How to add a shape wipe with Claude

A white-edged diamond of clip B opens in the middle of clip A, its points touching the edges first and its sides sweeping the last corners of A away.

Get this effect

  1. Switch to Code in your Claude Desktop App

  2. Install the skill (once)

    Show the prompt
    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

    Join clipA.mp4 and clipB.mp4 with a shape wipe
    Length of the wipe in seconds: 0.8
    Width of the white outline, as a share of the frame (about 4px on a 540px-wide video): 0.008

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.

Put a sale badge on @clip1.mp4, give @clip2.mp4 a VHS look, then join them with a shape wipe.

Settings you can change

Ask Claude to change any of these, or edit them at the top of the command.

SettingDefaultWhat it does
D0.8Length of the wipe in seconds.
EDGE0.008Width of the white outline, as a share of the frame (about 4px on a 540px-wide video).

Without the skill

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

Show the prompt
Join clipA.mp4 and clipB.mp4 with a 0.8 second diamond wipe that starts 0.8 seconds before the end of A: B shows inside a diamond centered in the frame that grows until it fills it, with a white outline about 4 pixels wide. Use ffmpeg xfade with transition=custom and expr='if(lt(abs(X-W/2)/W+abs(Y-H/2)/H,1-P*P),B,if(lt(abs(X-W/2)/W+abs(Y-H/2)/H,1-P*P+0.008),if(eq(PLANE,0),235,128),A))', so the diamond's points touch the middle of each edge halfway through and its sides reach the corners at the end. Crossfade the audio over the same 0.8 seconds. Match B's size and frame rate to A. Save it as output.mp4.

Run it without Claude

This is the exact command we tested. Save it as shape-wipe.sh and run:

sh shape-wipe.sh clipA.mp4 clipB.mp4 output.mp4
Show the command
#!/bin/sh
# Shape wipe: clip B opens out of a diamond in the middle of clip A that grows to fill the frame over 0.8s. The sound crossfades underneath.
# Usage: sh shape-wipe.sh clipA.mp4 clipB.mp4 output.mp4  (both clips need an audio track)
set -e
A="$1"; B="$2"; OUT="$3"
D=0.8        # transition length in seconds
EDGE=0.008   # white outline on the diamond, as a share of the frame (0.008 is about 4px wide on 540px)

LEN=$(ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of csv=p=0 "$A")
OFFSET=$(echo "$LEN - $D" | bc)
SIZE=$(ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=width,height -of csv=s=x:p=0 "$A")
FPS=$(ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=r_frame_rate -of csv=p=0 "$A")
W=${SIZE%x*}; H=${SIZE#*x}
# xfade's P runs from 1 to 0, so 1-P*P is the diamond's size, easing out. A pixel shows B once
# its distance from the center, measured across the frame's width and height, is inside that size
# (at 1 the diamond reaches the corners), and turns white in a thin band just outside it.
# White is 235 on the brightness plane and 128 on the two color planes.
DIAMOND="if(lt(abs(X-W/2)/W+abs(Y-H/2)/H,1-P*P),B,if(lt(abs(X-W/2)/W+abs(Y-H/2)/H,1-P*P+$EDGE),if(eq(PLANE,0),235,128),A))"
# xfade needs both clips at the same size and frame rate, so B is fitted to A first
ffmpeg -y -i "$A" -i "$B" -filter_complex "\
[0:v]fps=$FPS,format=yuv420p,setsar=1[a];\
[1:v]scale=$W:$H:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=$W:$H,fps=$FPS,format=yuv420p,setsar=1[b];\
[a][b]xfade=transition=custom:expr='$DIAMOND':duration=$D:offset=$OFFSET[v];\
[0:a][1:a]acrossfade=d=$D[au]" \
  -map "[v]" -map "[au]" -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac "$OUT"

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