Ripple and Wave — effect skill for transitions

For AI agents: find the right skill in one call — 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 .md to its path. Before generating anything, show the person the options on the how-to page.

Rings or waves distort the frame like water while the shots crossfade.

What it does

Built on WaterDrop by pawel-plociennik (gl-transitions), MIT. The write-up and recipes below are varg's.

Concentric ripples or sideways waves bend the image; the swap happens inside the distortion.

When: Dream and memory, water and summer themes, calm transitions with motion.

Watch out: Text-heavy shots; strong ripples on faces.

Timing: 0.5–2.0 s (CapCut Wave Right 0.47 s, Wide Ripple 2.0 s)

Also called: Wave Right, Wave Left, Curling Wave, Wide Ripple, Big Wave, water ripple, water drop

In FFmpeg

No ripple in xfade; editly + GL WaterDrop / ripple (1.x names), or xfade=transition=hlwind for a wind-blown wave.

In HyperFrames

Shader ripple-waves from @hyperframes/shader-transitions placed at the cut (t = 4 s):

<div id="s1" class="scene" style="background:#0a0a0a"><video src="a.mp4" muted playsinline></video></div>
<div id="s2" class="scene" style="background:#0a0a0a"><video src="b.mp4" muted playsinline></video></div>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@hyperframes/shader-transitions/dist/index.global.js"></script>
<script>
  const tl = HyperShader.init({ bgColor: "#0a0a0a", scenes: ["s1", "s2"],
    transitions: [{ time: 4, shader: "ripple-waves", duration: 0.8 }] });
  window.__timelines = window.__timelines || {}; window.__timelines["main"] = tl;
</script>

Each .scene needs an explicit background-color equal to bgColor. Or install the ready block: npx hyperframes add ripple-waves.

In Remotion

import {TransitionSeries, linearTiming, springTiming} from '@remotion/transitions';
import {ripple} from '@remotion/transitions/ripple';

<TransitionSeries>
  <TransitionSeries.Sequence durationInFrames={90}><ShotA /></TransitionSeries.Sequence>
  <TransitionSeries.Transition presentation={ripple({amplitude: 100, speed: 50})} timing={linearTiming({durationInFrames: 24})} />
  <TransitionSeries.Sequence durationInFrames={90}><ShotB /></TransitionSeries.Sequence>
</TransitionSeries>

Total = 90 + 90 - 24 frames: the transition overlaps the two shots. Shader presentations are built on Remotion's HTML-in-canvas: renders work out of the box (--gl=angle, or --gl=swangle without a GPU); the Studio preview needs Chrome with chrome://flags/#canvas-draw-element enabled. amplitude 100 and speed 50 are the defaults.

In CapCut

Transitions tab → Distortion → Wave Right, Wave Left, Curling Wave, Wide Ripple, Big Wave. Desktop: drag the tile onto the cut between two clips and set Duration in the right panel ("Apply to all" reuses it on every cut). Mobile: tap the small white square between clips, pick the transition, drag the duration slider, tap ✓. Tab labels and placement change between versions and regions.

Ready-made components

Where this comes from

Use when

Not for

Install

Example output

https://s3.varg.ai/how-to/previews/0ce4ed7b8440/lib-gl-transitions-water-drop.mp4 — Preview of the WaterDrop component that builds this take (credit: Rendered by varg from the library’s own code (GL Transitions · rendered by varg), https://gl-transitions.com/editor/WaterDrop)

More transitions skills

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.