How to add a barn door transition with Claude

Clip A splits down the center and its two halves slide apart to the left and right like doors, uncovering clip B behind them.

Get this effect

  1. Switch to Code in your Claude Desktop App

  2. Install the skill (once)

    Show the prompt
    Install the Recharm video effects skill: download https://recharm-growth-staging.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/website/downloads/recharm-video-effects.zip and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills
  3. Ask for the effect

    Join clipA.mp4 and clipB.mp4 with a barn door transition
    How long the doors take to open, in seconds: 0.6

Several videos, several effects, one ask

Put your clips in the folder, mention them with @, and ask for everything at once. Claude runs one tested script after another on each clip, then joins them.

Put a sale badge on @clip1.mp4, give @clip2.mp4 a VHS look, then join them with a barn door transition.

Settings you can change

Ask Claude to change any of these, or edit them at the top of the command.

SettingDefaultWhat it does
D0.6How long the doors take to open, in seconds.

Without the skill

Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the command itself.

Show the prompt
Join clipA.mp4 and clipB.mp4 with a 0.6 second barn door transition. The transition starts 0.6 seconds before A ends: from then on clip B plays full frame underneath, while A's left half (x 0 to half the width) slides left and A's right half slides right until both are fully off-screen, with smoothstep easing (progress p from 0 to 1, moved by p*p*(3-2p) of a half-width). Each half keeps showing A's own picture as it moves; there is no seam, border or fade. Crossfade the audio over the same 0.6 seconds. Fit B to A's size and frame rate first. The output is 11.4 seconds at 30fps. Use ffmpeg, keep the audio and save it as output.mp4.

Run it without Claude

This is the exact command we tested. Save it as barn-door.sh and run:

sh barn-door.sh clipA.mp4 clipB.mp4 output.mp4
Show the command
#!/bin/sh
# Barn door: clip A splits down the middle and its two halves slide out to the sides over 0.6s, opening onto clip B. The sound crossfades underneath.
# Usage: sh barn-door.sh clipA.mp4 clipB.mp4 output.mp4  (both clips need an audio track)
set -e
A="$1"; B="$2"; OUT="$3"
D=0.6   # how long the doors take to open, in seconds

LEN=$(ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of csv=p=0 "$A")
OFFSET=$(echo "$LEN - $D" | bc)
SIZE=$(ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=width,height -of csv=s=x:p=0 "$A")
FPS=$(ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=r_frame_rate -of csv=p=0 "$A")
W=${SIZE%x*}; H=${SIZE#*x}
# 0 -> 1 over the transition, eased in and out (smoothstep)
EASE="st(0,clip((t-$OFFSET)/$D,0,1));ld(0)*ld(0)*(3-2*ld(0))"
# B is fitted to A and starts at OFFSET; A's left and right halves are laid on top and pushed off-screen
ffmpeg -y -i "$A" -i "$B" -filter_complex "\
[0:v]fps=$FPS,format=yuv420p,setsar=1,split[a1][a2];\
[a1]crop=iw/2:ih:0:0[left];\
[a2]crop=iw/2:ih:iw/2:0[right];\
[1:v]scale=$W:$H:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=$W:$H,fps=$FPS,format=yuv420p,setsar=1,tpad=start_duration=$OFFSET[b];\
[b][left]overlay=x='-w*($EASE)':y=0:eof_action=pass[bl];\
[bl][right]overlay=x='w+w*($EASE)':y=0:eof_action=pass[v];\
[0:a][1:a]acrossfade=d=$D[au]" \
  -map "[v]" -map "[au]" -r "$FPS" -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac "$OUT"

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