Dim Everything But the Target — effect skill for headlines & callouts

For AI agents: find the right skill in one call — curl -s "https://varg.ai/how-to/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://varg.ai/how-to/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.

The frame darkens except a soft ellipse around the element being talked about.

What it does

Built on Feathered Spotlight by HeyGen (HyperFrames), Apache-2.0. The write-up and recipes below are varg's.

A feathered hole in a 50–70% black layer opens over one card, field or chart bar; optional thin ring and label beside it.

When: Dense dashboards or settings screens where a zoom would lose context.

Watch out: Do not leave the dim on for more than a beat or two; return to the full frame before the next point.

Timing: Dim in 0.3 s, hold 1.5–3 s, release 0.3 s. Move the hole with power2.inOut.

Also called: feathered spotlight, focus highlight, vignette callout

In FFmpeg

-vf "vignette=angle=PI/4:x0=1190:y0=430:enable='between(t,4,7)'"

In HyperFrames

npx hyperframes add yt-feather-highlight

Animate the hole's CSS variables on the timeline: tl.to(el,{"--x":"62%","--y":"40%","--r":"180px",duration:0.5,ease:"power2.inOut"},t).

In Remotion

const o = interpolate(frame,[0,9],[0,0.65],{extrapolateRight:'clamp'});
<AbsoluteFill style={{background:`radial-gradient(circle 180px at 62% 40%, transparent 70%, rgba(0,0,0,${o}))`}}/>

In CapCut

Duplicate the clip on an overlay track, apply Mask → Circle (feather ~30) on the top copy, lower the bottom copy's brightness (Adjust → Brightness −40).

Ready-made components

Where this comes from

Use when

Not for

Install

Example output

https://s3.varg.ai/how-to/previews/43e0b5cdc6cb/lib-react-bits-true-focus.mp4 — Preview of the True Focus component that builds this take (credit: Captured from the library’s own demo page (React Bits), https://reactbits.dev/text-animations/true-focus)

More headlines & callouts 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.