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 pixelate to input.mp4 Size of each square in pixels: 30 Second the picture breaks into squares: 1.0
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 pixelate 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 |
|---|---|---|
BLOCK | 30 | Size of each square in pixels. Bigger hides more. |
START | 1.0 | Second the picture breaks into squares. |
END | 4.0 | Second it snaps back to sharp. |
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 (540x960), pixelate the whole frame from 1.0 to 4.0 seconds with ffmpeg: shrink a copy of the video by 30 in each direction with area averaging (to 18x32) and scale it back up to 540x960 with nearest-neighbor scaling, so the picture becomes a grid of flat 30x30 pixel squares, 18 across and 32 down. Overlay that blocky copy at 0,0 only between 1.0 and 4.0 seconds; before 1.0 seconds and after 4.0 seconds the video must be untouched. Keep the size, 30fps, the 6 second length and the audio. There's no text to draw, but if you add any, draw it with Pillow, not ffmpeg's drawtext. Save it as output.mp4.Run it without Claude
This is the exact command we tested. Save it as pixelate.sh and run:
sh pixelate.sh input.mp4 output.mp4Show the command
#!/bin/sh
# Pixelate: from 1s to 4s the whole frame turns into big flat squares, then snaps back to sharp.
# Usage: sh pixelate.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
# Needs ffmpeg.
set -e
IN="$1"; OUT="$2"
BLOCK=30 # size of each square in pixels (540 / 30 = 18 squares across)
START=1.0 # second the picture breaks into squares
END=4.0 # second it snaps back to sharp
ffmpeg -y -i "$IN" -filter_complex "[0:v]split[base][copy];\
[copy]scale=iw/$BLOCK:ih/$BLOCK:flags=area,scale=iw*$BLOCK:ih*$BLOCK:flags=neighbor[blocks];\
[base][blocks]overlay=0:0:enable='between(t,$START,$END)',fps=30,format=yuv420p[v]" \
-map "[v]" -map 0:a? -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -c:a copy "$OUT"
