--- title: "How to add a pointillism with Claude (tested prompt and script)" description: "At one second the shot is repainted as thousands of loose round dots of color on white canvas, the bottle picked out in vivid purple dots and the backdrop in pale blue speckles. Install one skill and ask Claude Code, or run the Python script we tested yourself." url: https://www.recharm.com/effects/pointillism --- # How to add a pointillism with Claude At one second the shot is repainted as thousands of loose round dots of color on white canvas, the bottle picked out in vivid purple dots and the backdrop in pale blue speckles. 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 pointillism to input.mp4 Second the picture turns into dots: 1.0 Average pixels between dot centers: 8 ``` ## 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 pointillism 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` | `1.0` | Second the picture turns into dots. | | `SPACING` | `8` | Average pixels between dot centers. Bigger gives fewer, sparser dots. | | `JITTER` | `3` | How far each dot strays from an even grid, in pixels. | | `RADIUS` | `(2, 4)` | Smallest and largest dot radius in pixels. | | `CANVAS` | `(255, 255, 255)` | Background color between the dots. | | `SATURATION` | `2.0` | Color boost for the dots. | | `CONTRAST` | `1.2` | Contrast boost for the dots. | | `SEED` | `7` | Random seed for the dot layout. | ## Without the skill Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the script itself. ``` Give input.mp4 (540x960) a pointillist painting look from 1.0 seconds to the end; before 1.0 seconds leave it untouched. Lay out the dots once: one dot per cell of an 8 pixel grid (first center at 4, 4), each moved by a random whole number from -3 to 3 pixels in x and y and given a random radius of 2, 3 or 4 pixels, using a fixed random seed so the dots stay in place from frame to frame. For each frame from 1.0 s: box-blur it with a 2 pixel radius, raise the color saturation by 2.0x and then the contrast by 1.2x (as Pillow's ImageEnhance does), start from a pure white (255, 255, 255) canvas and draw every dot as a filled circle in the color of that softened frame at the dot's center. White should show between the dots everywhere, about 40% of the frame. Use Python with numpy and Pillow for the frames and ffmpeg to read and write the video (don't use ffmpeg's drawtext if you add any text), keep the size, 30fps, the 6 second length and the audio, and save it as output.mp4. ``` ## Run it without Claude This is the exact script we tested. Save it as `pointillism.py` and run: ``` python3 pointillism.py input.mp4 output.mp4 ``` ``` #!/usr/bin/env python3 """Pointillism: at one second the shot is repainted as thousands of round color dots scattered on white canvas. Usage: python3 pointillism.py input.mp4 output.mp4 Needs ffmpeg, Pillow and numpy (pip install pillow numpy). """ import json import subprocess import sys import numpy as np from PIL import Image, ImageDraw, ImageEnhance, ImageFilter START = 1.0 # second the picture turns into dots SPACING = 8 # average pixels between dot centers JITTER = 3 # how far each dot strays from its place on that grid, in pixels RADIUS = (2, 4) # smallest and largest dot radius in pixels CANVAS = (255, 255, 255) # background showing between the dots SATURATION = 2.0 # color boost, for a painted look CONTRAST = 1.2 # contrast boost, so the dots read against the white SEED = 7 # same seed, same dot layout: the dots stay put and only their colors change def paint(img): """Repaint one frame as dots, each filled with the (softened, saturated) color under its center.""" soft = ImageEnhance.Color(img.filter(ImageFilter.BoxBlur(2))).enhance(SATURATION) soft = ImageEnhance.Contrast(soft).enhance(CONTRAST) colors = np.asarray(soft)[ys, xs] canvas = Image.new("RGB", img.size, CANVAS) draw = ImageDraw.Draw(canvas) for x, y, r, c in zip(xs, ys, radii, colors): draw.ellipse([x - r, y - r, x + r, y + r], fill=tuple(int(v) for v in c)) return canvas def probe(path): info = json.loads(subprocess.check_output(["ffprobe", "-v", "error", "-select_streams", "v:0", "-show_entries", "stream=width,height,r_frame_rate", "-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) src, out = sys.argv[1:3] w, h, rate, fps = probe(src) rng = np.random.default_rng(SEED) gy, gx = np.mgrid[SPACING // 2:h:SPACING, SPACING // 2:w:SPACING].reshape(2, -1) xs = np.clip(gx + rng.integers(-JITTER, JITTER + 1, gx.size), 0, w - 1) ys = np.clip(gy + rng.integers(-JITTER, JITTER + 1, gy.size), 0, h - 1) radii = rng.integers(RADIUS[0], RADIUS[1] + 1, gx.size) reader = subprocess.Popen(["ffmpeg", "-v", "error", "-i", src, "-f", "rawvideo", "-pix_fmt", "rgb24", "-"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE) writer = subprocess.Popen(["ffmpeg", "-y", "-v", "error", "-f", "rawvideo", "-pix_fmt", "rgb24", "-s", f"{w}x{h}", "-r", rate, "-i", "-", "-i", src, "-map", "0:v", "-map", "1:a?", "-c:v", "libx264", "-crf", "18", "-pix_fmt", "yuv420p", "-c:a", "copy", "-shortest", out], stdin=subprocess.PIPE) i = 0 while raw := reader.stdout.read(w * h * 3): img = Image.frombytes("RGB", (w, h), raw) if i / fps >= START: img = paint(img) writer.stdin.write(img.tobytes()) i += 1 writer.stdin.close() if reader.wait() or writer.wait(): sys.exit("ffmpeg failed") ``` ## More stylize and art - [Anime style **Anime style**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/anime-style) - [ASCII art **ASCII art**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/ascii-art) - [Blueprint **Blueprint**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/blueprint) - [Charcoal drawing **Charcoal drawing**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/charcoal-drawing) - [Claymation style **Claymation style**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/claymation-style) ## 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)