---
title: "How to add a hue cycling with Claude (tested prompt and ffmpeg command)"
description: "The purple serum bottle turns red, then green, then teal and back to purple every 2 seconds, with the backdrop shifting through the rainbow alongside it. Install one skill and ask Claude Code, or run the ffmpeg command we tested yourself."
url: https://www.recharm.com/effects/hue-cycling
---

# How to add a hue cycling with Claude

The purple serum bottle turns red, then green, then teal and back to purple every 2 seconds, with the backdrop shifting through the rainbow alongside it.

Made by the command 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 hue cycling to input.mp4
   Seconds for one full trip around the color wheel: 2.0
   Color strength while cycling: 1.4
   ```

## 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 hue cycling 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                                                             |
| ------------ | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `LAP`        | `2.0`   | Seconds for one full trip around the color wheel. Smaller cycles faster. |
| `SATURATION` | `1.4`   | Color strength while cycling. 1 leaves it unchanged.                     |

## Without the skill

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

```
In input.mp4, make the colors cycle around the color wheel for the whole clip: rotate the hue by 360 degrees every 2 seconds (hue angle = 180 x time in seconds, starting at 0 so the first frame keeps its original colors), and raise the saturation to 1.4x so the shifted colors stay vivid. Brightness stays the same. Keep the size, 30fps, the 6-second length and the audio. Use ffmpeg's hue filter (no text is drawn; if you ever add any, draw it with Pillow, not ffmpeg's drawtext) and save it as output.mp4.
```

## Run it without Claude

This is the exact command we tested. Save it as `hue-cycling.sh` and run:

```
sh hue-cycling.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
```

```
#!/bin/sh
# Hue cycling: every color in the clip turns around the color wheel, one full lap every 2 seconds.
# Usage: sh hue-cycling.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
set -e
IN="$1"; OUT="$2"
LAP=2.0          # seconds for one full trip around the color wheel
SATURATION=1.4   # color strength while cycling (1 = unchanged), so the shifted colors stay vivid

ffmpeg -y -i "$IN" -vf "hue=h='360*t/$LAP':s=$SATURATION,fps=30" \
  -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a copy "$OUT"
```

## More color looks

- [Apply a LUT **Apply a LUT**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/apply-a-lut)
- [Black and white **Black and white**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/black-and-white)
- [Bleach bypass **Bleach bypass**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/bleach-bypass)
- [Cinematic color grade **Cinematic color grade**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/cinematic-color-grade)
- [Color match **Color match**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/color-match)

## 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)