ChatGPT and Corel VideoStudio!
The hype around A.I. and A.I. generated content has been increasing over the past few months until the point now where it is probably getting a little out of control!
A.I. driven features have been appearing in video Editing programs for a while now and they are not in themselves designed to create anything.
What they are designed to do is to automate certain tasks and existing features to make them better or easier to use.
A good example of this is your typical “Sky Replacement” feature.
This is one that you can see right now in a range of video Editing Software and is a good example of how it works.
These programs have been fed a gazillion images that have a sky in all of them and then instructed as to which part of the image is sky.
This is done repeatedly until the program can predict through millions of repeated “lessons” which part of an image is the sky.
Once it can do that well enough it is simply a matter of having the program automatically create a mask around the part it has identified as the sky.
The “new kid on the block” is GPT which is a language/text based program that can act like a human.
It can answer questions and write text based on the dataset upon which it was built.
You tell it to write 1000 words on the subject of video editing and out it comes!
ChatGPT is a human friendly interface that allows you to interact with GPT more effectively.
There are also A.I. driven image and even video creation tools that do similar.
The “hype” I mentioned earlier is around the fact that people are saying that A.I. is the new way to create content without having to do anything and that’s just not true… yet!
The real present value of A.I. is in the features you are seeing in your video editing software as well as using things like GPT to get you started.
At the end of the day these are tools that still require human intervention and direction to get good results.
The video below represents a reasonable approach to using ChatGPT along with VideoStudio as part of an overall video creation process.
- Corel VideoStudio Review
The Best AI Video Generation Tool – RunwayML Gen-1 First Look
As I mentioned in the top story this week the A.I. tools and services are coming in thick and fast!
RunwayML has actually been around for a year or so and is designed to create videos in the same way GPT is designed to create text.
It’s earliest best feature was to isolate objects in videos for later masking but it too is beginning to look like it is almost ready for prime time.
Here’s a look at it and you can take a look yourself at Runwayml
Lav Mics: When & How to Use Them
When you are regularly recording videos under different conditions there is a never ending battle with capturing good audio.
Adjusting or correcting substandard audio is probably one of the hardest skills to learn in video editing so from the outset you need to get the best you can.
This often comes down to microphone choice amongst other things so here’s a good run through on using lavalier mics as well as not using them.
2023 Best Editing Layout – Wondershare Filmora 12
One feature of most video editing software that many people overlook is the ability to change the layout of the program as you see it on the screen.
Superficially speaking this feature is often looked at from the perspective of aesthetics rather than functionality.
We tend to fall into using a layout that we are familiar with even if some tasks within that layout are a bit clunky.
In the video below done using Filmora you can see some of the available layouts but more importantly why some are better suited to certain tasks than others.
- Wondershare Filmora Review
Cheap Cinematic Dolly Shots at Home – Wondershare Filmora 12
Here’s a few handy tips and tricks for substituting stuff you may already have for a dolly.
A lot of these things you may have lying around the house and the others can be picked up very cheaply… well a whole lot cheaper than a pro dolly!
PowerDirector – Tips on Editing Subtitles Created by Speech-to-Text
One of the dreams of automating subtitles through “Speech to Text” is that you click a button and the text and subtitles will be perfect!
Unfortunately the reality is somewhat different but let’s face it, doing the entire process manually is torture compared to what we have now!
My experience has been that the Speech to Text part is usually about 90% accurate and the timing of the subtitles is about 95% accurate but not always how you may want them.
So one thing to consider here when choosing video editing software is whether this is an important feature.
If it is then how easily you can further edit those subtitles after they are created can be an important point.
PowerDirector has always been one of the best in this field and still is.
Check it out in the video below.
Enable Fast Video Render Settings – PowerDirector
Cyberlink PowerDirector at the consumer level is still probably one of the fastest programs around when it comes to rendering and dealing with highly compressed video files.
However over the years the way in which it has maintained its lead is by having a number of available strategies for dealing with these files based on the computer specs of where it lives.
Most of the time when you install PowerDirector it does a pretty good job of identifying the environment it is working in.
However like most software at this level and given the variation of computer configurations it is always best to check for yourself.
Here’s a look at how to do that so you know you are getting the best performance on your machine running PowerDirector.
- CyberLink PowerDirector Review
Top Free Video Editing Software For Beginners (2023)
Yeah, yeah, its another shameless plug for the Movavi video editor but really I can’t blame these guys for it!
First of all they wrap the plug in some excellent information and at the end of the day, Movavi is a pretty great little video editor!
- Movavi Video Editor
Audacity as a Professional DAW? – Audacity PROS and CONS
In my video production process I use a variety of programs depending on what it is that I am going for.
Generally I load the footage first into DaVinci Resolve and color correct.
Because it is the best? Who knows!
All I know is that I understand how to use it and can get good results fast!
I then do the first rough cut also in Resolve.
Because it is the best? Who knows!
All I know is that the waveform display in resolve is really big and really clear.
Most of those cuts are based on the voice track so having an accurate, clear waveform allows me to do that quickly.
I then use Fairlight in Resolve to identify bad audio frequencies with the EQ and wait for it… write them down!
What? Yup!
I then export the audio and do my noise reduction, EQ (with the written down values), compression, normalization and limiting in Audacity.
Because it is the best? Who knows!
I understand it, I am familiar with it and it does a great job so that’s what I do.
I then import that file back into Resolve and export to final working file. Once that is done I open up either Filmora, PowerDirector or Corel Videostudio and fine tune from there.
Because they are the best?
Well it depends but usually my finishing steps are not wildly complicated or require Hollywood SFX so, any consumer level software can do the job so that’s what I use!
Here’s a little more on Audacity.
Original post The Friday Roundup – ChatGPT, A.I. and Other Video Stuff
