Footage Inside the Letters — effect skill for headlines & callouts
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curl -s "https://skills.varg.ai/api/search?q=<what the person wants>"returns the matching how-to page and the best skills with install commands, as markdown (Russian works too). Full index: https://skills.varg.ai/llms.txt. Every page has a markdown twin: add.mdto its path. Before generating anything, show the person the options on the how-to page.
Huge block letters act as windows onto playing product footage or a demo clip.
- Type: Effect · Headlines & callouts
- Slug:
footage-inside-letters - Status: live
- Publisher: Magic UI (community)
- License: MIT
- Source: https://github.com/magicuidesign/magicui/blob/main/apps/www/registry/magicui/video-text.tsx
- Works in: Claude Code, Claude.ai, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, Gemini CLI, Any MCP client, varg Studio
- Requires: HyperFrames (npx hyperframes), Remotion, CapCut (by hand)
- Cost: Free — the take renders locally; generated footage, if any, bills by the model
What it does
Built on Video Text by magic-ui, MIT. The write-up and recipes below are varg's.
Full-bleed heavy type on black or white; the product video plays only through the letterforms.
When: Open a launch film with the product name, or bridge into a demo by expanding the letters.
Watch out: Do not use thin fonts; strokes under ~12% of the cap height show too little footage.
Timing: Hold 1.5–2.5 s; optionally scale the type up 4–8× over 0.6 s to fall into the footage.
Also called: video text, knockout type, text mask video
In HyperFrames
npx hyperframes add texture-mask-text
Place the <video class="clip"> inside the masked wrapper; animate the wrapper scale, not the video.
In Remotion
// npx shadcn@latest add @magicui/video-text
<div style={{WebkitMaskImage:'url(#word)', maskImage:'url(#word)'}}><OffthreadVideo src={demo}/></div>
In CapCut
Put white text on black as the lower layer and the footage above it, then set the footage Blend → "Multiply" so it only shows through the letters.
Ready-made components
- Video Text (magic-ui): npx shadcn@latest add @magicui/video-text
- Texture Mask Text (hyperframes): npx hyperframes add texture-mask-text
Where this comes from
- Lago: we killed our motion design job (Linear-style films, Remotion)
- Bohdan Motion: breakdown of the Replit Design launch video
Use when
- Open a launch film with the product name, or bridge into a demo by expanding the letters.
Not for
- Do not use thin fonts; strokes under ~12% of the cap height show too little footage.
Install
- Claude Code:
claude plugin marketplace add vargHQ/skills && claude plugin install varg@varg - Codex:
npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill varg-video-edit-library -a codex -y - Cursor:
npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill varg-video-edit-library -a cursor -y
Example output
https://s3.varg.ai/how-to/previews/abc1ae7d7177/lib-magic-ui-video-text.mp4 — Preview of the Video Text component that builds this take (credit: Captured from the library’s own demo page (Magic UI), https://magicui.design/docs/components/video-text)
More headlines & callouts skills
- Kicker Over Rising Headline: A small mono kicker fades in, then the headline rises word by word from a soft blur.
- Rotating Benefit Word: A fixed phrase holds while one word in it cycles through benefits, uses or audiences.
- Masked Line Reveal: Each line slides up out of an invisible slot, so the type looks cut from the frame.
- Marker on the Key Phrase: A marker band draws behind the one phrase that matters while the rest of the line stays calm.
- Strike Old, Write New: A line strikes through the old way, then the new word takes its place.
- Clean Lower Third: Name and role slide in at the lower left on a quiet bar, hold 3–5 s, then wipe out.
Run the generation on varg
varg is one API key for the models these skills drive — Seedance 2.5, Kling 4, Veo 3.1, Wan 3, Nano Banana 2.1, GPT Image 2.5, ElevenLabs v4 and 200+ more — billed in credits, with a cost estimate before anything runs.
- Claude Code:
claude plugin marketplace add vargHQ/skills && claude plugin install varg@varg(skill + hosted MCP) - Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenClaw:
npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill varg-ai -a <agent> -y - Grok and any agent that reads SKILL.md:
npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill varg-ai, or point it at the skill's SKILL.md - Claude.ai, ChatGPT, any MCP client: connect
https://mcp.varg.ai/mcp - API key: https://varg.ai/dashboard/api · Model specs: https://varg.ai/models/llms.txt