Add animated captions that highlight the spoken word
Ask the Tella Agent for animated, TikTok-style captions that highlight each spoken word. Pick a style, colors, font, lines per block and position.
Try it in Tella
Paste a prompt into the Tella Agent in the editor, or into Claude or ChatGPT connected to Tella, then ask for changes.
Turn on subtitles in the Highlight style. Keep two-line blocks, use uppercase, white text with the upcoming words in light gray, and highlight the spoken word in yellow #FACC15. Put them a little below the middle at large size, then show me a card with the caption size so I can fine-tune it.
Switch my captions to the Backdrop style with a black background at 80% opacity and white text. Put a teal #14B8A6 background behind the active word and keep the spoken word white on it. One line per block, medium size.
Use the Classic style with white text and a black outline for this recipe clip. Fade the rest so only the spoken word is full brightness. Switch to Dela Gothic One, then save the look as a preset called Brightloom captions.
How do I add animated captions with a highlighted active word, like viral TikTok and Reels captions?
In Tella, open your video and ask the Tella Agent for captions in the Highlight, Backdrop, Mono, Cannes or Classic style, with the colors and active-word effect you want. In these styles, multi-word caption blocks spring into view and animate out, and the spoken word's highlight eases in and out. To do it yourself, click Subs (or press S), turn on Subtitles, pick a style, then open Edit style and choose an effect under Active word.
How to do it
- Open your video in the Tella editor and open the Tella Agent chat.
- Ask for a caption style, active-word effect, colors, size, lines per block and position.
- Fine-tune the size with the live controls the agent shows, or in Subs → Edit style.
- Click Save as preset in Edit style to reuse the look in your other videos.
- Export with burned-in subtitles to keep the styling everywhere you post.
Good to know
- Needs a paid plan or the 7-day trial. Messages use your workspace's credits.
- Styled captions show on shared videos only when the viewer's device supports hardware WebGPU. Other viewers, and everyone on iPhone and iPad, see the browser's default captions without your font, colors or active-word effect. Burned-in exports always keep the styling.
- Captions come from your transcript, so fix wrong words in the Subtitles view of the Script panel.
- Lines (1, 2 or 3 per block) is unavailable while Single-word captions is on.
Frequently asked questions
Under Active word in Tella's Edit style, Text changes the spoken word's color, Background places a colored background behind it, and Fade the rest dims the other words. None turns the effect off. In multi-word captions the color and dimming ease in and out, and the background shrinks and fades after the word ends.
Yes. In Tella, click Save as preset in Edit style and the style appears under Your styles in the Subtitles panel of your other videos. From its More actions menu you can customize, rename, duplicate or delete it.
Yes. Connect Claude or ChatGPT to Tella's MCP server. Its update_video tool sets captionStyle by name (backdrop, highlight, mono, cannes or classic) with colors such as highlightColor, plus font, size, position and lines per block. It can also list, apply and save subtitle presets.