Two Claude Code skills for editing real footage

claude-video-effects. Creator Vibha (@vibha.in.progress) packaged the looks from her reels as a single Claude Code skill. You clone it into ~/.claude/skills/effects, drag a video into Claude and type something like '/effects orbit from 3 to 6 seconds' or '/effects spotlight when I say "kill the lights"'. The README lists 45 effects: reels orbiting your head, a giant word dropping in behind you, a receipt printing your instructions, a tier list, iMessage pop-ins, a magazine cover, a 3x3 profile-grid reveal and more. Each one follows your face via OpenCV YuNet and MediaPipe's selfie segmenter, and anything that would cover your face moves behind your head. Claude checks a few frames before rendering a 1080p copy next to the original with the audio untouched, and you can stack effects in one request. It installs ffmpeg and Python on first run if they're missing. Her own notes are refreshingly blunt: these are 'starter versions' without the sound design and hand-tuned timing of her edits, and no captions or sound are added. The code is MIT, and the fonts carry SIL OFL/Apache licences. @RoundtableSpace's post had about 150 likes and 140 bookmarks this morning; the repo is at about 270 stars.

ffmpeg-skill. Already in our directory, kajisho5's local editor gives coding agents 42 FFmpeg/ffprobe tools (cut, silence and filler removal, captions, reframe, loudness, multicam sync, HDR to SDR, platform exports) and a probe, edit, verify loop, with an MCP server and no cloud keys. It took off again overnight: @tom_doerr's post drew about 460 likes and 520 bookmarks, and the repo passed 3,200 stars. Recent releases matter if you tried it before. v2.17.1 fixed the Claude Code plugin install (it's now '/plugin install ffmpeg-skill --marketplace kajisho5/ffmpeg-skill'). v2.17.2 fades the audio 20 ms at every re-encoded join so segment cuts no longer click; per the release notes, the old butt join on a 440 Hz test tone left a step 14 times the tone's peak. v2.17.3 links the author's paper on the verification-driven approach.

How they fit together. ffmpeg-skill does the unglamorous assembly: trim the take, kill the dead air, level the loudness, export per platform. The effects skill adds the reel-style graphics on top. Both run on your machine, and neither generates footage. Review every render before you post; both authors say the agent drafts and you approve.

Our take: for creators who shoot talking-head shorts, this pair covers most of a quick social edit from one chat. The effects are templates you'll want to tune, so treat them as a starting look rather than a finished house style.