---
title: Caption styles
description: "Map caption tone to named caption components, and prompt per-word emphasis for composed videos."
---

import { DocsVideo } from "/snippets/docs-video.jsx";

Your faceless explainer from Level 1 already asked for "embedded captions, keywords highlighted in the accent color" and got a sensible default. This chapter is the catalog behind that ask — the named components you can pin instead, by tone, so the highlight color and the animation are a decision, not a default.

## What caption styles do and when they trigger

Caption components are drop-in snippets that render animated on-screen text — one visual identity per component, animating per word or per line. Prompts trigger this layer when you ask for captions, subtitles, kinetic text, lyric-style words, or word-by-word titles inside a composition you're building. Describe the *energy* of the captions and the agent picks matching typography, size, and animation; name a component to lock the look.

<Note>
  These components are for **composed videos** — captions you author into a HyperFrames composition. To add captions to an existing **talking-head MP4**, use the [`/embedded-captions`](/prompting/captions-and-talking-heads) workflow instead: it carries its own catalog of caption identities built around subject matting and occlusion (the caption sits *behind* the speaker), which the composition snippets below don't do.
</Note>

## Tone → caption component

| Tone | Components |
| ---- | ---------- |
| **Hype / high-energy social** | [`caption-kinetic-slam`](/catalog/components/caption-kinetic-slam), [`caption-highlight`](/catalog/components/caption-highlight), [`caption-particle-burst`](/catalog/components/caption-particle-burst), [`caption-emoji-pop`](/catalog/components/caption-emoji-pop) |
| **Clean / corporate** | [`caption-clip-wipe`](/catalog/components/caption-clip-wipe), [`caption-weight-shift`](/catalog/components/caption-weight-shift) |
| **Elegant / editorial** | [`caption-editorial-emphasis`](/catalog/components/caption-editorial-emphasis), [`caption-gradient-fill`](/catalog/components/caption-gradient-fill), [`caption-weight-shift`](/catalog/components/caption-weight-shift) |
| **Neon / nightlife / music** | [`caption-neon-glow`](/catalog/components/caption-neon-glow), [`caption-neon-accent`](/catalog/components/caption-neon-accent) |
| **Tech / cyber / glitch** | [`caption-glitch-rgb`](/catalog/components/caption-glitch-rgb), [`caption-matrix-decode`](/catalog/components/caption-matrix-decode) |
| **Karaoke / lyric / follow-along** | [`caption-pill-karaoke`](/catalog/components/caption-pill-karaoke), [`caption-highlight`](/catalog/components/caption-highlight) |
| **Textured / cinematic display type** | [`caption-texture`](/catalog/components/caption-texture), [`texture-mask-text`](/catalog/components/texture-mask-text) |
| **Depth / 3D layering** | [`caption-parallax-layers`](/catalog/components/caption-parallax-layers) |

## Text-effect components

Three [Text Effects](/catalog/components/morph-text) components do one focused job rather than caption a whole track:

| Component | Use when |
| --------- | -------- |
| [`caption-blend-difference`](/catalog/components/caption-blend-difference) | Text sits over busy or shifting footage and must stay legible — it auto-inverts per pixel against whatever is behind it. |
| [`morph-text`](/catalog/components/morph-text) | You want one spot to cycle through a short word list with a gooey morph ("fast / simple / yours"). |
| [`texture-mask-text`](/catalog/components/texture-mask-text) | A large display word filled with a physical texture (brick, rock, wood, metal, lava). |

## Example prompts

> /faceless-explainer 30-second vertical explainer. Add [`caption-highlight`](/catalog/components/caption-highlight) captions, TikTok-style — the visible line stays up, one word highlighted at a time.

<DocsVideo
  title="HyperFrames video: Validate Captions Catalog"
  src="https://static.heygen.ai/hyperframes-oss/docs/images/prompting/validate-captions-catalog.mp4#t=0.1"
  portrait
  loop
/>
*Rendered from the prompt above, unedited.*


<Note>
  Caption components ship as demos — a fixed word list, landscape sizing, an 8-second timeline. The agent re-authors the words and timings to your narration and re-sizes for your format; that's expected, not a workaround. If you want one full-screen word at a time (no visible line), that's [`caption-kinetic-slam`](/catalog/components/caption-kinetic-slam), not `caption-highlight`.
</Note>

> Hype captions with [`caption-kinetic-slam`](/catalog/components/caption-kinetic-slam): one full-screen word per beat, alternating slam-in direction.

<DocsVideo
  title="HyperFrames video: Caption Kinetic Slam"
  src="https://static.heygen.ai/hyperframes-oss/docs/images/prompting/caption-kinetic-slam.mp4#t=0.1"
  loop
/>
*Rendered from the prompt above with an authored 24-word line, unedited.*


> Neon music-video captions using [`caption-neon-glow`](/catalog/components/caption-neon-glow). Make brand names larger with an accent color and highlight the numbers differently.

<DocsVideo
  title="HyperFrames video: Caption Neon Glow"
  src="https://static.heygen.ai/hyperframes-oss/docs/images/prompting/caption-neon-glow.mp4#t=0.1"
  loop
/>
*Rendered from the prompt above, unedited — the brand renders 1.4x in magenta, numbers in amber, distinct from the default cyan.*


> Fill the hero word "STONE" with [`texture-mask-text`](/catalog/components/texture-mask-text) using the rock texture.

## Knobs

- **Tone** picks typography, size, and animation — Hype (heavy, 72–96px, scale-pop) through Storytelling (serif, 44–56px, slow fade). See the caption-tone table in [vocabulary](/prompting/vocabulary).
- **Per-word emphasis.** "Make brand names larger with accent color," "highlight numbers differently," "add bounce to emotional keywords" all work — several components key off this: [`caption-editorial-emphasis`](/catalog/components/caption-editorial-emphasis) drives a dramatic size contrast on emphasis words, [`caption-particle-burst`](/catalog/components/caption-particle-burst) fires on keywords, and the neon components carry keyword accent colors.
- **Texture variable.** [`caption-texture`](/catalog/components/caption-texture) ships lava, marble, metal, wood, concrete, and rock — name the one you want.
- **Word list.** [`morph-text`](/catalog/components/morph-text) cycles an editable list; quote the words in order.
- **Format.** Full-screen single-word styles ([`caption-kinetic-slam`](/catalog/components/caption-kinetic-slam)) and TikTok-style highlights ([`caption-highlight`](/catalog/components/caption-highlight)) are built for vertical / social framing — say "vertical" or "9:16" so sizing and safe areas match.

## Failure modes

**Don't stack a heavy effect on every word.** Caption components already animate per word; layering another emphasis on top of that competes and turns illegible. Emphasize only the keywords.
- ❌ `make every word explode with particles`
- ✅ `caption-particle-burst, firing only on the keywords`

**Don't mix caption styles in one section.** One identity per composition (or per section) reads as designed; two competing styles read as a mistake.
- ❌ `use caption-neon-glow and caption-matrix-decode together`
- ✅ pick one; switch styles only across a clear section break

**Don't reach for these on talking-head footage.** These are composition snippets, not the matting/occlusion pipeline — dropped onto an untouched MP4, a caption sits in front of the speaker, never behind. (The capstone thread below shows `caption-kinetic-slam` reading *behind* a subject, which is not a contradiction: that composition mattes the footage itself first, so the cutout is a separate layer the type can pass under. The limitation is about the snippet alone, not the technique.)
- ❌ `/hyperframes add caption-highlight to my interview.mp4`
- ✅ `/embedded-captions` (see [captions and talking heads](/prompting/captions-and-talking-heads))

**Don't match a hype style to calm content.** A high-energy caption on a corporate explainer fights the tone; let the tone table pick the identity.
- ❌ `glitchy RGB captions` (on a wellness brand piece)
- ✅ `clean captions with caption-clip-wipe`

**Don't invent caption names.** Only the components in the [Captions](/catalog/components/caption-highlight) and [Text Effects](/catalog/components/morph-text) groups exist.
- ❌ `add typewriter-bounce captions`
- ✅ describe the tone ("tutorial, monospace, typewriter") or name a real component

<Note>
**Capstone thread** — in the [Level 7 film](/prompting/capstone)'s Material region, word-synced keywords from the clip's own transcription slam in as display type behind the matted-out speaker — captions as scenography, on real word timings (cut from the film, below).
</Note>

This is the clause in the [full capstone prompt](/prompting/capstone#the-prompt-word-for-word) that buys the piece — prompt language you can lift for your own video:

> THEN they speak, and the main **keywords of their own line — derived from the clip's transcription — land word-synced as huge display text BEHIND the cutout**, each keyword slamming in on its spoken moment with the subject's silhouette occluding it (the two-layer text-behind-subject plate); style the keyword type by adapting a bold **catalog caption component** (`caption-kinetic-slam` or similar) at display scale.

<DocsVideo
  title="HyperFrames video: Capstone Region Material"
  src="https://static.heygen.ai/hyperframes-oss/docs/images/prompting/capstone-region-material.mp4#t=0.1"
  loop
/>
*That clause, rendered — the region cut from the finished film.*

*Next: [When to generate artwork](/prompting/generated-artwork) — where hand-drawn HTML/CSS/SVG wins, and where a generated image beats it.*
