--- title: "Title Design: lower thirds and title reveals by broadcast rules — AI video effect for headlines & callouts" description: "Lower thirds, speaker plates, show opens and glitch, CRT or chrome title reveals with hold times, safe areas and easing as presets. Install in Claude Code, Codex and Grok with one command." url: https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/title-design updated: 2026-10-29 --- # Title Design: lower thirds and title reveals by broadcast rules — 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="` 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. From a terminal: `curl -fsSL https://varg.ai/install | sh` installs the vargai CLI (https://varg.ai/how-to/cli.md): `vargai search` and `vargai install ` with no key, every varg model after `vargai login`. Lower thirds, speaker plates, show opens and glitch, CRT or chrome title reveals with hold times, safe areas and easing as presets. - **Type:** [Effect](https://varg.ai/how-to/effects.md) · [Headlines & callouts](https://varg.ai/how-to/browse/skills/titles.md) - **Slug:** `title-design` - **Status:** live - **Publisher:** varg (varg, verified) - **License:** MIT - **Source:** https://github.com/vargHQ/skills/tree/main/title-design - **Works in:** Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenClaw, varg Studio - **Requires:** Node 22 + ffmpeg (HyperFrames) or a Remotion 4 project - **Cost:** Free: renders locally with HyperFrames, Remotion or ffmpeg. Generated footage, voice or music is billed in varg credits with an estimate first. - **Runtime:** Minutes per template, mostly render time ## What it does Nine title templates that follow broadcast practice: information holds long enough to be read twice, sits inside the safe area, and every effect (CRT, glitch, chrome) is a transition that resolves into clean, readable type. **9 templates, 33 presets.** Every rule in the skill cites its source; every preset is exact values (durations, easing, sizes, colors, fonts) in a JSON file the agent loads. | Template | Presets | |---|---| | **Block glitch title**: A title that snaps in through a heavy block glitch, crashes, and settles into clean type | On black, Transparent, Stepped | | **Chrome echo melt**: A single chrome word that melts into stepped echoes, blurs into a grainy halo and dissolves | Ice, Chrome, Ember, Toxic | | **CRT scanline title**: A name and role that crash onto a CRT, then clear to clean type on a transparent frame | Consumer TV, Arcade monitor, Terminal green | | **Headline write-on**: A headline that writes on letter by letter, word by word or line by line, then holds | Display, Editorial, Chapter card, Kinetic | | **Name lower third**: Identify a speaker (name + role or handle) on first appearance | Clean, Boxed, Editorial, Handle | | **Place and date lower third**: State where and when a scene happens: place over coordinates, a date or a local time | Clean, Boxed, Editorial, Centered | | **Show open title**: Opening title for a podcast or series: show name on the beat, guest plates typed on a panel, then away | Standard 10 s, Cold 5 s, Vertical | | **Speaker plates**: A consistent plate system for talking-head videos: two-line plate, ticker, caption bar, title card, corner tag | Two-line plate, Ticker, Caption bar, Title card, Corner tag | | **Stepped channel bumper**: A channel bumper animated on twos: streak panels, a name plate, a topic card with a ghosted wipe | Classic, Sting 3 s, On threes | **Rules every template follows** - Hold for two reads: hold = clamp(2 × max(words × 0.36, chars/20), 3, 7) s. - Safe areas: 16:9 graphics-safe 5% per edge, action-safe 3.5%; 9:16 text between 14% top and 35% bottom, 6% sides, clear of the right rail. - Enter emphasized-decelerate cubic-bezier(0.05,0.7,0.1,1); exit emphasized-accelerate cubic-bezier(0.3,0,0.8,0.15); exits ~35% shorter (0.45 s in / 0.28 s out). - Type by frame height: display 9–14%, chapter 6–8%, lower-third name 4.5–5.5%, role 60–70% of name, nothing under 2%. - Caps +0.05–0.12em tracking; display −0.01 to −0.02em; tabular figures for changing numbers. - Dark plates ≥60% opacity (default 75–85%); light plates ≥85% with #111 text. **Built from:** Netflix Timed Text + BBC; EBU R95; Spider-Verse animators Jeff Panko & Geeta Basantani; Timothy Lottes (crt-lottes); Michelle Dougherty / Imaginary Forces (Art of the Title); Jason Boone (Frame.io); Chris Salters, Joey Korenman, Nol Honig (School of Motion); Material 3; GSAP; X: @jakeinmotion, @tranmautritam, @TheMirzaBeig, @komm64. Renders locally with HyperFrames or Remotion for 0 credits; generated footage, voice or music runs through varg with a cost estimate first. ## Use when - How to make a lower third for an interview video - How long should a lower third stay on screen - How to animate text on twos - How to make a podcast intro title with guest names - How to make a glitch text reveal - How to make a CRT scanline text effect ## Not for - Burn word-by-word captions into my reel (use caption-styles) - Animate our logo mark into a 3 s sting (use paper-shaders or a logo-animation skill) - Generate a cinematic opening shot of a city at night (use varg-ai) ## Install - Claude Code: `claude plugin marketplace add vargHQ/skills && claude plugin install varg@varg` - Codex: `npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill title-design -a codex -y` - Cursor: `npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill title-design -a cursor -y` - OpenClaw: `npx clawhub@latest install title-design` - Gemini CLI: `npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill title-design -a gemini-cli -y` - Any agent, with the vargai CLI: `vargai install title-design` ## Example output https://s3.varg.ai/files/72c55813-c0fa-4cf2-9f64-ec4f7ed0e7ae/file_8052ab02c6d5.mp4 — example (credit: varg) ## More headlines & callouts skills - [Kicker Over Rising Headline](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/kicker-headline-rise.md): A small mono kicker fades in, then the headline rises word by word from a soft blur. - [Rotating Benefit Word](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/rotating-benefit-word.md): A fixed phrase holds while one word in it cycles through benefits, uses or audiences. - [Masked Line Reveal](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/masked-line-reveal.md): Each line slides up out of an invisible slot, so the type looks cut from the frame. - [Marker on the Key Phrase](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/marker-highlight-phrase.md): A marker band draws behind the one phrase that matters while the rest of the line stays calm. - [Strike Old, Write New](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/strike-and-replace.md): A line strikes through the old way, then the new word takes its place. - [Clean Lower Third](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/clean-lower-third.md): Name and role slide in at the lower left on a quiet bar, hold 3–5 s, then wipe out.