Add Captions to your Videos - Automate Tiktok Style Subtitles

Automatically transcribe and add animated TikTok-style captions. Perfect for creating engaging social media content with professional word-by-word animated captions. Stop paying $25/mon for services that add AI captions for social media videos. With this Apify actor you can pay less than $0.10 per short. This actor is designed for adding captions to your own videos. Just provide a publicly accessible video URL (from your own hosting, S3, CDN, etc.). # What types of captions can you add with Caption Maker? ## Presets Bounce Animation - Words bounce as they're spoken (ideal for engaging TikTok-style content) Highlight Color - Words highlight with a color as they're spoken (perfect for modern social media) Background Box - Captions appear in a colored background box (great for readability) ## How much will it cost to run? ### Actor Pricing Caption Maker has a startup cost and then $0.03 per 10 sec of video. - $0.07 startup fee (per run) - $0.03 per 10 seconds of video ## How to use Caption Maker? ### Step 1: Prepare your video Provide a publicly accessible video URL (MP4 or MOV). The video must be directly accessible - upload to your own hosting, S3, CDN, or any file hosting service that provides direct links. ### Step 2: Configure caption style Choose from three animation presets: - Bounce Animation: Energetic style where words bounce on emphasis - Highlight Color: Modern style where active words change color - Background Box: Classic style with text in a colored box ### Step 3: Customize colors or other settings (optional) Change the default highlightColor, aspectRatio or fontSize ### Step 4: Run the actor The actor will: 1. Download your video 2. Extract and transcribe the audio 3. Generate word-level timestamps 4. Render the video with animated captions 5. Save the captioned video, SRT, and JSON files to your Apify storage ## Caption Style Presets ### Bounce Animation Words bounce and scale up as they're spoken, creating an energetic, attention-grabbing effect. - Best for: High-energy content that needs to stand out - Customization: Uses highlightColor for the bounce effect - Use case: TikTok videos, promotional content, entertainment ### Highlight Color Words appear in white and change to your chosen highlight color as they're spoken. This creates a smooth, modern look perfect for social media content. - Best for: Modern, clean aesthetic - Customization: Set highlightColor to any hex color (default: #FFD700 gold) - Use case: Professional content, educational videos, brand content ### Background Box All caption words appear inside a colored background box for maximum readability against any video background. - Best for: Videos with busy backgrounds or varying lighting - Customization: Set backgroundColor to any hex color (default: #0a0a0a off-black) - Use case: Vlogs, outdoor videos, action content ## Input Parameters ### Required Parameters #### videoInput - Type: String - Description: Publicly accessible video URL (MP4/MOV) - Example: "https://example.com/my-video.mp4" ### Optional Parameters #### captionPreset - Type: String - Default: "bounce" - Options: "bounce", "highlightColor", "backgroundBox" - Description: Choose the animation style for captions #### highlightColor - Type: String (hex color) - Default: "#FFD700" - Description: Color for highlighting active words or bounce animation - Example: "#00FFFF" (cyan), "#FF1493" (pink) #### backgroundColor - Type: String (hex color) - Default: "#0a0a0a" - Description: Background box color (only applies to backgroundBox preset) - Example: "#000000" (black), "#FFFFFF" (white) #### fontSize - Type: Integer - Default: 48 - Range: 24-120 - Description: Base font size for captions in pixels #### captionPosition - Type: String - Default: "bottom" - Options: "very-top", "top", "top-middle", "middle", "bottom-middle", "bottom", "very-bottom" - Description: Vertical position for captions on the video #### aspectRatio - Type: String - Default: "original" - Options: - "original" - Preserve source dimensions - "16:9" - Landscape/YouTube - "9:16" - Vertical/TikTok/Reels - "1:1" - Square/Instagram - "4:5" - Instagram Portrait - Description: Output video aspect ratio #### outputSRT - Type: Boolean - Default: true - Description: Generate SRT subtitle file #### outputJSON - Type: Boolean - Default: true - Description: Generate JSON caption data file #### outputS3Url - Type: Boolean - Default: true - Description: Include direct S3 URL in output for fast video access. Note: S3 URLs expire after ~7 days. ## Input Examples ### Bounce Animation (Default) json { "videoInput": "https://example.com/my-video.mp4" } ### Highlight Color json { "videoInput": "https://example.com/my-video.mp4", "captionPreset": "highlightColor" } ### Background Box json { "videoInput": "https://example.com/my-video.mp4", "captionPreset": "backgroundBox" } ## API Usage Examples ### Using cURL Start an actor run via command line: bash curl -X POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/prodmarkllc~caption-maker/runs -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" -d '{"videoInput": "https://example.com/my-video.mp4", "captionPreset": "highlightColor", "highlightColor": "#FFD700"}' ### Using JavaScript/Node.js (Apify Client) javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; const apifyClient = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN', }); // Start the actor const run = await apifyClient .actor('prodmarkllc~caption-maker') .call({ videoInput: 'https://example.com/my-video.mp4', captionPreset: 'highlightColor', highlightColor: '#FFD700' }); console.log('Run started:', run); // Wait for results const { items } = await apifyClient .dataset(run.defaultDatasetId) .listItems(); console.log('Captioned video data:', items); ### Using Fetch API (Browser/Node.js) javascript const myHeaders = new Headers(); myHeaders.append("Content-Type", "application/json"); myHeaders.append("Authorization", "Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"); const requestBody = JSON.stringify({ videoInput: "https://example.com/my-video.mp4", captionPreset: "highlightColor", highlightColor: "#FFD700" }); const requestOptions = { method: "POST", headers: myHeaders, body: requestBody, redirect: "follow" }; fetch("https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/prodmarkllc~caption-maker/runs", requestOptions) .then((response) => response.json()) .then((run) => { console.log("Run started:", run); // Poll for completion or use webhooks }) .catch((error) => console.error("Error:", error)); ### Using Python python from apify_client import ApifyClient client = ApifyClient('YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN') # Start the actor run = client.actor('prodmarkllc~caption-maker').call( run_input={ 'videoInput': 'https://example.com/my-video.mp4', 'captionPreset': 'highlightColor', 'highlightColor': '#FFD700' } ) # Fetch results from the dataset dataset_items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items print('Captioned video data:', dataset_items) ### Get Actor Run Status bash curl https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/RUN_ID -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" Replace RUN_ID with the ID from the start response. ### Get Dataset Results bash curl https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/DATASET_ID/items -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" Replace DATASET_ID with defaultDatasetId from the run response. ## Results Caption Maker saves all outputs to your Apify Key-Value Store and Dataset. Here's what you'll receive: ### Key-Value Store - output.mp4 - Your video with animated captions - captions.srt - Standard SRT subtitle file (if outputSRT is true) - captions.json - Detailed caption data with timestamps (if outputJSON is true) ### Dataset Each run adds a record with: json { "videoUrl": "https://example.com/my-video.mp4", "outputVideo": "output.mp4", "captionsSrt": "captions.srt", "captionsJson": "captions.json", "s3VideoUrl": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/remotionlambda-.../output.mp4", "duration": 120.5, "wordCount": 245, "preset": "highlightColor", "status": "success" } > Note: The s3VideoUrl provides direct S3 access for fast downloads but expires after ~7 days. For permanent storage, use the Apify Key-Value Store URLs. ### Caption JSON Format The JSON file contains detailed word-level timing data: json { "segments": [ { "start": 0.5, "end": 2.3, "text": "Hello everyone", "words": [ { "word": "Hello", "start": 0.5, "end": 1.0 }, { "word": "everyone", "start": 1.1, "end": 2.3 } ] } ] } ### What are the video size and duration limits? - Duration: Videos must be under 15 minutes (hard limit) - Audio extraction: Videos are converted to MP3 audio (~15-20 minutes fits in OpenAI Whisper's 25MB limit) - Resolution: Works best with standard resolutions (1080p, 720p, 480p) ## Support and Issues Need help or found a bug? Report issues for runs on Apify --- Version: 0.3.0 --- Made with care for content creators who want to make their videos more accessible and engaging. (AI wrote this README, that last line was definitely AI)