--- title: "How to add a sticker text with Claude (tested prompt and script)" description: "Hot pink \"SO GLOWY\" lettering, cut out with a thick white border and a soft shadow, slaps onto the top of the frame at a tilt like a peel-off sticker. Install one skill and ask Claude Code, or run the Python script we tested yourself." url: https://www.recharm.com/effects/sticker-text --- # How to add a sticker text with Claude Hot pink "SO GLOWY" lettering, cut out with a thick white border and a soft shadow, slaps onto the top of the frame at a tilt like a peel-off sticker. 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 sticker text to input.mp4 Text: SO GLOWY ``` ## 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 sticker text 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 | | -------- | ---------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | `TEXT` | `SO GLOWY` | The words on the sticker. | | `START` | `0.5` | Second the sticker lands. | | `COLOR` | `(255, 64, 160)` | Letter color. | | `BORDER` | `0.15` | White border thickness as a share of the letter size. | | `TILT` | `7` | Rotation in degrees, counterclockwise. | | `SHADOW` | `(6, 8, 0.6)` | Shadow offset right and down in pixels, and its opacity. | ## Without the skill Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the script itself. ``` Add sticker text to input.mp4: the words "SO GLOWY" in a heavy font (Arial Black) 12% of the frame width tall, hot pink (255, 64, 160), with a solid white (255, 255, 255) outline 15% of the letter size thick around every letter so it looks die-cut, and a drop shadow under the white outline offset 6 pixels right and 8 down, blurred slightly, black at 60% opacity. Tilt the whole sticker 7 degrees counterclockwise and center it 50% across and 15% down. At 0.5 seconds it appears at 135% size and shrinks to 100% over 0.2 seconds, easing out, as if slapped onto the screen, then stays to the end. Use Python with Pillow to draw it and ffmpeg to put it on the video (don't rely on ffmpeg's drawtext filter), keep the audio, and save it as output.mp4. ``` ## Run it without Claude This is the exact script we tested. Save it as `sticker-text.py` and run: ``` python3 sticker-text.py input.mp4 output.mp4 ``` ``` #!/usr/bin/env python3 """Sticker text: pink words with a thick white die-cut border and a soft shadow slap onto the frame, tilted. Usage: python3 sticker-text.py input.mp4 output.mp4 Needs ffmpeg and Pillow (pip install pillow). """ import json import math import subprocess import sys from pathlib import Path from PIL import Image, ImageDraw, ImageFilter, ImageFont TEXT = "SO GLOWY" START = 0.5 # second the sticker lands SLAP = 0.2 # seconds it takes to shrink from 135% onto the frame SIZE = 0.12 # letter size as a share of the frame width X, Y = 0.5, 0.15 # sticker center (0-1 across and down the frame) COLOR = (255, 64, 160) # letter color BORDER = 0.15 # white border thickness as a share of the letter size TILT = 7 # degrees, counterclockwise SHADOW = (6, 8, 0.6) # shadow offset right, offset down (pixels) and opacity FONTS = ["/System/Library/Fonts/Supplemental/Arial Black.ttf", # macOS "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf", # Linux "C:/Windows/Fonts/ariblk.ttf"] # Windows FONT_FILE = next((f for f in FONTS if Path(f).exists()), None) or sys.exit("No bold font found: add one to FONTS") def sticker(): """The words with their white border and shadow, drawn once at full size and tilted.""" font = ImageFont.truetype(FONT_FILE, round(w * SIZE)) border = round(font.size * BORDER) dx, dy, opacity = SHADOW left, top, right, bottom = font.getbbox(TEXT, stroke_width=border) pad = border * 2 + max(dx, dy) size = (right - left + 2 * pad, bottom - top + 2 * pad) at = (pad - left, pad - top) cut = Image.new("L", size) # the die-cut outline: letters grown by the border ImageDraw.Draw(cut).text(at, TEXT, font=font, fill=255, stroke_width=border, stroke_fill=255) shadow = cut.transform(size, Image.AFFINE, (1, 0, -dx, 0, 1, -dy)).filter(ImageFilter.GaussianBlur(border / 2)) img = Image.new("RGBA", size, (0, 0, 0, 0)) img.putalpha(shadow.point(lambda a: round(a * opacity))) img.paste((255, 255, 255, 255), mask=cut) ImageDraw.Draw(img).text(at, TEXT, font=font, fill=COLOR) return img.rotate(TILT, resample=Image.BICUBIC, expand=True) def overlay(t): img = Image.new("RGBA", (w, h)) if t >= START: p = min((t - START) / SLAP, 1) scale = 1 + 0.35 * (1 - p) ** 2 # big and close, then pressed flat onto the frame s = full.resize((round(full.width * scale), round(full.height * scale)), Image.LANCZOS) img.alpha_composite(s, (round(w * X - s.width / 2), round(h * Y - s.height / 2))) return img def probe(path): info = json.loads(subprocess.check_output(["ffprobe", "-v", "error", "-select_streams", "v:0", "-show_entries", "stream=width,height,r_frame_rate:format=duration", "-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), float(info["format"]["duration"]) def render(src, out): """Draw overlay(t) on every frame of src and save to out, keeping the audio.""" ff = subprocess.Popen(["ffmpeg", "-y", "-v", "error", "-i", src, "-f", "rawvideo", "-pix_fmt", "rgba", "-s", f"{w}x{h}", "-r", rate, "-i", "-", "-filter_complex", "[0:v][1:v]overlay=shortest=1,format=yuv420p[v]", "-map", "[v]", "-map", "0:a?", "-c:v", "libx264", "-crf", "18", "-c:a", "copy", out], stdin=subprocess.PIPE) for i in range(math.ceil(duration * fps)): ff.stdin.write(overlay(i / fps).tobytes()) ff.stdin.close() if ff.wait(): sys.exit("ffmpeg failed") src, out = sys.argv[1:3] w, h, rate, fps, duration = probe(src) full = sticker() render(src, out) ``` ## More captions and text - [AI chat reply animation **AI chat reply animation**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/ai-chat-typing) - [Animated bar chart **Animated bar chart**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/animated-bar-chart) - [Animated checklist **Animated checklist**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/animated-checklist) - [Animated line graph **Animated line graph**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/animated-line-graph) - [Animated pie chart **Animated pie chart**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/animated-pie-chart) ## Find 3x _winning ads_ Recharm cuts your ad footage into tagged, searchable clips: hooks, testimonials, product shots. 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