---
title: "How to add invert colors with Claude (tested prompt and ffmpeg command)"
description: "Like a film negative, the purple serum turns bright green, the white label goes charcoal and the pale rainbow backdrop sinks to dark olive for the whole clip. Install one skill and ask Claude Code, or run the ffmpeg command we tested yourself."
url: https://www.recharm.com/effects/invert-colors
---

# How to add invert colors with Claude

Like a film negative, the purple serum turns bright green, the white label goes charcoal and the pale rainbow backdrop sinks to dark olive for the whole clip.

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 invert colors to input.mp4
   ```

## 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 invert colors to **@clip1.mp4**, put a sale badge on **@clip2.mp4**, give **@clip3.mp4** a VHS look, then join all three with crossfades.

## Without the skill

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

```
Invert the colors of all of input.mp4, like a film negative: on every frame from start to end, replace each pixel's red, green and blue values with 255 minus that value (ffmpeg's negate filter does this), so white becomes black and purple becomes green. Don't change anything else. Keep the size, frame rate, length and audio the same. Use ffmpeg and save it as output.mp4.
```

## Run it without Claude

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

```
sh invert-colors.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
```

```
#!/bin/sh
# Invert colors: flip every pixel to its opposite (255 minus each channel) so the clip looks like a film negative.
# Usage: sh invert-colors.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
set -e
IN="$1"; OUT="$2"

ffmpeg -y -i "$IN" -vf "negate" \
  -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a copy "$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)