--- title: "How to add a toy camera look with Claude (tested prompt and script)" description: "The silvery backdrop turns saturated cyan-turquoise and the purple bottle stays crisp in the middle, while the picture smears out and falls to near black toward all four corners, like a shot through a cheap plastic lens. Install one skill and ask Claude Code, or run the Python script we tested yourself." url: https://www.recharm.com/effects/toy-camera --- # How to add a toy camera look with Claude The silvery backdrop turns saturated cyan-turquoise and the purple bottle stays crisp in the middle, while the picture smears out and falls to near black toward all four corners, like a shot through a cheap plastic lens. 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 toy camera look to input.mp4 Red curve points (input/output): 0/0 0.3/0.18 0.7/0.72 1/0.95 Green curve points: 0/0 0.3/0.24 0.7/0.8 1/1 ``` ## 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 toy camera look 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 | | ------------ | ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `RED` | `0/0 0.3/0.18 0.7/0.72 1/0.95` | Red curve points (input/output). Held below the others, so the picture leans cyan. | | `GREEN` | `0/0 0.3/0.24 0.7/0.8 1/1` | Green curve points. The S-shape adds contrast. | | `BLUE` | `0/0.08 0.3/0.3 0.7/0.8 1/1` | Blue curve points. Raising 0 tints the shadows blue. | | `SATURATION` | `1.8` | Extra color on top of the curves. 1 leaves it as is. | | `BLUR` | `7` | Gaussian blur radius at the corners, in pixels. 0 keeps the edges sharp. | | `DARKEN` | `0.85` | How much darker the very corners get. 0.85 is 85% darker; 0 turns the vignette off. | | `CLEAR` | `0.45` | The sharp, undarkened middle, as a share of the distance from the center to a corner. | ## 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 a toy camera look for the whole clip. 1) With ffmpeg, grade it: curves=r='0/0 0.3/0.18 0.7/0.72 1/0.95':g='0/0 0.3/0.24 0.7/0.8 1/1':b='0/0.08 0.3/0.3 0.7/0.8 1/1' (red held down so the picture leans cyan, more contrast, blue-lifted shadows), then eq=saturation=1.8. 2) Then, per frame with numpy and Pillow, make the edges soft and dark like a cheap plastic lens. For each pixel, let r be its distance from the frame center with x measured in half-widths and y in half-heights, divided by sqrt(2) so r is 0 at the center and 1 at the corners; s = clamp((r - 0.45) / 0.55, 0, 1) and edge = s*s*(3 - 2*s). Blend the sharp frame with a copy blurred by Pillow's GaussianBlur(7) using edge as the blurred copy's weight, then multiply by 1 - 0.85*edge, so the middle stays sharp and untouched and the corners are blurred and 85% darker. The cool blue-white backdrop (around RGB 193, 203, 216) should come out cyan-turquoise (around RGB 163, 213, 221), the frame corners should be around brightness 35, and the middle of the frame should stay as bright as before. Don't add any text (if you ever do, draw it with Pillow, not ffmpeg's drawtext). Keep the size (540x960), 30fps, the 6 second length and the audio. Encode H.264 yuv420p and save it as output.mp4. ``` ## Run it without Claude This is the exact script we tested. Save it as `toy-camera.py` and run: ``` python3 toy-camera.py input.mp4 output.mp4 ``` ``` #!/usr/bin/env python3 """Toy camera: punchy, oversaturated cyan-shifted color, with corners that go soft and then dark like a cheap plastic lens. Usage: python3 toy-camera.py input.mp4 output.mp4 Needs ffmpeg, numpy and Pillow (pip install numpy pillow). """ import json import subprocess import sys import numpy as np from PIL import Image, ImageFilter RED = "0/0 0.3/0.18 0.7/0.72 1/0.95" # red S-curve, held down so the picture leans cyan GREEN = "0/0 0.3/0.24 0.7/0.8 1/1" # green S-curve: more contrast BLUE = "0/0.08 0.3/0.3 0.7/0.8 1/1" # blue S-curve with lifted blacks, so shadows go blue SATURATION = 1.8 # extra color on top of the curves (1 leaves it as is) BLUR = 7 # Gaussian blur radius, in pixels, at the corners DARKEN = 0.85 # how much darker the very corners get (0.85 = 85% darker) CLEAR = 0.45 # sharp, undarkened middle, as a share of the distance to the corner def probe(path): info = json.loads(subprocess.check_output(["ffprobe", "-v", "error", "-select_streams", "v:0", "-show_entries", "stream=width,height", "-of", "json", path])) return info["streams"][0]["width"], info["streams"][0]["height"] def falloff(): """0 in the middle of the frame, rising smoothly to 1 at the corners.""" y, x = np.mgrid[0:h, 0:w].astype(np.float32) r = np.hypot((x - w / 2) / (w / 2), (y - h / 2) / (h / 2)) / np.sqrt(2) s = np.clip((r - CLEAR) / (1 - CLEAR), 0, 1) return (s * s * (3 - 2 * s))[:, :, None] def render(src, out): grade = f"fps=30,curves=r='{RED}':g='{GREEN}':b='{BLUE}',eq=saturation={SATURATION}" reader = subprocess.Popen(["ffmpeg", "-v", "error", "-i", src, "-vf", grade, "-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", "30", "-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) edge = falloff() shade = 1 - DARKEN * edge while raw := reader.stdout.read(w * h * 3): img = Image.frombuffer("RGB", (w, h), raw) sharp = np.asarray(img, np.float32) soft = np.asarray(img.filter(ImageFilter.GaussianBlur(BLUR)), np.float32) frame = (sharp * (1 - edge) + soft * edge) * shade writer.stdin.write(np.clip(frame, 0, 255).astype(np.uint8).tobytes()) writer.stdin.close() if reader.wait() or writer.wait(): sys.exit("ffmpeg failed") src, out = sys.argv[1:3] w, h = probe(src) render(src, out) ``` ## More retro and film - [1950s color film look **1950s color film look**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/1950s-color-film-look) - [35mm film look **35mm film look**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/35mm-film-look) - [70s film look **70s film look**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/70s-film-look) - [Camcorder date stamp **Camcorder date stamp**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/camcorder-date-stamp) - [Camcorder viewfinder **Camcorder viewfinder**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/camcorder-viewfinder) ## 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)