Get this effect
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Install the skill (once)
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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/skillsAsk for the effect
Add a directional blur to input.mp4 Second the blur starts fading in: 1.0 Second the blur starts fading back out: 4.0
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 directional blur 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 command.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
START | 1.0 | Second the blur starts fading in. Before it the video is untouched. |
END | 4.0 | Second the blur starts fading back out. |
RAMP | 0.3 | Seconds to fade the blur in and out. |
ANGLE | 0 | Direction of the smear in degrees. 0 is horizontal, 90 vertical, 45 diagonal. |
RADIUS | 20 | Length of the smear in pixels. Higher makes longer streaks. |
Without the skill
Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the command itself.
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In input.mp4, add a horizontal directional blur from 1.0 to 4.0 seconds; before 1.0s and after 4.3s the video must be untouched. Make a blurred copy with ffmpeg's dblur filter at angle 0 (a horizontal smear) and radius 20, the same blur on every pixel whether or not it moves, and overlay it on the original with its opacity fading from 0 to 1 between 1.0s and 1.3s, staying at 1 until 4.0s and fading back to 0 by 4.3s. Keep the size (540x960), 30fps, 6 seconds and the audio. Use ffmpeg, encode H.264 yuv420p and save it as output.mp4.Run it without Claude
This is the exact command we tested. Save it as directional-blur.sh and run:
sh directional-blur.sh input.mp4 output.mp4Show the command
#!/bin/sh
# Directional blur: from 1s to 4s the whole picture smears sideways in one fixed direction, then snaps back sharp.
# Usage: sh directional-blur.sh input.mp4 output.mp4 (needs only ffmpeg)
set -e
IN="$1"; OUT="$2"
START=1.0 # second the blur starts fading in (before it the video is untouched)
END=4.0 # second it starts fading back out
RAMP=0.3 # seconds to fade the blur in and out
ANGLE=0 # direction of the smear in degrees (0 = horizontal, 90 = vertical)
RADIUS=20 # length of the smear in pixels
# blur a copy along ANGLE, then lay it over the original with its opacity ramped up at START and down at END
ffmpeg -y -i "$IN" -filter_complex "\
[0:v]fps=30,format=yuv420p,split[sharp][src];\
[src]dblur=angle=$ANGLE:radius=$RADIUS,format=yuva420p,\
fade=in:st=$START:d=$RAMP:alpha=1,fade=out:st=$END:d=$RAMP:alpha=1[blur];\
[sharp][blur]overlay=format=auto,format=yuv420p[v]" \
-map "[v]" -map 0:a -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a copy "$OUT"
