--- In [email protected], "Mark Shapiro" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Bill > > Just to throw a little wood on the fire, some of the auto video > editing programs have algorithms that recognize faces. You can adjust > the "people" reocgnition factor to have it concentrate on faces and > people instead of objects.
hahaha I wasn't knocking the product. :) I'm sure it makes very interesting edits right out of the box. It's not tough to recognize faces, because everyone has the same skin tone color that you can see on a vectorscope. It's the line that points to about 11 o'clock (up and to the left). If there's a lot of information along that line, it's very likely a face, or at least human skin, so by analyzing the electronic signature of the frame of video, the computer would be able to "guess" that there was a human on the screen. I guess my point was that good editing has to do with the quality of the shot as well as the content, and the computer can't know about those things, because they're subjective. Even if there's a shot of a baby, what if you want the shot of the baby smiling instead of the shot of the baby crying... or the other way around, depending on what you're trying to say with the video. I guess that's the point. The computer can't tell any stories with the video. All it can do is select shots that happen to come out to be an interesting succession of clips. That IS interesting, though... as far as "babies vs flags". :) > When not doing "real" editing, I've been playing with these programs > for years and its pretty darn amazing. Plus you can go back in and > edit out shots you don't want included. > > > Mark Sure. I'm sure a lot of editors will be out of work as soon as they figure out how to get the computer to do the weak editing they do without having to pay an editor to do it. :) I'm sure you could make a perfectly viable music video completely using the technique you just mentioned. Have one layer of the band playing and a couple more layers of computer-selected clips, et voila. -- Bill C. http://ReelSolid.TV > --- In [email protected], "Bill Cammack" <BillCammack@> > wrote: > > > > That's ridiculous, because a computer can't select "the best pieces of > > the video clips". What's "best" about a clip is a subjective > > determination, and all computers can do is make objective > > determinations based on data that they gather from the clip. > > > > A computer can't tell the difference between a baby smiling and a flag > > waving. > > > > -- > > Bill C. > > http://ReelSolid.TV > > > > --- In [email protected], Mark Shapiro <editor@> wrote: > > > > > > I am doing an article for Camcorder & Computer Video Magazine about > > > Automatic Video Editing programs and functions. > > > > > > Many of the low cost consumer video editing products have an option > > > that allows you to pick a bunch of video scenes, a music track and > > > then an "editing style" and then the program automatically selects > > > the best pieces of the video clips, cuts the video to the beat, and > > > inserts a bunch of cool effects to make it look sexy. > > > > > > What is your opinion about these kinds of products? > > > > > > Would you ever use one to create a wedding or special event video? > > > > > > By the way, many of these now enable you to control the clip > > > selection, effects and/or cleanup the finished video project. > > > > > > If you don't want me include your comments in the article, please > > > tell me not to publish. Either way, you are free to weigh in with > > your opinion. > > > > > > Mark Shapiro > > > Camcorder & Computer Video Magazine > > > Internet Video Magazine www.internetvideomag.com > > > > > >
