--- title: "How to add a comment reply overlay with Claude (tested prompt and script)" description: "A white card reading \"Reply to @maya.glows's comment: How long did it take to see results?\" pops up above the bottle, its tail pointing down, while the voiceover answers it. Install one skill and ask Claude Code, or run the Python script we tested yourself." url: https://www.recharm.com/effects/comment-reply-overlay --- # How to add a comment reply overlay with Claude A white card reading "Reply to @maya.glows's comment: How long did it take to see results?" pops up above the bottle, its tail pointing down, while the voiceover answers it. Made by the script on this page, from our own test clip. ## Get this effect 1. ### Switch to Code in your [Claude Desktop App](https://claude.com/download) 2. ### Install the skill (once) ``` 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 ``` Add a comment reply overlay to input.mp4 Username: maya.glows Comment: How long did it take to see results? ``` ## 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. Add a comment reply overlay to **@clip1.mp4**, put a sale badge on **@clip2.mp4**, give **@clip3.mp4** a VHS look, then join all three with crossfades. ## Settings you can change Ask Claude to change any of these, or edit them at the top of the script. | Setting | Default | What it does | | ---------- | -------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | | `USERNAME` | `maya.glows` | Who left the comment. | | `COMMENT` | `How long did it take to see results?` | The comment the video answers. | | `START` | `0.3` | Second the card pops in. | | `WIDTH` | `0.80` | Card width as a share of the frame width. | | `TOP` | `0.10` | Card top edge as a share of the frame height. | | `AVATAR` | `(40, 160, 150)` | Avatar circle color. | ## Without the skill Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the script itself. ``` Add a comment reply card to input.mp4 (540x960). Draw a white (255, 255, 255) rounded rectangle 80% of the frame width across (432 px), centered horizontally with its top edge 10% down the frame, corner radius 5% of the card width, with a soft dark drop shadow and a small triangular tail at the bottom left pointing down. Inside, 5% padding: on the left a teal (40, 160, 150) circle 12% of the card width across with a white bold "M"; to its right a gray (120, 120, 128) line "Reply to @maya.glows's comment" in bold at 4% of the card width, and below it the comment "How long did it take to see results?" in near-black (20, 20, 24) bold at 6% of the card width, wrapped to fit. Nothing shows before 0.3 seconds; the card pops in from its center at 0.3 seconds over 0.35 seconds with a slight overshoot, then stays to the end. Leave the rest of the video untouched. Use Python with Pillow to draw the card and ffmpeg to put it on the video (don't rely on ffmpeg's drawtext filter), keep the audio, and save it as output.mp4. ``` ## Run it without Claude This is the exact script we tested. Save it as `comment-reply-overlay.py` and run: ``` python3 comment-reply-overlay.py input.mp4 output.mp4 ``` ``` #!/usr/bin/env python3 """Comment reply overlay: a viewer's comment pops up as a white reply card above the video that answers it. Usage: python3 comment-reply-overlay.py input.mp4 output.mp4 Needs ffmpeg and Pillow (pip install pillow). """ import json import math import subprocess import sys from pathlib import Path from PIL import Image, ImageDraw, ImageFilter, ImageFont USERNAME = "maya.glows" # who left the comment COMMENT = "How long did it take to see results?" # the comment being answered START = 0.3 # second the card pops in POP = 0.35 # seconds the pop takes WIDTH = 0.80 # card width as a share of the frame width TOP = 0.10 # card top edge, as a share of the frame height (centered across) AVATAR = (40, 160, 150) # avatar circle color FONTS = ["/System/Library/Fonts/Supplemental/Arial Bold.ttf", # macOS "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf", # Linux "C:/Windows/Fonts/arialbd.ttf"] # Windows FONT_FILE = next((f for f in FONTS if Path(f).exists()), None) or sys.exit("No bold font found: add one to FONTS") def wrap(draw, text, font, width): lines = [""] for word in text.split(): trial = f"{lines[-1]} {word}".strip() if draw.textlength(trial, font=font) <= width or not lines[-1]: lines[-1] = trial else: lines.append(word) return lines def card(): """The reply card: avatar, "Reply to @user's comment", the comment, and a tail at the bottom left.""" cw = round(w * WIDTH) pad, av = round(cw * 0.05), round(cw * 0.12) small = ImageFont.truetype(FONT_FILE, round(cw * 0.04)) big = ImageFont.truetype(FONT_FILE, round(cw * 0.06)) text_x = pad + av + pad * 0.7 lines = wrap(ImageDraw.Draw(Image.new("RGB", (1, 1))), COMMENT, big, cw - text_x - pad) line_h = round(big.size * 1.25) ch = pad + round(small.size * 1.6) + line_h * len(lines) + pad tail, shadow = round(cw * 0.06), round(cw * 0.04) img = Image.new("RGBA", (cw + 2 * shadow, ch + tail + 2 * shadow)) shape = Image.new("L", img.size) s = ImageDraw.Draw(shape) s.rounded_rectangle([shadow, shadow, shadow + cw, shadow + ch], radius=round(cw * 0.05), fill=255) s.polygon([(shadow + pad * 2, shadow + ch - 1), (shadow + pad * 2 + tail * 1.4, shadow + ch - 1), (shadow + pad * 2, shadow + ch + tail)], fill=255) img.paste((0, 0, 0, 90), (0, round(shadow * 0.4)), shape.filter(ImageFilter.GaussianBlur(shadow / 2))) img.paste((255, 255, 255, 255), (0, 0), shape) draw = ImageDraw.Draw(img) x0, y0 = shadow + pad, shadow + pad draw.ellipse([x0, y0, x0 + av, y0 + av], fill=AVATAR) draw.text((x0 + av / 2, y0 + av / 2), USERNAME[0].upper(), font=big, anchor="mm", fill="white") draw.text((shadow + text_x, y0), f"Reply to @{USERNAME}'s comment", font=small, fill=(120, 120, 128)) for i, line in enumerate(lines): draw.text((shadow + text_x, y0 + round(small.size * 1.6) + i * line_h), line, font=big, fill=(20, 20, 24)) return img def overlay(t): img = Image.new("RGBA", (w, h)) scale = ease_out_back((t - START) / POP) if t >= START else 0 if scale > 0.02: c = full.resize((max(1, round(full.width * scale)), max(1, round(full.height * scale))), Image.LANCZOS) # grow out of the card's center so the pop stays in place img.alpha_composite(c, (round(w / 2 - c.width / 2), round(h * TOP + full.height / 2 - c.height / 2))) return img def ease_out_back(p): """0 -> 1 with a small overshoot past 1 before settling, which reads as a 'pop'.""" p = min(max(p, 0), 1) return 1 + 2.70158 * (p - 1) ** 3 + 1.70158 * (p - 1) ** 2 def probe(path): info = json.loads(subprocess.check_output(["ffprobe", "-v", "error", "-select_streams", "v:0", "-show_entries", "stream=width,height,r_frame_rate:format=duration", "-of", "json", path])) s = info["streams"][0] num, den = s["r_frame_rate"].split("/") return s["width"], s["height"], s["r_frame_rate"], float(num) / float(den), float(info["format"]["duration"]) def render(src, out): """Draw overlay(t) on every frame of src and save to out, keeping the audio.""" ff = subprocess.Popen(["ffmpeg", "-y", "-v", "error", "-i", src, "-f", "rawvideo", "-pix_fmt", "rgba", "-s", f"{w}x{h}", "-r", rate, "-i", "-", "-filter_complex", "[0:v][1:v]overlay=shortest=1,format=yuv420p[v]", "-map", "[v]", "-map", "0:a?", "-c:v", "libx264", "-crf", "18", "-c:a", "copy", out], stdin=subprocess.PIPE) for i in range(math.ceil(duration * fps)): ff.stdin.write(overlay(i / fps).tobytes()) ff.stdin.close() if ff.wait(): sys.exit("ffmpeg failed") src, out = sys.argv[1:3] w, h, rate, fps, duration = probe(src) full = card() render(src, out) ``` ## More ugc and social proof - [Day counter **Day counter**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/day-counter) - [Emoji rain **Emoji rain**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/emoji-rain) - [Floating hearts **Floating hearts**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/floating-hearts) - [Follow button animation **Follow button animation**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/follow-button-animation) - [Live stream overlay **Live stream overlay**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/live-stream-overlay) ## Find 3x _winning ads_ Recharm cuts your ad footage into tagged, searchable clips: hooks, testimonials, product shots. 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