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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 timelapse to input.mp4 How many times faster than real time: 3
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 timelapse 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 |
|---|---|---|
SPEED | 3 | How many times faster than real time. Keeps every SPEED-th frame, so a 6-second clip becomes 6 / SPEED seconds. |
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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Turn input.mp4 (540x960, 30fps, 6 seconds) into a 3x timelapse: keep every third frame (input frames 0, 3, 6 ... 177) and play them at 30fps, so the output is exactly 2 seconds (60 frames) and output time t shows input time 3 x t (output 0.5s = input 1.5s, 1.0s = 3.0s, 1.8s = 5.4s). Don't blend frames, crop, zoom or add anything to the picture, and don't add any text. Speed the input's own audio up 3x too (ffmpeg atempo=3) so it lasts 2 seconds and stays in step. Use ffmpeg, keep the size, 30fps frame rate and audio, and save it as output.mp4.Run it without Claude
This is the exact command we tested. Save it as timelapse.sh and run:
sh timelapse.sh input.mp4 output.mp4Show the command
#!/bin/sh
# Timelapse: the whole clip plays 3 times faster, keeping every third frame, so 6 seconds pass in 2.
# Usage: sh timelapse.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
set -e
IN="$1"; OUT="$2"
SPEED=3 # how many times faster than real time (keeps every SPEED-th frame; output is length / SPEED)
FPS=$(ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=r_frame_rate -of csv=p=0 "$IN")
ffmpeg -y -v error -i "$IN" -filter_complex "
[0:v]select='not(mod(n,$SPEED))',setpts=N/($FPS)/TB[v];
[0:a]atempo=$SPEED[a]" \
-map "[v]" -map "[a]" -r "$FPS" -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac "$OUT"
