--- title: "How to add a sci-fi HUD overlay with Claude (tested prompt and script)" description: "At half a second mint-green corner brackets slide in, a ringed crosshair with two spinning arcs closes onto the center, and \"TARGET LOCKED\", a running timecode and range readouts appear, as if seen through a visor. Install one skill and ask Claude Code, or run the Python script we tested yourself." url: https://www.recharm.com/effects/hud-overlay --- # How to add a sci-fi HUD overlay with Claude At half a second mint-green corner brackets slide in, a ringed crosshair with two spinning arcs closes onto the center, and "TARGET LOCKED", a running timecode and range readouts appear, as if seen through a visor. 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 sci-fi HUD overlay to input.mp4 Label: TARGET LOCKED ``` ## 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 sci-fi hud 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 | | --------- | ---------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | `START` | `0.5` | Second the HUD starts booting up. | | `BOOT` | `0.5` | Seconds the brackets and reticle take to slide into place. | | `COLOR` | `(80, 255, 230)` | Line and text color. | | `RETICLE` | `0.20` | Reticle ring radius as a share of the frame width. | | `SPIN` | `90` | Degrees per second the reticle's outer arcs turn. | | `LABEL` | `TARGET LOCKED` | Text under the reticle. | ## Without the skill Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the script itself. ``` Add a sci-fi HUD overlay to input.mp4, all lines and text in (80, 255, 230) with a soft 4-pixel dark (0, 20, 30) shadow behind them. Before 0.5 seconds the video is untouched. From 0.5s, over 0.5 seconds with an ease-out: four L-shaped corner brackets (arms 70 pixels long, 3 pixels thick, corners 28 pixels in from each frame edge) slide in from 40 pixels further out, and a targeting reticle centered on the frame shrinks from 1.6x into place. The reticle is a 2-pixel ring with a radius of 20% of the frame width, four crosshair ticks from 0.75 to 1.2 times the radius on each side, a small 16-pixel cross in the middle, and two 60-degree arcs 5 pixels thick at 1.12 times the radius, opposite each other, turning clockwise at 90 degrees per second. Once it's in place (1.0s) show readouts in a monospaced font: "TARGET LOCKED" at 5.5% of the frame width tall, centered 34 pixels below the bottom crosshair tick, in a 2-pixel outlined box with a dark (0, 20, 30) fill at 67% opacity; a running "REC mm:ss:ff" timecode in the top-left corner and "SYS ONLINE" in the top-right corner, 14 pixels inside the brackets; and "RANGE 2.30 M" over "AZ 134.0" in the bottom-left corner, both numbers changing slowly. Text other than the label is 4% of the frame width tall. Draw it with Python and Pillow (don't use ffmpeg's drawtext filter), composite it with ffmpeg, keep the audio, and save it as output.mp4 at 30fps. ``` ## Run it without Claude This is the exact script we tested. Save it as `hud-overlay.py` and run: ``` python3 hud-overlay.py input.mp4 output.mp4 ``` ``` #!/usr/bin/env python3 """HUD overlay: thin corner brackets, a spinning targeting reticle and live readouts boot up over the video. Usage: python3 hud-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 START = 0.5 # second the HUD starts booting up BOOT = 0.5 # seconds the brackets and reticle take to slide and shrink into place COLOR = (80, 255, 230) # HUD line and text color LINE = 3 # line thickness in pixels INSET = 28 # corner brackets' distance from the frame edge, in pixels ARM = 70 # length of each bracket arm, in pixels RETICLE = 0.20 # reticle ring radius as a share of the frame width, centered on the frame SPIN = 90 # degrees per second the reticle's outer arcs turn LABEL = "TARGET LOCKED" # text under the reticle FONTS = ["/System/Library/Fonts/Menlo.ttc", # macOS "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSansMono.ttf", # Linux "C:/Windows/Fonts/consola.ttf"] # Windows FONT_FILE = next((f for f in FONTS if Path(f).exists()), None) or sys.exit("No monospaced font found: add one to FONTS") def brackets(draw, p): """L-shaped brackets in the four corners, sliding in from 40px further out as p goes 0 -> 1.""" off = round(40 * (1 - p)) for sx, sy in [(1, 1), (-1, 1), (1, -1), (-1, -1)]: x = (INSET - off) if sx > 0 else w - 1 - INSET + off y = (INSET - off) if sy > 0 else h - 1 - INSET + off draw.line([(x, y + sy * ARM), (x, y), (x + sx * ARM, y)], fill=COLOR, width=LINE, joint="curve") def reticle(draw, t, p): """A ring with crosshair ticks and two spinning arcs, shrinking from 1.6x its size as p goes 0 -> 1.""" cx, cy = w / 2, h / 2 r = w * RETICLE * (1.6 - 0.6 * p) draw.ellipse([cx - r, cy - r, cx + r, cy + r], outline=COLOR, width=2) for dx, dy in [(1, 0), (-1, 0), (0, 1), (0, -1)]: draw.line([(cx + dx * r * 0.75, cy + dy * r * 0.75), (cx + dx * r * 1.2, cy + dy * r * 1.2)], fill=COLOR, width=LINE) draw.line([(cx - 8, cy), (cx + 8, cy)], fill=COLOR, width=2) draw.line([(cx, cy - 8), (cx, cy + 8)], fill=COLOR, width=2) R = r * 1.12 turn = SPIN * (t - START) for a in (turn, turn + 180): draw.arc([cx - R, cy - R, cx + R, cy + R], a, a + 60, fill=COLOR, width=LINE + 2) def readouts(draw, t): """Timecode top left, status top right, the label under the reticle and changing numbers bottom left.""" frames = round(t * 30) draw.text((INSET + 14, INSET + 14), f"REC {frames // 30 // 60:02d}:{frames // 30 % 60:02d}:{frames % 30:02d}", font=small, fill=COLOR) draw.text((w - INSET - 14, INSET + 14), "SYS ONLINE", font=small, fill=COLOR, anchor="ra") y = h / 2 + w * RETICLE * 1.2 + 34 box = draw.textbbox((w / 2, y), LABEL, font=big, anchor="mm") draw.rectangle([box[0] - 12, box[1] - 8, box[2] + 12, box[3] + 8], fill=(0, 20, 30, 170), outline=COLOR, width=2) draw.text((w / 2, y), LABEL, font=big, fill=COLOR, anchor="mm") draw.text((INSET + 14, h - INSET - 14), f"RANGE {2.4 - 0.1 * t:.2f} M\nAZ {134 + 7 * math.sin(t * 2):6.1f}", font=small, fill=COLOR, anchor="ld", spacing=6) def overlay(t): img = Image.new("RGBA", (w, h)) if t < START: return img p = ease_out(min((t - START) / BOOT, 1)) draw = ImageDraw.Draw(img) brackets(draw, p) reticle(draw, t, p) if p >= 1: readouts(draw, t) shadow = Image.new("RGBA", (w, h), (0, 20, 30)) shadow.putalpha(img.getchannel("A").filter(ImageFilter.GaussianBlur(4)).point(lambda a: min(255, a * 2))) shadow.alpha_composite(img) return shadow def ease_out(p): return 1 - (1 - p) ** 3 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) small = ImageFont.truetype(FONT_FILE, round(w * 0.04)) big = ImageFont.truetype(FONT_FILE, round(w * 0.055)) render(src, out) ``` ## More overlays and light - [Anamorphic streak **Anamorphic streak**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/anamorphic-streak) - [Aurora **Aurora**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/aurora) - [Blood splatter **Blood splatter**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/blood-splatter) - [Bokeh lights **Bokeh lights**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/bokeh-lights) - [Camera flash **Camera flash**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/camera-flash) ## Find 3x _winning ads_ Recharm cuts your ad footage into tagged, searchable clips: hooks, testimonials, product shots. Find the shots that win, add the effect with Claude, and ship 3x more ad edits. [Start 14-day free trial](https://www.recharm.com/get-started)