A Look Back at 2022… The Year of AI

I had some oatmeal this morning with my husband, as he edited drone videos on his new M1 laptop, at the breakfast table. He was telling me how fast this computer plays back 2K files in Premiere Pro without even a stutter. His drone can internally edit clips as well.

We got to talking about how far computers and editing technology have come in the past few years. Think about the computer you were using 10 years ago and how fast it was, vs the computer you have now (or want to get). Computer processing speeds have increased exponentially and will continue to do so. What will our computers be able to do by 2027?

We also looked at some AI-generated art that a friend posted on Facebook this week. It consisted of vintage Christmas photos with aliens and robots, and it was just insanely fun.

Those conversations got me thinking about all the advancements (and disruptions) we’ve seen in this industry specifically over the past year. What blew you away in 2022? What trends drove you crazy?

The Year of AI-Generated Art

If you’re on social media, you certainly have a few friends who spent hours a day playing with AI text-to-image generators like Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, DALL-E 2, Lensa, Jasper Art, etc. These applications allow users to put in a description, or prompts. The more specific the description, the more specific the results. The AI generator then generates an image based on human-made art and images that have previously been scanned.

There are also tools for AI generating video, audio, research papers, code, and more.

Some of the AI-generated art I’ve seen has been mind-blowingly cool. Of course, there are ethical considerations that cannot be ignored. Some companies have gone against allowing AI-generated images in their stock catalogs. Others, like Adobe, support it. Artstation users protested the decision to allow AI software to train using images on Artstation. China passed a law that all AI-generated imagery must be watermarked.

Artists are concerned that AI will kill their livelihoods, and this concern is completely valid. However, these tools can be useful for post-production professionals to speed up tedious tasks and improve quality.

Below, read about some of the tasks that AI and machine learning can do to help post-production professionals, with links to some products we have at Toolfarm. I should add, this list is by no means exhaustive.

• Transcribe audio – Digital Anarchy Transcriptive
• In Editing: Morph cut, smart reframing, organizing footage, etc. – Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve Studio
• Relight, Color grading, and color match footage – Premiere Pro
• Rotoscope, Background removal / Object removal – Goodbye Greenscreen, DaVinci Resolve Studio
• Face detection and blurring – Blace – AI Face Detection & Blurring, Autodesk Flame
• Upscale footage – ScaleUp, Re:Vision Effects REZup, DaVinci Resolve Studio
• Creating Depth Maps – Depth Scanner
• Style transfer and artistic effects – StyleX, Adobe Photoshop Neural Filters
• Face refinement, makeup transfer, etc. DaVinci Resolve Studio, Adobe Photoshop Neural Filters
• Create repeating backgrounds and textures
• Photogrammetry and Nerfs – Agisoft Metashape
• Performance capture / Facial capture.
• Previsualization
• Remove background noise in the audio channels – Crumplepop Denoise, iZotope RX, Waves Clarity Vx, Boom Library Debird
• Audio Mastering – CloudBounce Mini
• Create stems automatically (drums, vocals, guitar, etc.). – Hit’n’Mix RipX DeepRemix
• Dialog changes and replacement – iZotope Dialog Match

AI is here to stay and I think we’ve only seen the beginning of what it can do. It will be interesting to see how artists use AI in their work, and how the legalities of AI play out.

See also:

• The AI Tools Making Post More Productive – NAB Amplify
• How AI is Changing Post-Production for the Better – MediaSilo
• How AI Enhances Video Post-Production – AI Time Journal

Other Video Industry Trends in 2022, and More Predictions for the Future

A lot of the technology listed below is not new in 2022 but seemed to really take off this year.

Live Streams

Sure, companies are still producing tutorials, however, companies like Maxon, Adobe, Boris FX, and others, are producing thousands of hours of content, live streaming to YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms. Companies are live streaming from events like Siggraph, NAB, IBC, etc., hitting a much larger audience than they would with just the in-person attendees.

This makes a lot of sense because it’s a lot less time-consuming to do it live. There is no editing needed, just someone working the switcher on the streaming app. And, because it’s live, mistakes are more easily forgiven.

Will this trend of webinars over tutorials continue? For the bigger players, absolutely. It allows companies to put out consistent content so it’s great for marketing and showing off new features of the software. Also, having guest artists on live streams, it only builds the pool of viewers.

NFTs

Earlier this year, my Twitter feed was overtaken by NFTs. NFTs are non-fungible tokens, which are cryptographic assets on the blockchain. They are unique and can’t be replicated, so it’s a way for artists to sell their work digitally. If you want to learn more about NFTs, check out this link.

So, are NFTs here to stay? NFTs hit their prime early in 2022 and while they’ll continue to exist, I don’t think they will be as popular as they have been.

Real-Time Rendering

Real-time rendering really came into its own in 2022. Computers and video cards have gotten so fast that you no longer need to render to watch your creation. Check out this Lion demo from Unity, showing real-time 3D technology. It’s impressive!

Drones

How many TV shows and films have I seen this year using drone shots? A lot! I see drones in the park, downtown, the beach, and other places.

They are getting cheaper, and the video resolution and battery life are improving, so expect to see even more of your friends and colleagues getting drones in the next couple of years. Below, check out some incredible drone footage from ALE PETRA, a film director, after Argentina’s World Cup 2022 win.

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A post shared by ALE PETRA (@alepetra_)