The Story of Post Production Forum (PPF) is interesting.
As you can read on PPF’s website: “The initiative to organize Post Production Forum, an event dedicated to people who work on the film after the shooting period, was born in 2016 in the city of Lódź. Initially, the festival called Montage Film Festival was focused on the role of editors in the process of creating a film work. Golden Scissors statuettes in the short film competition were handed out to Polish and foreign editors. Over time, the festival formula naturally began to expand to include events, meetings, workshops and panels about other processes that occur during post-production.”
We were invited to the 2020 edition with our prelection about AI usage in VFX post-production. We were able to showcase our AI VFX Platform and its modules used for Rotoscopy, Style Transfer, Super Resolution and Super Slowmotion.
Base on the record number of questions we were asked we do believe that our platform was super interesting for viewers. Below we are addressing the 20 most frequently asked questions.
Karol Gajos – POPCORNERD
Bolesław Michalski – Comixify.ai COO & CMO
What is the next step for the company?
We plan to add a few more modules to our VFX platform including inpainting, colorization, deaging etc. along with some improvements to current tools. In 2021 we aim to release a commercial version of the platform and 2 -3 plugins with our tech in cooperation with a market-leading company in this field.
What is the future of the AI in the Audiovisual market?
AI can do a lot, it can bring high-end tools to amateurs or it can make hard tasks simpler for professionals. AI could be involved in 3D tracking, in 3D rendering or in real-time upscaling. Artificial intelligence can also be used to create an “off-line” (a version which is a selection of the camera shots themselves before the start of post-production of VFX) version of recorded material. AI can learn to create off’s based on examples made by the best specialists in the industry. And if we give it enough data, the results can surprise us a lot! And at some point, we will address this, but AI should first address hard, boring and repetitive tasks. And this is why we focused on stuff that is boring and repetitive.
What files formats can you handle?
We handle all the most popular video and image formats like: mp4, mov, avi, png, jpeg, exr and many more. If some format is not supported yet then probably will be added soon, as we monitor all the errors that occur in the platform and react to it immediately.
Can we upload media files in raw formats like TIFF, RAW? Can we use MX format?
Currently we support MXF, DNG and TIFF formats. Formats like RAF, RW2, ARW, CR2, NEF, etc. are not supported but it is easy for us to add missing formats so let us know if you need one and we will do our best to implement it asap.
What is the max file size we can use in Comixify.ai VFX Platform?
Currently, in the beta testing we limit max size for a single video/set of frames to 1GB and resolution to 4K. Also the duration of the video is limited, but the value depends on the specific module. All the limits can be found in the limits page in the top-right drop down menu of the VFX Platform. In the commercial version we tend to increase those limits by a significant margin.
Is the AI able to fix blurred images? How can AI handle it?
Our Super Resolution module is capable of intelligent upsampling of a given set of frames even to 8K. We also work on additional settings for this module like deblurring, denoising and smart sharpening. We believe we can deliver it soon so stay tuned!
Is the effect of your work available to see in existing movies, commercials or music clips?
Yep! There is a Cała Góra Barwinków – Król Ulicy (Release date: Aug 25, 2019) it used our first models that are now upgraded and updated. You will also see the style transfer results in a massive TV series produced at the moment in the UK. We can’t say more, but we are super excited about this.
As for Roto, Super Resolution, Super Slow-mo, these products are still in beta, they can be super helpful and they are used for some semi-pro tutorial/internet productions.
How should we model the light on the movie set knowing that the material will be edited by your tools in post-production. Is there an option to preview results in real-time?
There are no specific requirements for the light. As for preview, it is only available for the Style Transfer module, but ultimately we want all our modules to have demo preview.
Can we get results on layers? For example color + outline?
Currently it is not supported. Results format depends on the module, for example for roto you can get mattes, silhouette .fxs splines and demo video with green screened background.
Is manual tuning necessary to apply to final results?
It depends on the situation, we give our best to make our tech as good as possible to eliminate manual labor as much as it gets. However, in some cases, one may need to manually change some things. For example in roto when you use splines, you may need to finetune some parts of them in Silhouette software. But it should still be easier and faster than doing it manually from scratch.
Can your Roto service handle motion blur?
This module tends to get as good results as possible even in super hard, blurred objects. Nevertheless, despite the fact it will work great in 95% of cases, in some situations it will fail.
Are you going to expand your services? For example add modules to make actors look older/younger?
Yes, we are going to add several more tools in the near future and so called deaging (making actors look younger) is one of them.
What about coloring grayscale images? Did you try it?
Yes, we do work on it with some promising results. One of the next modules will deal with it.
Do you think that someday AI will be so powerful to change 3D animation to realistic video sequence?
Watching the current progress in the AI and Computer Vision field we are sure that it is coming sooner that we think.
Do you intend to specialize your product in rotoscopy/masks or are you planning other activities as well? For example, the individual elements of a VFX?
Our vision is to revolutionize the VFX market. Rotoscopy and other modules are just a beginning, we believe we can deliver multiple tools that are not commonly available yet but can change the way video post-production works.
Do you see the use of Comixify.ai also in the dynamically operating market of computer games?
Sure! Our tech can be thought of many things and with the panels we got right now we can do a lot to smooth the image and create amazing cutscenes where simple renders will be redrawn by our tech.
How should we educate the industry about the development of this type of technology and who, in your opinion, should be the recipient of these activities?
Creative Directors, VFX Directors, VFX Companies Owners. Our tech can limit both time and money needed for post production. It can help with Rotoscope that is nowadays done by hand. It can help with Super Resolution or Supers Slow-motion and on top it can apply a new creative layer that will transfer a video to a unique style.
Do you have any information on how long AI has been used in audiovisual productions? Was there any breakthrough in the use of AI in the history of the cinema?
There were lots of such breakthroughs, one example of that could be the animation of Thanos in Avengers “Infinity Wars” which was powered by some Deep Learning tools to help with targeting. A while ago we created a blog post with an interview with Brian Drewes, founder of Zero VFX post production company. There you can find plenty of stuff at the interface between AI and post-production along with what the future can bring us.
Special Offer for Post Prodcution Forum by Comixify.ai
As promised we are happy to invite all Post Production Forum Followers and 2020 Post Production Forum Guests to apply for the FREE BETA TEST of our VFX Platform.