Squeeze and Stretch — effect skill for transitions

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A is squashed or stretched toward an edge or the centre and B springs out the same way.

What it does

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

Rubbery scaling along one axis, like the image being sucked in or pulled like elastic.

When: Playful, cartoonish and meme edits; app UI demos.

Watch out: Live-action people in serious contexts; the distortion is comic.

Timing: 0.4–1.2 s (CapCut Squeeze 0.47 s, Stretch 1.2 s, Inhale 0.6 s)

Also called: Squeeze, Stretch, Stretch Left, Stretch Right, Inhale, Shaky Inhale, elastic transition

In FFmpeg

Same size/fps/pixel format on both inputs (see the Normalize card). offset = duration(A) - T = 5.0 - 0.5 = 4.5.

ffmpeg -i a.mp4 -i b.mp4 -filter_complex \
"[0:v]fps=30,settb=AVTB,format=yuv420p[a];[1:v]fps=30,settb=AVTB,format=yuv420p[b];\
[a][b]xfade=transition=squeezev:duration=0.5:offset=4.5[v];\
[0:a][1:a]acrossfade=d=0.5[au]" \
  -map "[v]" -map "[au]" -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -c:a aac out.mp4

squeezeh squeezes horizontally.

In HyperFrames

Squeeze from the push family: tween #s1 scaleX: 1→0 (transformOrigin left) and #s2 scaleX: 0→1 (transformOrigin right); elastic: rubber-band-bumper.

In Remotion

Custom presentation: exiting transform: scaleX(${1 - p}) with transformOrigin: 'left'; entering scaleX(${p}) from the right edge, eased with Easing.bezier.

In CapCut

Transitions tab → Distortion / Basic → Squeeze, Stretch, Stretch Left, Stretch Right, Inhale. 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/ce75e94695fd/take-squeeze-stretch.mp4 — squeezev between two shots, with the timeline strip of the edit. Footage: Sprite Fright (2021), Blender Studio | studio.blender.org, CC BY 4.0; Tears of Steel (2012), (CC) Blender Foundation | mango.blender.org, CC BY 3.0. (credit: Rendered by varg · Sprite Fright (2021) + Tears of Steel (2012))

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Run the generation on varg

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