Will PowerDirector be adding Background Matting

timvracer

Newbie Joined: Sep 28, 2020 17:31 Messages: 2 Offline

Solved by

Sep 30, 2020 19:16

I am a new user, but am jumping into green-screen editing (composing multiple subjects onto a background), and of course realizing how much work, cost, and setup it takes to end up with a quality composition. (I don't have great lights or cameras).

However, I use my green screen with Zoom, and the quality is ASTOUNDING. no motion artifacts (green blurs), and none of the green haze around my shiny bald head. etc. etc.

I looked it up and discovered that the latest in background replacement is called "background matting", it is what Zoom is using, and I woudl presume what every video editng solution will have to implement soon to be competitive.

Will PowerDirector be introducing this anytime soon?

https://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/background-matting/

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Sep 30, 2020 19:32

One wouldn't know until it's released. They did redo the chroma module at PD17 and changed many controls and features so doubt they'd be back into it so soon. Best you can probably do is File > Rate Us & Provide Suggestions and provide the info.

Jeff

timvracer

Newbie Joined: Sep 28, 2020 17:31 Messages: 2 Offline

Sep 30, 2020 20:14

Quote One wouldn't know until it's released. They did redo the chroma module at PD17 and changed many controls and features so doubt they'd be back into it so soon. Best you can probably do is File > Rate Us & Provide Suggestions and provide the info.

Jeff

Cool, I will do that. I was presuming that CL folks read this board as well.

In anycase, this tech (background matting) is remarkable, no amount of chroma tweaking will be able to come close to what this tech can do with very simple and imprecise backgrounds. I woudl expect that it would become a competitive issue quickly, but I don't know if I am missing info about possible limitations. The article I posted however is worth the read for anyone interested in how machine learning is making video editing better.

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Sep 30, 2020 21:13

That's a fascinating article and video, but I'm not sure how many consumer PCs will have access to "a deep network with an adversarial loss" that the authors employed to do the alpha processing.

Also, seeing as they haven't even released the network training code, it's probably a little early to be looking for commercial apps with this technology. Still, if you request this functionality from CL at least they'll be aware there's already some interest in it.

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Sep 30, 2020 23:01

Quote I was presuming that CL folks read this board as well.

Several that lurk around, several others that have direct access to them, but the "official" word is it's just a user to user forum.

Jeff

StevenG

Contributor Joined: Jan 14, 2014 14:04 Messages: 513 Offline

Oct 01, 2020 08:02

If you're asking about swapping out a background like Zoom does, you can do that with the latest version of Screen Recorder, included with PowerDirector 19 Ultimate and 365.

Maliek

Senior Contributor Location: San Antonio, Texas USA Joined: Nov 10, 2012 12:01 Messages: 851 Offline

Oct 02, 2020 08:49

Quote I am a new user, but am jumping into green-screen editing (composing multiple subjects onto a background), and of course realizing how much work, cost, and setup it takes to end up with a quality composition. (I don't have great lights or cameras).

However, I use my green screen with Zoom, and the quality is ASTOUNDING. no motion artifacts (green blurs), and none of the green haze around my shiny bald head. etc. etc.

I looked it up and discovered that the latest in background replacement is called "background matting", it is what Zoom is using, and I woudl presume what every video editng solution will have to implement soon to be competitive.

Will PowerDirector be introducing this anytime soon?

https://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/background-matting/

I would have to disagree with your assessment of background matting in it's present form. My experince with background matting in Zoom is that the color of the foreground is skewed. Once the technology is improved it would be a great addition to the video editing toolkit.