CapCut-Style Animated Captions

Use this skill to create burned-in social captions with word-level timing, pop/bounce/scale animations, karaoke highlighting, and platform-appropriate caption styles. This SKILL is a lean orchestrator; detailed ASS styles, scripts, formulas, and presets are preserved in references/caption-styles-and-generation.md.

When to Use

• Word-by-word or phrase-by-phrase social captions
• CapCut-style pop, bounce, sweep, karaoke, and typewriter captions
• Whisper transcript to animated ASS conversion
• TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and Facebook Reels caption styling
• Caption readability, safe zones, accessibility, and mobile typography

Caption Workflow

1. Generate transcript with word-level timestamps using Whisper or another ASR tool.
2. Convert word timings into ASS events and styles.
3. Use ASS timing units correctly: karaoke tags use centiseconds; animation tags use milliseconds.
4. Burn ASS into the video with FFmpeg.
5. Verify readability, safe-zone placement, audio sync, and final platform specs.

Minimal Burn-In Command

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 \
  -vf "ass=captions.ass" \
  -c:v libx264 -preset fast -crf 23 \
  -c:a copy \
  output_captioned.mp4

If audio copy fails because the output container cannot accept the source audio, re-encode audio with -c:a aac -b:a 128k.

Quick Style Selection

Timing and Readability Rules

• Word-level animations usually need 80-250ms appear time and 200-600ms dwell, depending on platform.
• Keep 3-6 words on screen for vertical social video.
• Use large sans-serif fonts, high contrast, and a thick outline.
• Avoid excessive shake/flash; keep accessibility and readability ahead of novelty.
• Keep captions inside mobile safe zones; avoid the lower UI-heavy region.

Reference Map

• references/caption-styles-and-generation.md - Full preserved reference: Whisper timestamp commands, ASS structure, WordPop/Sweep/Karaoke/Typewriter/Bounce examples, Python JSON-to-ASS script, bash pipeline, burn commands, style presets, color schemes, emoji integration, platform guidelines, troubleshooting, spring/easing/shake/pulse formulas, accessibility guidance, sources.

Related Skills

• ffmpeg-captions-subtitles - Subtitle fundamentals and burn-in
• ffmpeg-karaoke-animated-text - ASS karaoke and animated text patterns
• ffmpeg-animation-timing-reference - Timing units, easing, readability, sync
• viral-video-platform-specs - Export specs and safe zones
• viral-video-hook-templates - Hook and retention strategy