How to add a spin blur with Claude

At one second the shot starts whirling around the middle of the frame: the acrylic block and holographic backdrop smear into curved arcs while the bottle stays recognizable at the center, then the picture settles back sharp just after four seconds.

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

    Add a spin blur to input.mp4
    Second the spin blur starts building: 1.0
    Second it starts easing back off: 4.0

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 spin blur 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.

SettingDefaultWhat it does
START1.0Second the spin blur starts building. Before it the video is untouched.
END4.0Second it starts easing back off.
RAMP0.4Seconds to build up and to ease off.
ANGLE24Degrees of arc each point smears across at full strength. Higher spins harder.
CENTER(0.5, 0.5)Point the picture spins around, as shares of the frame width and height.
STEPS32Rotated copies averaged per frame. More gives smoother arcs but runs slower.

Without the skill

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

Show the prompt
In input.mp4, add a spin blur (rotational blur) from 1.0 to 4.4 seconds; before 1.0s and after 4.4s the video must be untouched. On each frame, average 32 copies of the frame rotated around the frame center (270, 480) at evenly spaced angles from -A/2 to +A/2 degrees, filling the corners by reflecting the edges, so every point smears along a circular arc. A is 24 degrees at full strength: ease it up from 0 to 24 between 1.0s and 1.4s (smoothstep), hold 24 until 4.0s and ease back to 0 by 4.4s. Use Python with OpenCV (cv2.getRotationMatrix2D and cv2.warpAffine) and numpy, piping frames through ffmpeg. Keep the size (540x960), 30fps, 6 seconds and the audio. No text is needed; if you add any, draw it with Pillow, not ffmpeg's drawtext. Encode H.264 yuv420p and save it as output.mp4.

Run it without Claude

This is the exact script we tested. Save it as spin-blur.py and run:

python3 spin-blur.py input.mp4 output.mp4
Show the script
#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Spin blur: from 1s to 4s the picture smears in circles around its center, as if the camera were spinning.

Usage: python3 spin-blur.py input.mp4 output.mp4
Needs ffmpeg, OpenCV and numpy (pip install opencv-python-headless numpy).
"""
import json
import subprocess
import sys

import cv2
import numpy as np

START = 1.0      # second the spin blur starts building (before it the video is untouched)
END = 4.0        # second it starts easing back off
RAMP = 0.4       # seconds to build up and ease off
ANGLE = 24       # degrees of arc each point smears across at full strength
CENTER = (0.5, 0.5)  # point the picture spins around (0-1 across and down the frame)
STEPS = 32       # rotated copies averaged per frame (more makes smoother arcs)


def strength(t):
    """0 before START, easing up to 1 over RAMP, held until END, easing back to 0."""
    p = min(max((t - START) / RAMP, 0), 1, max((END + RAMP - t) / RAMP, 0))
    return p * p * (3 - 2 * p)


def spin_blur(img, angle):
    """Average copies of the frame rotated across -angle/2..+angle/2 around CENTER."""
    center = (CENTER[0] * w, CENTER[1] * h)
    acc = np.zeros(img.shape, np.float32)
    for a in np.linspace(-angle / 2, angle / 2, STEPS):
        m = cv2.getRotationMatrix2D(center, float(a), 1.0)
        acc += cv2.warpAffine(img, m, (w, h), flags=cv2.INTER_LINEAR, borderMode=cv2.BORDER_REFLECT)
    return (acc / STEPS).round().astype(np.uint8)


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)
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 True:
    buf = reader.stdout.read(w * h * 3)
    if len(buf) < w * h * 3:
        break
    img = np.frombuffer(buf, np.uint8).reshape(h, w, 3)
    s = strength(i / fps)
    if s > 0:
        img = spin_blur(img, ANGLE * s)
    writer.stdin.write(img.tobytes())
    i += 1
writer.stdin.close()
if reader.wait() or writer.wait():
    sys.exit("ffmpeg failed")

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