How do I install the Video Transitions skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add agamm/video-transitions in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Video Transitions safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Video Transitions?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Video Transitions free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Video Transitions?

agamm (@agamm) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Video Transitions by agamm — Agent Skill

Name: Video Transitions
Author: agamm

Video Transitions

Join two clips with a visible transition effect (wipe, slide, dissolve, pixelize, circle open/close, fade-to-black, etc.) using ffmpeg xfade. Use whenever the user wants a transition between shots/scenes, a scene change with an effect, or anything beyond a hard cut. For a barely-visible seam between adjacent cuts use the splice command instead; for generative effects on the footage itself use grok-video-edit.

agamm f710ab0 3.4 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

Video transitions (ffmpeg xfade)

Join two clips with a deliberate, visible transition. This is plain ffmpeg xfade — no CLI command wraps it (it's a one-liner; only unique-code operations get commands). Use the recipe below directly.

Decide which tool first:

Visible transition between two shots (wipe, dissolve, pixelize…) → this skill, xfade.
A cut that feels abrupt but shouldn't have a visible effect → you want a split edit, not a transition: stagger the sound and picture with audio_lead in the EDL. Reaching for a dissolve to soften a choppy dialogue cut is the classic wrong fix — see cutting-rhythm.
Seamless join, no visible effect (hide a hard cut) → the existing splice command (uv run video-agent splice a.mp4 b.mp4 -o out.mp4) — a fixed 0.04s crossfade.
Effect on the footage itself (smoke, recolor, restyle) → grok-video-edit skill.

Recipe

xfade overlaps the end of clip A with the start of clip B. The offset is where the transition begins in the combined timeline = duration_of_A − transition_duration. Total output duration = dur_a + dur_b − duration.

# 1. Get clip A's real duration (offset depends on it — never guess)
uv run video-agent info a.mp4        # read the duration line, e.g. 4.000s

# 2. offset = dur_a - duration   (e.g. 4.000 - 0.6 = 3.4)
ffmpeg -y -i a.mp4 -i b.mp4 -filter_complex \
  "[0:v][1:v]xfade=transition=wipeleft:duration=0.6:offset=3.4[v];\
   [0:a][1:a]acrossfade=d=0.6:c1=tri:c2=tri[a]" \
  -map "[v]" -map "[a]" -c:v h264_videotoolbox -b:v 8M -c:a aac -ar 44100 out.mp4

Drop the [0:a][1:a]acrossfade…[a] segment and the -map "[a]" if either clip has no audio (otherwise ffmpeg errors on the missing stream).

Useful transition kinds

fade, fadeblack, fadewhite, dissolve, pixelize, wipeleft / wiperight / wipeup / wipedown, slideleft / slideright / slideup / slidedown, circleopen / circleclose, radial, smoothleft / smoothright, diagtl / diagtr / diagbl / diagbr, squeezeh / squeezev.

Full list: ffmpeg -h filter=xfade.

Gotchas

Both inputs MUST share resolution + fps + pixel format, or xfade errors / produces garbage. Normalize clip B first if they differ:
```
ffmpeg -y -i b.mp4 -vf "scale=1920:1080,fps=30,format=yuv420p" -c:v h264_videotoolbox b_norm.mp4
```
Check both with uv run video-agent info before running.
xfade re-encodes — always pass -c:v h264_videotoolbox (macOS). After it, any further join must use filter_complex concat, not stream-copy concat (non-keyframe seam).
offset is computed from A's real duration — read it from info, don't assume the nominal length (trimmed clips are often a few frames off).
duration is the overlap length, typically 0.3–1.0s. Longer than the shorter clip will fail.
Verify the seam visually: uv run video-agent detect out.mp4 --start <offset-0.3> --end <offset+0.3> --step 1 and eyeball the grid.

---name: video-transitionsdescription: Join two clips with a visible transition effect (wipe, slide, dissolve, pixelize, circle open/close, fade-to-black, etc.) using ffmpeg xfade. Use whenever the user wants a transition between shots/scenes, a scene change with an effect, or anything beyond a hard cut. For a barely-visible seam between adjacent cuts use the splice command instead; for generative effects on the footage itself use grok-video-edit.---# Video transitions (ffmpeg xfade)Join two clips with a deliberate, visible transition. This is plain ffmpeg `xfade` — noCLI command wraps it (it's a one-liner; only unique-code operations get commands). Use therecipe below directly.Decide which tool first:- **Visible transition between two shots** (wipe, dissolve, pixelize…) → this skill, `xfade`.- **A cut that feels abrupt but shouldn't have a visible effect** → you want a **split edit**, not a transition: stagger the sound and picture with `audio_lead` in the EDL. Reaching for a dissolve to soften a choppy dialogue cut is the classic wrong fix — see `cutting-rhythm`.- **Seamless join, no visible effect** (hide a hard cut) → the existing `splice` command (`uv run video-agent splice a.mp4 b.mp4 -o out.mp4`) — a fixed 0.04s crossfade.- **Effect on the footage itself** (smoke, recolor, restyle) → `grok-video-edit` skill.## Recipe`xfade` overlaps the end of clip A with the start of clip B. The `offset` is where thetransition **begins** in the combined timeline = `duration_of_A − transition_duration`.Total output duration = `dur_a + dur_b − duration`.```bash# 1. Get clip A's real duration (offset depends on it — never guess)uv run video-agent info a.mp4 # read the duration line, e.g. 4.000s# 2. offset = dur_a - duration (e.g. 4.000 - 0.6 = 3.4)ffmpeg -y -i a.mp4 -i b.mp4 -filter_complex \ "[0:v][1:v]xfade=transition=wipeleft:duration=0.6:offset=3.4[v];\ [0:a][1:a]acrossfade=d=0.6:c1=tri:c2=tri[a]" \ -map "[v]" -map "[a]" -c:v h264_videotoolbox -b:v 8M -c:a aac -ar 44100 out.mp4```Drop the `[0:a][1:a]acrossfade…[a]` segment and the `-map "[a]"` if either clip has noaudio (otherwise ffmpeg errors on the missing stream).## Useful transition kinds`fade`, `fadeblack`, `fadewhite`, `dissolve`, `pixelize`,`wipeleft` / `wiperight` / `wipeup` / `wipedown`,`slideleft` / `slideright` / `slideup` / `slidedown`,`circleopen` / `circleclose`, `radial`, `smoothleft` / `smoothright`,`diagtl` / `diagtr` / `diagbl` / `diagbr`, `squeezeh` / `squeezev`.Full list: `ffmpeg -h filter=xfade`.## Gotchas- **Both inputs MUST share resolution + fps + pixel format**, or `xfade` errors / produces garbage. Normalize clip B first if they differ: ```bash ffmpeg -y -i b.mp4 -vf "scale=1920:1080,fps=30,format=yuv420p" -c:v h264_videotoolbox b_norm.mp4 ``` Check both with `uv run video-agent info` before running.- **`xfade` re-encodes** — always pass `-c:v h264_videotoolbox` (macOS). After it, any further join must use filter_complex concat, not stream-copy concat (non-keyframe seam).- **`offset` is computed from A's real duration** — read it from `info`, don't assume the nominal length (trimmed clips are often a few frames off).- **`duration` is the overlap length**, typically 0.3–1.0s. Longer than the shorter clip will fail.- Verify the seam visually: `uv run video-agent detect out.mp4 --start <offset-0.3> --end <offset+0.3> --step 1` and eyeball the grid.

Frequently asked questions