# Cinematic Caption — effect skill for captions & subtitles

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Designed editorial captions for HyperFrames: scored hero words, subject-aware depth, glass type — not a subtitle strip.

- **Type:** [Effect](https://skills.varg.ai/effects.md) · [Captions & subtitles](https://skills.varg.ai/browse/skills/captions.md)
- **Slug:** `cinematic-caption-audrey`
- **Status:** beta
- **Publisher:** Audrey (community)
- **License:** MIT
- **Source:** https://github.com/audrey-560/hyperframes-cinematic-caption
- **Works in:** Claude Code, Codex
- **Requires:** A HyperFrames project and the HyperFrames skills (heygen-com/hyperframes), Node.js for the HyperFrames CLI, A subject matte or cutout for behind-the-speaker words (optional)
- **Cost:** Free — instructions only; renders locally with HyperFrames
- **Adoption:** 17 installs, 63 GitHub stars (GitHub + skills.sh, 2026-10-26)

## What it does

Turns a transcript (SRT/VTT or word-level JSON) into designed caption moments inside an existing HyperFrames composition: it scores hero words by meaning and proof value, builds ordered mixed-case stacks, anchors type around the speaker and only layers words behind a person when a real matte exists. It writes `cinematic-caption-plan.json` first, then a namespaced overlay track or caption sub-composition on one seek-safe timeline, and verifies with `hyperframes check`, cue snapshots and a chronological contact sheet before render. Instructions only (no scripts); it leans on the HyperFrames skills and CLI for transcription, linting and preview. Young repo: three commits over two days in August 2026.

## Use when

- Cinematic or editorial captions on a HyperFrames video
- Make key words, numbers or locations large and animated around a speaker
- Creator-reel or real-estate captions without a fixed subtitle band

## Not for

- A plain fixed subtitle strip or bottom-center karaoke pills (the skill avoids them)
- Remotion projects (use remotion-dev/remotion-captions)

## Install

- Claude Code: `git clone https://github.com/audrey-560/hyperframes-cinematic-caption.git ~/.claude/skills/cinematic-caption`
- Codex: `git clone https://github.com/audrey-560/hyperframes-cinematic-caption.git ~/.agents/skills/cinematic-caption`

## Used for

- [Animated captions on your video](https://skills.varg.ai/use-cases/captions.md): TikTok-style subtitles burned into an existing video: word highlight, pop words, or designed editorial captions.

## More captions & subtitles skills

- [3D Camera Captions](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/hyperframes-camera-3d-captions.md): Captions that live in 3D around a talking head: the camera flies through the words, heroes pass behind the speaker.
- [Remotion Captions](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/remotion-captions.md): Transcribe speech and burn in animated captions with Remotion, or import an existing SRT file.
- [ElevenLabs Speech to Text](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/elevenlabs-speech-to-text.md): Transcribe audio and video with word timestamps, speaker labels and keyterms, ready for subtitles.
- [ElevenLabs Speech to Text (inference.sh)](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/inference-sh-elevenlabs-stt.md): Transcribe audio with ElevenLabs Scribe, speaker diarization and forced alignment, via inference.sh.
- [Speech to Text](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/inference-sh-speech-to-text.md): Transcribe audio with ElevenLabs Scribe v2 or Whisper V3 Large, with timestamps and speaker labels.
- [Pretext Text Metrics](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/pretext-yaniv-golan.md): Measure and fit text without the DOM using pretext: auto-fit sizes, know line breaks before render, canvas/WebGL text.

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- API key: https://varg.ai/dashboard/api · Model specs: https://varg.ai/models/llms.txt