Word-by-word captions, punch-in zooms, a cinematic colour grade, a hook title, a split screen and glitch transitions. These six effects usually mean hours in an editing app, or paying an editor.
With Remotion and Claude Code, you describe each effect in plain English and Claude writes the code that adds it to your own footage. This guide covers the setup, the six prompts from the video, and the limits to know before you start.
What Remotion is
Remotion is a framework for making videos with code. Each frame is built with React, the same tool used to build websites, and Remotion renders those frames into an MP4 file.
That is why Claude can edit video with it: Claude writes the code, Remotion turns it into video. Remotion also publishes official Agent Skills for Claude Code. They teach Claude Remotion’s rules for timing, media and composition, so the code it writes still works when you render.
What you need before you start
This is a coding workflow, not a one-click app. You will type a few commands in a terminal, and every video has to be rendered before you can post it. Here is what you need:
Node.js, installed from nodejs.org.
Claude Code. Like most coding agents, it needs a paid subscription.
Your clip as an MP4 file.
About 2 GB of free space if you want captions, because the speech-to-text model downloads on first use.
The licence. Remotion is free for individuals, for companies of up to three people and for non-profits, and that includes commercial use. Companies of four or more people need a paid company licence; the plan for making your own videos is $25 per seat a month. If you work with a client or an agency, the combined team size counts. Details are on Remotion’s pricing page.
Setup, step by step
Install Node.js and Claude Code.
Open a terminal and create a blank Remotion project:
npx create-video --yes --blank my-videoGo into the project and install Remotion’s official skills for Claude Code:
cd my-video
npx remotion skills addCopy your clip into the project’s public folder, for example as public/my-clip.mp4. Remotion can only use files inside this folder.
Start the live preview:
npm run devOpen a second terminal in the same folder and start Claude Code:
cd my-video
claudePaste one of the prompts below. Claude writes the code and the preview updates as it works. When you like the result, render the final video:
npx remotion render
These commands follow Remotion’s own guide for coding agents.
The 6 effect prompts
Each prompt assumes your clip is saved as public/my-clip.mp4. Change the file names, words and timings to match your video. Add one effect at a time and check the preview before moving to the next.
Word-by-word captions
Captions that appear word by word as you speak, with the current word highlighted.
Use the Remotion skills in this project. Add word-by-word captions to public/my-clip.mp4. Transcribe the audio locally with Whisper.cpp to get word-level timings. Show two to three words at a time in the lower third, in bold white text with a black outline, and highlight the word being spoken in yellow with a small pop. Keep the original audio, and match the composition’s size and length to the clip.
The first run downloads a speech-to-text model of about 1.5 GB. For Hindi or Hinglish videos, ask Claude to use a multilingual Whisper model, because the default English-only model won’t transcribe them. Remotion’s TikTok captions template uses the same approach.
Punch-in zooms
Quick zoom-ins on key lines, the style common in talking-head reels.
Add punch-in zooms to public/my-clip.mp4. At 0:03, 0:09 and 0:15, zoom in to 115% over 6 frames, centred slightly above the middle of the frame where my face is. Hold the zoom until the next point, then snap back to 100%. Keep the frame filled with no black edges.
Cinematic colour grade with grain
A film-style look: adjusted colours plus moving grain.
Give public/my-clip.mp4 a cinematic colour grade: lower the saturation slightly, add a bit more contrast, warm up the highlights, push the shadows towards teal, and add a soft vignette. On top, add a subtle animated film-grain overlay that changes every frame. Keep it light enough that skin tones still look natural.
Hook title intro
A bold title over the first two seconds, to stop the scroll.
Add a hook title to the first 2 seconds of public/my-clip.mp4 with the text ‘Claude edits my videos now’. Darken and slightly blur the clip behind it. Make the words slam in one at a time with a spring animation in large bold text, hold for half a second, then scale the title out and bring the clip back to full brightness.
Split screen
Two videos stacked in one vertical frame, such as you and your B-roll, or a reaction.
Make a vertical 1080x1920 split screen with public/my-clip.mp4 in the top half and public/broll.mp4 in the bottom half. Crop each video to fill its half with no black bars. Use the audio from my-clip.mp4 only, and add a thin white line between the two halves.
Glitch transitions
A short digital glitch when you cut from one clip to the next.
Join public/clip-1.mp4 and public/clip-2.mp4 with an 8-frame glitch transition: an RGB channel split, a few horizontal slices shifted sideways and a quick flicker, then land cleanly on the second clip. Build it as a reusable transition component so I can use it between any two clips.
Tips for better results
Give numbers. Timestamps, sizes, colours and durations in frames work better than words like “fast” or “big”. At 30 frames per second, 6 frames is 0.2 seconds.
One effect per prompt. Six changes in one message make problems harder to trace.
Paste errors as they are. If something breaks, copy the full error into Claude Code instead of describing it.
Fix things in the preview. Rendering takes time, so get the preview right before you render.
Keep your original clip. Leave it untouched in the public folder, so you can always start again.
Where to start
Start with captions. That one prompt takes you through the whole loop, from prompt to preview to render, and the other five go faster after it.
If this guide helped, subscribe to this newsletter for more Claude workflows, and follow the page or subscribe to the channel for the video versions.
Sources
Prompting videos with coding agents, Remotion docs
Agent Skills, Remotion docs
Importing assets, Remotion docs
License and pricing, Remotion docs
TikTok captions template, Remotion on GitHub