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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 TV turn off to input.mp4 Second the picture starts to collapse: 4.0 Seconds for the picture to squash into a line: 0.25
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 tv turn off 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 |
|---|---|---|
START | 4.0 | Second the picture starts to collapse. |
SQUASH | 0.25 | Seconds for the picture to squash into a line. |
SHRINK | 0.30 | Seconds for the line to shrink into a dot. |
FADE | 0.45 | Seconds for the dot to fade out. |
LINE | 6 | Thickness of the white line in pixels. |
DOT | 14 | Diameter of the dot in pixels. |
GLOW | 10 | Blur radius of the glow around the line and dot. |
Without the skill
Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the script itself.
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Add an old CRT TV turn-off to input.mp4 at 4 seconds. From 4.0 to 4.25 seconds, squeeze the picture vertically toward the center line (height eases from 100% down to a 6-pixel line, scaling with progress squared) while blending it toward pure white (255, 255, 255), with black above and below. From 4.25 to 4.55 seconds, show a pure white horizontal line 6 pixels thick centered vertically, shrinking from the full frame width to a 14-pixel dot in the center, with a soft white glow around it (Gaussian blur radius 10). From 4.55 to 5.0 seconds, the dot shrinks to half its size and fades out. After 5.0 seconds, the screen stays black to the end. Leave everything before 4 seconds untouched. Use Python with Pillow and numpy to draw the frames (don't use ffmpeg's drawtext filter), keep the audio but fade it out from 4.0 to 4.55 seconds, keep the size and frame rate, and save it as output.mp4.Run it without Claude
This is the exact script we tested. Save it as tv-turn-off.py and run:
python3 tv-turn-off.py input.mp4 output.mp4Show the script
#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""TV turn off: the picture squashes into a glowing white line, shrinks to a dot, and the screen goes black.
Usage: python3 tv-turn-off.py input.mp4 output.mp4
Needs ffmpeg, Pillow and numpy (pip install pillow numpy).
"""
import json
import subprocess
import sys
import numpy as np
from PIL import Image, ImageDraw, ImageFilter
START = 4.0 # second the picture starts to collapse
SQUASH = 0.25 # seconds for the picture to squash into a line
SHRINK = 0.30 # seconds for the line to shrink into a dot
FADE = 0.45 # seconds for the dot to fade out
LINE = 6 # thickness of the white line in pixels
DOT = 14 # diameter of the dot in pixels
GLOW = 10 # blur radius of the glow around the line and dot
def ease_in(p):
return min(max(p, 0), 1) ** 2
def squashed(img, p):
"""The picture squeezed to (1 - p) of its height and washed toward white, centered on black."""
rows = max(LINE, round(h * (1 - ease_in(p))))
washed = Image.blend(img, Image.new("RGB", (w, h), "white"), ease_in(p) ** 0.5)
screen = Image.new("RGB", (w, h))
screen.paste(washed.resize((w, rows), Image.BILINEAR), (0, (h - rows) // 2))
return screen
def glowing(draw_shape, strength=1.0):
"""A white shape on black with a soft glow around it, dimmed by strength."""
shape = Image.new("L", (w, h))
draw_shape(ImageDraw.Draw(shape))
glow = np.asarray(shape.filter(ImageFilter.GaussianBlur(GLOW)), np.float32) * 1.6
light = np.maximum(np.asarray(shape, np.float32), glow) * strength
return Image.fromarray(np.repeat(np.clip(light, 0, 255).astype(np.uint8)[:, :, None], 3, axis=2))
def line(p):
half = max(DOT / 2, w / 2 * (1 - ease_in(p)))
return glowing(lambda d: d.rectangle([w / 2 - half, (h - LINE) / 2, w / 2 + half, (h + LINE) / 2], fill=255))
def dot(p):
r = DOT / 2 * (1 - 0.5 * p)
return glowing(lambda d: d.ellipse([w / 2 - r, h / 2 - r, w / 2 + r, h / 2 + r], fill=255), 1 - p)
def screen(img, t):
if t < START:
return img
t -= START
if t < SQUASH:
return squashed(img, t / SQUASH)
t -= SQUASH
if t < SHRINK:
return line(t / SHRINK)
t -= SHRINK
if t < FADE:
return dot(t / FADE)
return Image.new("RGB", (w, h))
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?",
"-af", f"afade=t=out:st={START}:d={SQUASH + SHRINK}",
"-c:v", "libx264", "-crf", "18", "-pix_fmt", "yuv420p", "-c:a", "aac", "-shortest", out],
stdin=subprocess.PIPE)
i = 0
while raw := reader.stdout.read(w * h * 3):
writer.stdin.write(screen(Image.frombytes("RGB", (w, h), raw), i / fps).tobytes())
i += 1
writer.stdin.close()
if reader.wait() or writer.wait():
sys.exit("ffmpeg failed")





