Get this effect
Switch to Code in your Claude Desktop App
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/skillsAsk for the effect
Add a glitch text to input.mp4 Text: NEW DROP
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 glitch text 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 |
|---|---|---|
TEXT | NEW DROP | The title. |
Y | 0.12 | Center of the title (0 = top, 1 = bottom). |
WIDTH | 0.8 | Title width as a share of the frame width. |
COLOR | (20, 16, 40) | Title color. |
LEFT_COPY, RIGHT_COPY | (255, 30, 90), (0, 230, 255) | Colors of the copies that split off to each side. |
BURSTS | [0.5, 2.2, 3.8, 5.2] | Seconds each glitch burst starts; the first one brings the title in. |
LENGTH | 0.3 | How long each burst lasts, in seconds. |
SPLIT | 0.025 | How far each color copy moves off, as a share of the frame width. |
TEAR | 0.04 | How far a torn slice can slide sideways, as a share of the frame width. |
SEED | 3 | Change for a different (but repeatable) glitch. |
Without the skill
Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the script itself.
Show the prompt
Add glitch text to input.mp4: "NEW DROP" in a heavy bold font (Arial Black), dark navy (20, 16, 40), 80% of the frame width wide, centered horizontally with its middle 12% of the way down. It appears at 0.5 seconds and stays to the end. Glitch it in bursts of 0.3 seconds starting at 0.5, 2.2, 3.8 and 5.2 seconds; between bursts it sits still and clean with no colored copies. On every frame of a burst, draw a pink (255, 30, 90) copy of the text shifted left and a cyan (0, 230, 255) copy shifted right, each by a random 1.5% to 3.5% of the frame width, put the navy text on top, cut the text into horizontal slices 7% to 20% of its height and slide about a third of them sideways by up to 4% of the frame width, and jolt the whole title up to 2% of the frame width sideways and 1% of the frame height up or down. Only the text glitches: the video behind stays untouched, and nothing is added before 0.5 seconds. Draw the text with Python, Pillow and numpy (don't rely on ffmpeg's drawtext filter), keep the size and audio, and save it as output.mp4.Run it without Claude
This is the exact script we tested. Save it as glitch-text.py and run:
python3 glitch-text.py input.mp4 output.mp4Show the script
#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Glitch text: a dark title whose letters split into pink and cyan copies and tear sideways in short bursts.
Usage: python3 glitch-text.py input.mp4 output.mp4
Needs ffmpeg, Pillow and numpy (pip install pillow numpy).
"""
import json
import math
import random
import subprocess
import sys
from pathlib import Path
import numpy as np
from PIL import Image, ImageDraw, ImageFont
TEXT = "NEW DROP" # the title
Y = 0.12 # center of the title (0 = top, 1 = bottom)
WIDTH = 0.8 # title width as a share of the frame width
COLOR = (20, 16, 40) # title color
LEFT_COPY = (255, 30, 90) # color of the copy that splits off to the left
RIGHT_COPY = (0, 230, 255) # color of the copy that splits off to the right
BURSTS = [0.5, 2.2, 3.8, 5.2] # seconds each glitch burst starts (the first one brings the title in)
LENGTH = 0.3 # seconds each burst lasts
SPLIT = 0.025 # how far each color copy moves off, as a share of the frame width
TEAR = 0.04 # how far a torn slice can slide sideways, as a share of the frame width
SEED = 3 # change for a different (but repeatable) glitch
FONTS = ["/System/Library/Fonts/Supplemental/Arial Black.ttf", # macOS
"/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf", # Linux
"C:/Windows/Fonts/ariblk.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 title_mask():
"""The title as a white-on-black mask, sized so it fills WIDTH, with room around it to shift."""
probe_font = ImageFont.truetype(FONT_FILE, 100)
font = ImageFont.truetype(FONT_FILE, round(100 * w * WIDTH / probe_font.getlength(TEXT)))
pad = round(w * (SPLIT + TEAR))
mask = Image.new("L", (round(font.getlength(TEXT)) + 2 * pad, round(font.size * 1.4)))
ImageDraw.Draw(mask).text((mask.width / 2, mask.height / 2), TEXT, font=font, anchor="mm", fill=255)
return np.asarray(mask, np.float32) / 255
def glitch_layer(rng):
"""One glitched frame of the title: pink and cyan copies pulled apart, then horizontal slices torn sideways."""
split = round(w * SPLIT * rng.uniform(0.6, 1.4))
left, right = np.roll(mask, -split, axis=1), np.roll(mask, split, axis=1)
copies = (left[..., None] * LEFT_COPY + right[..., None] * RIGHT_COPY) / np.maximum(left + right, 1e-6)[..., None]
rgb = copies * (1 - mask[..., None]) + mask[..., None] * np.array(COLOR, np.float32)
alpha = np.maximum(mask, np.maximum(left, right))
layer = np.dstack([np.clip(rgb, 0, 255), alpha * 255]).astype(np.uint8)
y = 0
while y < layer.shape[0]:
band = rng.randint(layer.shape[0] // 14, layer.shape[0] // 5)
if rng.random() < 0.35:
layer[y:y + band] = np.roll(layer[y:y + band], rng.choice((-1, 1)) * round(w * TEAR * rng.uniform(0.3, 1)), axis=1)
y += band
return Image.fromarray(layer)
def overlay(t):
img = Image.new("RGBA", (w, h))
if t < BURSTS[0]:
return img
if any(start <= t < start + LENGTH for start in BURSTS):
rng = random.Random(f"{SEED}-{round(t * fps)}") # a fresh glitch on every frame of a burst
title = glitch_layer(rng)
jump = (round(w * 0.02 * rng.uniform(-1, 1)), round(h * 0.01 * rng.uniform(-1, 1)))
else:
title = clean
jump = (0, 0)
img.alpha_composite(title, (round((w - title.width) / 2) + jump[0], round(h * Y - title.height / 2) + jump[1]))
return img
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)
mask = title_mask()
clean = Image.fromarray(np.dstack([np.ones(mask.shape + (3,)) * np.array(COLOR), mask * 255]).astype(np.uint8))
render(src, out)





