---
title: "Transition Craft: six transitions timed like an editor — AI video effect for transitions"
description: "Shake cuts, infinite Droste zooms, tile-flip mosaics, bokeh and collage transitions with frame counts, beat placement and decay curves. Install in Claude Code, Codex and Grok with one command."
url: https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/transition-craft
updated: 2026-10-29
---

# Transition Craft: six transitions timed like an editor — effect skill for transitions

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Shake cuts, infinite Droste zooms, tile-flip mosaics, bokeh and collage transitions with frame counts, beat placement and decay curves.

- **Type:** [Effect](https://varg.ai/how-to/effects.md) · [Transitions](https://varg.ai/how-to/browse/skills/transitions.md)
- **Slug:** `transition-craft`
- **Status:** live
- **Publisher:** varg (varg, verified)
- **License:** MIT
- **Source:** https://github.com/vargHQ/skills/tree/main/transition-craft
- **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

Six transitions that hide the cut at the moment of peak coverage and land that peak on the beat. Zooms run in log space, shakes decay, and the settle carries the length rather than the effect.

**6 templates, 29 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 |
|---|---|
| **Bokeh light-spot transition**: The shot defocuses into giant highlight bokeh, cuts under the blur, and the next shot resolves into focus | Warm night, Clean circle, Flash-through, Anamorphic oval, Vertical soft |
| **Droste recursive zoom**: Push into a screen that holds the same frame, levels deep, and land on the next shot | Monitor push, Phone portal (vertical), Picture-frame loop, Escher twist, Pull-out reveal |
| **3D photo cloud gallery**: Photos hang in a deep 3D cloud, fading into same-colour fog as the camera swings through and lands on a hero photo | White fog swing, Dark void, Vertical column, Slow drift loop |
| **Photo collage burst**: Photos, shapes or words thrown in from the edges pile into a churning collage that covers a hidden cut to the next shot | Photos, Shapes, Words, Mixed, Polaroid drop (3D) |
| **Camera-shake distort cut**: An impact cut: the shot hops, punches in and bends into the cut; the next shot lands punched-in, mirror-filled, shakes and settles | Bass hit, Handheld snap, Earthquake, Vertical reel, Staccato |
| **Impact tile-flip mosaic**: On a hit, the shot breaks into lit tiles that flip in a feathered, randomised wave to reveal the next shot | Impact centre, Diagonal sweep, Random scatter, Fine mosaic (split-flap), Bold blocks |

**Rules every template follows**

- Hide the hard cut at peak coverage (max blur, full pile, mid-flip, peak velocity); never cut on a readable frame.
- Peak on the downbeat (or 1 frame early to jolt); 6–12 frames late reads relaxed.
- Short core: impact 0.10–0.25 s, whip/zoom 0.15–0.30 s, fast blur 0.20–0.40 s; let the settle carry length; halve anything that feels slow.
- Every zoom/dolly in log space: scale = k^e, tween e.
- Arrive fast then slow (expo.out / cubic-bezier(.25,0,.11,1)); new shots cut in at 1.2–1.5x and settle to 1x over 0.5–1.2 s.
- Shakes = A·sin(2πft)/e^(decay·t); impacts 8–14 Hz, decay 4–8; handheld 1–3 Hz; mirror edges, never black.

**Built from:** Walter Murch; Dan Ebberts; Boris FX / Maxon Universe / Unreal docs; Zaid Alkuheli (OverseerOS); van Wijk & Nuij; Tony Zhou; David DeSandro / GSAP; X: @RajAdonis, @Pashoke1, @goopsoup_.

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 photo collage transition
- How to do an infinite zoom (Droste) transition into a screen
- How to make a grid tile flip transition between two clips
- How to make a bokeh defocus transition
- How to make a 3D photo gallery fly-through video
- How to add a camera shake transition on the beat

## Not for

- Add a simple crossfade between all clips (use varg-video-edit-library (ffmpeg xfade))
- Cut the silences out of my podcast (use varg-video-editing)
- Generate a drone shot to use as b-roll (use varg-ai)

## Install

- Claude Code: `claude plugin marketplace add vargHQ/skills && claude plugin install varg@varg`
- Codex: `npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill transition-craft -a codex -y`
- Cursor: `npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill transition-craft -a cursor -y`
- OpenClaw: `npx clawhub@latest install transition-craft`
- Gemini CLI: `npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill transition-craft -a gemini-cli -y`
- Any agent, with the vargai CLI: `vargai install transition-craft`

## Example output

https://s3.varg.ai/files/72c55813-c0fa-4cf2-9f64-ec4f7ed0e7ae/file_30b261858cc1.mp4 — example (credit: varg)

## More transitions skills

- [editly](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/editly.md): Declarative JSON5 video editing CLI/API: clips, titles, transitions, audio mixing, rendered with ffmpeg.
- [Mix (Cross Dissolve)](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/mix-dissolve.md): The two shots blend through each other. The quietest transition: "time passes" or "this continues".
- [Dip to Black](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/black-fade.md): A fades to black, then B fades up. Marks the end of a section or a bigger jump in time.
- [White Flash](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/white-flash.md): The frame blows out to white for a moment and opens on the next shot. Energy, memory or a camera snap.
- [Pull In (Zoom In)](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/pull-in-zoom.md): The camera rushes into shot A and lands, still moving forward, in shot B. The signature short-form transition.
- [Pull Out (Zoom Out)](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/pull-out-zoom.md): The camera jerks backwards out of shot A and keeps pulling back as shot B settles in.