$).*$/\1/')
if [[-n "$id" && "$id" != "$file"]]; then
out="$dir/${id}\_s.jpg"
else
base="${file%.*}"       # strip extension
    out="$dir/${base}\_s.jpg"
fi

tmpdir="$(mktemp -d)"

# Ensure cleanup even if something fails

trap 'rm -rf "$tmpdir"' EXIT

# --- get duration ---

duration=$(ffprobe -v error \
    -show_entries format=duration \
    -of csv=p=0 "$input")

# --- seek-based frame extraction (FAST, vcs-style) ---

for ((i=1; i<=NUM_FRAMES; i++)); do
t=$(echo "$duration \* $i / ($NUM_FRAMES + 1)" | bc -l)

    ffmpeg -loglevel error -y \
    -hwaccel videotoolbox \
    -ss "$t" -i "$input" \
    -frames:v 1 \
    -vf "scale=-1:${THUMB_HEIGHT}:flags=fast_bilinear" \
    -an -sn \
    "$tmpdir/frame_$(printf "%03d" "$i").jpg"

done

# --- draw HH:MM:SS timestamps ---

i=1
for frame in "$tmpdir"/frame_*.jpg; do
    sec=$(printf "%.0f" "$(echo "$duration \* $i / ($NUM_FRAMES + 1)" | bc -l)")

    hh=$(printf "%02d" $((sec / 3600)))
    mm=$(printf "%02d" $(( (sec % 3600) / 60 )))
    ss=$(printf "%02d" $((sec % 60)))

    magick "$frame" \
    -gravity southeast \
    -fill white -stroke black -strokewidth 1 \
    -pointsize "$FONT_SIZE" \
    -annotate +"$TS_MARGIN"+"$TS_MARGIN" "${hh}:${mm}:${ss}" \
    "$frame"

    ((i++))

done

# --- assemble contact sheet ---

montage "$tmpdir"/frame_*.jpg \
    -tile ${COLUMNS}x \
    -geometry +0+0 \
    "$out"

rm -rf "$tmpdir"
trap - EXIT

done
afplay "$SOUND"

magick¶

magick to remove vcs quirks

export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
exec </dev/null # avoid waiting keyboard input Automator

for input in "$@"; do
dir="${input:h}"
file="${input:t}"

if [[ "$file" =~ ([A-Za-z]+-[0-9]+) ]]; then
    out="$dir/${match[1]}_s.jpg"
    vcs -n 30 --disable timestamps -o "$out" "$input"
else
    osascript -e "display alert \"No ID found\" message \"Filename doesn't match pattern\""
fi
done

magick "$out" -gravity south -chop 0x28 +repage "$out" # remove vcs footer artifacts

afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Glass.aiff

magick to chop image then stitch in columns (general)

#!/bin/zsh
for input in "$@"; do
dir="$(dirname "$input")"
filename="$(basename "$input")"
ext="${filename##_.}"
name="${filename%._}"

output="$dir/$name by3.$ext"

/opt/homebrew/bin/magick "$input" \
    -gravity North -chop 0x297 \
    -crop 1x3@ +repage \
    +append \
    "$output"
done