> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: /llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Add captions to a video with AI
> Give it your talking-head clip and get captions, designed cards, or a tighter cut with the long pauses removed.
Give it your talking-head, interview or podcast clip. You get captions timed to the words, designed cards (titles,
quotes, numbers, lower thirds), or a tighter cut with the long pauses removed.
A verbatim rail, an embedded climax word, kinetic emphasis, a lower third and a
pull-quote. The footage underneath is never re-edited — the overlays carry all
of it.
## Make it
Add the clip in **Make something** and say what you want:
```text
Add clear animated captions to this interview. Keep the footage and its spoken edit unchanged.
```
**Like the captions in someone else's video?** Paste its link too and say "captions like this". With your own agent instead of the app, start the message with `/hyperframes`.
## Ask for one of three things
* **Captions:** the spoken words on screen, timed to the voice. A clean line under the speaker for most videos, or
big words set behind the speaker for a cinematic look.
* **Designed cards:** titles, pull-quotes, number callouts, lower thirds, or the speaker shrunk into a corner while a
card holds, all synced to what's said.
* **A tighter cut:** remove long pauses or stretches you name. Ask for it first, then caption the cut, so the
captions follow the final timing:
```text
cut the pauses longer than 0.8 s out of assets/interview.mp4, then add clean
captions to the tighter cut.
```
To reorder the story or pick the best moments from a long recording, describe the video you want as a
[custom video](/guides/general-video.md).
Tell the agent any names or terms the transcript may miss, and where the speaker's face and any on-screen text are,
so graphics stay clear of them.
> [card] [Practice it: Edit your own footage](https://hyperframes.heygen.com/lessons/edit-your-footage)
>
> Free 20-minute lesson with a short video, a quiz and a brief to try. A footage brief is the goal, where it plays, two or three edits and the exact title words.
## Prompts that work
Two words help: the **rail** is the line of captions that carries the spoken words; an **embed** is one big word set
behind the speaker for the strongest moment.
> Add captions to ./interview\.mp4. Clean verbatim rail carrying the spoken words, readable lower-third. Promote the single hardest-hitting word to an embed behind the speaker; highlight one key word in each rail line. Keep the source aspect ratio. Footage stays untouched.
*Made from the prompt above on generated presenter footage: one embed behind the speaker, everything else on the rail.*
The rail carries most of the text; an **embed** is the scarce, earned peak — one big word matted behind the subject at the climax, never every line. Embedding the whole transcript is the most common mistake.
### Designed cards
> Package ./founder-clip.mp4 with designed graphic overlay cards synced to the transcript. 9:16 portrait, warm-paper style. Open with a fullscreen kicker + title hook, drop a lower-third when she names the company, a data callout card counting up the "200+ teams / \$1.2M ARR" stat, and a pull-quote card for the strongest line. Speaker stays full-bleed under the cards; shrink her into a corner PiP while the data card holds. The clip plays untouched underneath.
You describe the *cards* — their content, timing, and how the speaker shares the canvas with them (full-bleed, split, PiP, or glass overlay). The agent designs and writes each card; there's no fixed archetype list, so the overlays follow what the transcript actually says.
### Say these when they matter
**Look and tone (captions).** Describe the look by content: explainer / interview / must-read words → a clean readable rail; poetic / social / cinematic → hero typography behind the speaker; hype → bolder, punchier type. Unsure → a clean rail: the words read and the scene stays safe. Ready-made caption styles are in the [captions catalog](/prompting/captions-catalog.md).
**Verbatim rail vs climax embed.** The rail is the default and carries most of the text. An embed is a promotion — one peak word matted behind the subject, scarce and spaced (roughly one per beat, never two co-visible, at most one apex). Tell the agent *which* lines earn the embed; leave the rest on the rail.
**Style, layout, and canvas (overlay cards).** Name a style (warm paper, clinical, …), a layout (split / stack / PiP / overlay), and a canvas ratio. Matching the source ratio is the safe default, but you choose — 16:9 for desktop / YouTube, 9:16 for Reels / Shorts, 4:5 for feed.
**Keyword highlighting.** On the caption rail, a punch word can carry an inline `emphasis` — an accent-color or active-word pop — without leaving the rail. Ask for "highlight the key word in each line" and it stays readable.
### Variants
> [accordion] Cinematic caption embed (mood over verbatim)
>
> > Cinematic captions on ./poem.mp4 — no rail, lowercase-italic hero typography composited behind the speaker, words accumulating as a column. One apex word per thought, air between them. 4:5. Never grade the footage.
>
> Dropping the rail and setting everything behind the speaker suits poetic / social / "cinematic" asks where mood beats strict readability, never on an explainer where the words must read.
> [accordion] Bright-scene captions
>
> > Add verbatim captions to ./outdoor-vlog.mp4. It's a bright daylight scene, so use near-black type printed onto the surface — not a light-on-bright look that washes out. Keep it a readable rail. 16:9.
>
> Light, screen-blended type washes out over bright backdrops (brightness above \~180); dark, opaque type holds. Match the look to the scene.
> [accordion] VFX-grade themed captions
>
> > Bring the energy on ./hype-clip.mp4 — I want the captions to hit hard: a stamped verbatim rail with a detonation apex. Rail carries the verbatim; the payoff line is the setpiece. 9:16.
>
> Name the treatment — stamped type, a detonation on the payoff line — instead of "make it explode". The a-roll is still never graded.
> [accordion] Landscape data recut
>
> > Recut ./analyst-interview\.mp4 as a 16:9 explainer with a clinical style. Split layout: speaker on the right, data cards on the left. Cards for each claim — a count-up for the headline number, a swiss-grid comparison for the two options, a terminal-style callout for the technical bit. Auto-pace the card count for a 5-minute clip. Footage untouched.
>
> Layout (split / stack / pip / overlay) sets how speaker and cards share the canvas; left unstated, card density follows the clip's length — roughly one card every 12–20 seconds on a 5-minute clip.
### Common mistakes
**Captioning before cutting.** Captions are timed to the clip as it is. Cut first, then caption, or the captions
drift off the words.
* **Avoid:** `add captions, then remove the pauses`
* **Instead:** `remove the pauses, then add captions to the cut`
**Embedding every word.** On a talking head the rail is the verbatim default; matting every caption behind the subject buries the words and spends the climax on nothing.
* **Avoid:** `composite every caption behind the speaker for a cinematic look` (on an explainer)
* **Instead:** `verbatim rail; promote only the two payoff lines to an embed`
**Multi-subject clips.** Text behind the speaker is matted against one person; two speakers or hard cuts make it flicker.
* **Avoid:** `caption this two-person podcast in one pass`
* **Instead:** `split the clip per shot / per speaker first, then caption each` — or use a single-subject cut.
## Review what matters
* Names, product terms, and numbers are correct.
* Captions follow the spoken words.
* Graphics avoid faces and important parts of the footage.
* The video works with sound and muted.
* The final caption or graphic clears before the video ends.
Then [change it](/studio-app/edit-with-the-agent.md): ask the agent for corrected words or timing, or move a caption by hand
in the editor.
To import corrected words from a transcript file, run `hyperframes transcribe transcript.json --dir ./my-video`.
It replaces the full transcript in the existing captions and keeps the caption code around it.
## Related topics
* [Edit captions in the browser editor](/studio/assets-and-blocks.md#edit-captions)
* [Work with voice, music, sound, and captions](/guides/voice-and-audio.md)
* [Change the spoken edit with a custom video](/guides/general-video.md)