[HN Gopher] MagicEdit: High-fidelity temporally coherent video e...
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       MagicEdit: High-fidelity temporally coherent video editing
        
       Author : lnyan
       Score  : 178 points
       Date   : 2023-08-29 15:57 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (magic-edit.github.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (magic-edit.github.io)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | jdprgm wrote:
       | I have been reading a lot of adjacent papers to this recently.
       | Here is a useful collection for anyone interested:
       | https://github.com/zengyh1900/Awesome-Image-Inpainting
       | 
       | I have noticed an overwhelming trend that the vast majority of
       | authors tend to be Chinese sounding names even when associated
       | with an US based university. Obviously some of those could be
       | Americans as well but it stood out to such a degree I was curious
       | if anyone had any insight.
       | 
       | Also if there is code (this projects links to github but it's
       | empty), it tends to be basically abandonware once these papers
       | are published with no effort towards commercializing or turning
       | into healthy open source projects for some reason.
        
       | thatguy27 wrote:
       | No code...
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | chankstein38 wrote:
         | Right? I clicked on the "Code" link expecting code and found
         | code for the project presentation page basically. The paper
         | seems cool but also looks like something that'd take me a while
         | to implement and I don't really have time right now.
        
       | satvikpendem wrote:
       | Imagine in 5-10 years where, just like people make video games
       | all by themselves or with a small group of people, people can
       | make their own movies that rival Hollywood productions, for a
       | fraction of the cost as there's no need to hire anyone. When the
       | output is just pixels on a screen and you can manipulate the
       | placement of every pixel, it's really no different to Hollywood
       | making them with real actors and crew members or someone drawing
       | them, as is the case with current animation methods. Now, we can
       | do the same process as drawing each frame but then make it look
       | photorealistic.
        
         | rebuilder wrote:
         | I think we'll find, among other things, that making tons of
         | minute decisions is exhausting. Iterating your way to an end
         | result is a way of getting _something_ , but so far, the rule
         | of thumb seems to be that the more control you have over a
         | creative process, the harder it is to not end up with a stiff
         | end product.
        
           | flir wrote:
           | We should call this the Chinese Democracy Problem.
        
             | esperent wrote:
             | Why?
        
               | flir wrote:
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Democracy
               | 
               | A decade of perfectionism resulting in a mediocre
               | product.
               | 
               | That reference going over peoples' heads is just more
               | evidence that I'm really, really old.
        
         | StevePerkins wrote:
         | Things will certainly change. However, I don't think
         | professional studio productions will go away.
         | 
         | In the age of MP3's and streaming services, "anyone" can put
         | their music out there. And while many do, the most popular and
         | successful music still comes from major labels.
         | 
         | With Amazon's distribution platform and tooling for self-
         | published authors, "anyone" can write a book. And while many do
         | put out some great stuff, the overwhelming majority of books
         | that don't come from major publishers are shovelware.
         | 
         | As shitty of a curator as Hollywood might be, for most people
         | there is value-add in curation.
        
           | extr wrote:
           | It's identical to the current state of the publishing world.
           | They've already gone through this transition: the marginal
           | cost to "publish" a book is zero. However to "publish a book
           | that will people will read" is a different question
           | altogether and is still very much gatekept by the major
           | publishing houses.
        
             | rcme wrote:
             | Doesn't TikTok solve the distribution problem in a way
             | that's not currently possible with published literature?
        
             | echelon wrote:
             | > It's identical to the current state of the publishing
             | world. They've already gone through this transition: the
             | marginal cost to "publish" a book is zero. However to
             | "publish a book that will people will read" is a different
             | question altogether and is still very much gatekept by the
             | major publishing houses.
             | 
             | Not at all identical.
             | 
             | Writing and selling a book only requires a text editor (or
             | typewriter), maybe a copy editor, and maybe a publicist.
             | It's been that way for the better part of a century.
             | 
             | Present-day films require enormous capital, equipment,
             | logistics, personnel, pre-production, post-production, and
             | marketing.
             | 
             | Film is about to be wholly transformed by several orders of
             | magnitude of cost, talent, personnel, and logistics
             | reductions. All at the same time.
             | 
             | Kids at home will have access to this tech and grow up on
             | it.
        
               | CyberDildonics wrote:
               | That already happened. Cameras, lights and a computer
               | that can edit are hundreds of time cheaper than they were
               | a few decades ago. Kids can make videos, but they aren't
               | making movies anyone wants to watch.
        
               | echelon wrote:
               | You always take the contrarian opinion to my comments,
               | CyberDildonics.
               | 
               | > That already happened. Cameras, lights and a computer
               | that can edit are hundreds of time cheaper than they were
               | a few decades ago.
               | 
               | We're not talking about the same thing. None of these
               | trends towards fast and dirty filmmaking incorporated Gen
               | AI. You couldn't get Hollywood-quality out of an Android
               | phone and a boom microphone. That will change.
               | 
               | > Kids can make videos, but they aren't making movies
               | anyone wants to watch.
               | 
               | They're certainly watching each other's content. YouTube
               | is filled with lots of young creators with enormous
               | audiences. That trend will continue to grow.
        
             | r00fus wrote:
             | I'm finding that fanfic seems quite good (though the fan-
             | service is a bit glaring) these days and it's entirely
             | free.
        
             | organsnyder wrote:
             | There's still a lot of value in the publishing process.
             | Yes, the gatekeeping is inequitable and suboptimal, but
             | "publishing" is more than simply formatting a manuscript
             | and making it available in retail channels. And a competent
             | editor is doing much more than simply proofreading.
        
               | cpill wrote:
               | like what?
        
               | johncalvinyoung wrote:
               | And aside from Kindle, even the 'formatting the
               | manuscript' part is very much underestimated by most
               | self-publishers. Professional-grade typesetting and cover
               | design makes a great deal of difference to reading
               | comfort, shelf appeal, and overall perception of value.
        
           | novok wrote:
           | I think it will create a new middle class artist category,
           | much like youtube, commodity video editing software and good
           | 4k cameras have done today. Certain kinds of niche content
           | will become more viable.
        
           | TylerE wrote:
           | The majors aren't so major anymore. Many big artists actually
           | have their own labels now. A lot of 'em have distro deals...
           | but it's a very different model. No advances, so the artist
           | pays all recording costs, but they also end up owning the
           | masters and having total creative control.
        
           | 01100011 wrote:
           | > In the age of MP3's and streaming services, "anyone" can
           | put their music out there.
           | 
           | Not the same thing. Putting music out still requires a lot
           | of.. artistry. The tools don't do the work for you.
           | 
           | "AI" is heading in a direction where you only need to supply
           | the most rudimentary of ideas and it fills in the rest. At
           | some point you won't even need to supply the ideas as the
           | system will have some concept of what pleases you.
        
           | echelon wrote:
           | > Things will certainly change. However, I don't think
           | professional studio productions will go away.
           | 
           | You'll still have auteurs such as Wes Anderson shooting film,
           | but the era of $100 million dollar blockbusters is coming to
           | an end.
        
         | tomjen3 wrote:
         | Its an interesting concept, which will further fragment the
         | amount of attention that each individual piece can get. If the
         | actors are AI generated, then we are also past the point there
         | sex and nudity can't be part of the experience. It will likely
         | be more attractive than anything else for that reason alone.
        
           | satvikpendem wrote:
           | It'll be like YouTube, anyone can put out anything they want
           | there, the vast majority of which will be bad, but there are
           | still good content creators making high quality videos.
        
             | tomjen3 wrote:
             | I don't think so. There is a qualitative difference between
             | youtube and what can be made for streaming, but there are
             | also entire groups of things that are not on youtube: there
             | are lots of video essays, but basically no TV shows over
             | multiple episodes, in any genre.
             | 
             | This is currently a limitation, but it doesn't have to be
             | and with the new system it won't be.
        
               | satvikpendem wrote:
               | Huh? Many content creators on YouTube have made TV shows
               | over many episodes on YouTube, Wong Fu for one.
        
         | duped wrote:
         | imho the thing that makes film the pinnacle of art is that it
         | is the amalgamation of many artists' vision and interpretation.
         | And what makes great film _great_ is when those differences
         | form a cohesive story.
         | 
         | And at the end of the day, art is a reflection of the human
         | condition. Removing humans from the process is not a feature,
         | it's a bug because it reduces the scope at which the art can
         | address.
        
           | throwuwu wrote:
           | Since when is film the pinnacle of art? If collaboration
           | makes it so then both music and architecture also have that
           | trait. Theatre as well.
        
             | duped wrote:
             | imho: in my humble opinion.
             | 
             | And you're right, but you also need to make all those art
             | forms to make great film.
        
           | satvikpendem wrote:
           | I don't agree that film is the "pinnacle of art," but even
           | discounting that, there are many works made by individuals
           | throughout history that are _great,_ books and paintings for
           | example. I don 't see anyone saying that these should have
           | more than one person making such works but for movies and
           | shows, it seems that we are used to the status quo and cannot
           | see how in the future that great works can similarly arise
           | from individuals via the advances of technology. I'm sure in
           | 2100 when this tech is commonplace that people will think
           | about how archaic it was to have thousands of people work to
           | produce a film.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | Even in animation, there are teams of people involved. Each
         | team specializing in different aspects. This single person
         | hollywood replacement dream is something to be really afraid
         | of, at least as far as the quality of the content. I couldn't
         | imagine watching something that only one person has ever worked
         | on with no input from other people with
         | suggestions/tweaks/edits to improve the product. We've already
         | seen things like True Detective Season 2 that was produced and
         | it _had_ people involved that did not push back.
        
           | satvikpendem wrote:
           | I played Stardew Valley, a game made entirely by one person,
           | and by all accounts it is one of the highest rated games of
           | all time. Can anyone make shit? Sure, that is true in any
           | medium. But individuals or even small groups of people can do
           | amazing things, if they have the tools. It is not "something
           | to be really afraid of," which I find to be an extremely
           | hyperbolic view.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | Have you seen The Room? Anytime I see the same person's
             | name in the credits for all the roles, I immediately start
             | to get nervous.
             | 
             | Also, small teams is not a single person
        
               | satvikpendem wrote:
               | > * Have you seen The Room? Anytime I see the same
               | person's name in the credits for all the roles, I
               | immediately start to get nervous.*
               | 
               | Sounds like that's more of a personal problem than one
               | about this sort of video generation in general.
               | 
               | > _Also, small teams is not a single person_
               | 
               | Yes, which is why I likened this to what was in my
               | original comment: "just like people make video games all
               | by themselves or _with a small group of people_ "
        
               | cultofmetatron wrote:
               | theres also movies like Primer
               | (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film)
               | 
               | which shows what can be create with minimal budget and
               | crew. I heard a lot of the cast also doubled as backstage
               | workers during the shoot.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | >Yes, which is why I likened this to what was in my
               | original comment: "just like people make video games all
               | by themselves or with a small group of people"
               | 
               | You're reading that out of context. I intentionally
               | separated that comment. The original post I replied
               | discussed all of the work being done by a single person.
               | That what this is about. You introduced a small team. A
               | small team is not one person. A small team still has the
               | potential of having discussion on edits, creative, etc vs
               | just the ideas of one person.
        
               | satvikpendem wrote:
               | You replied to my original post, did you not [0]? The
               | post where I, as stated above, also included the words,
               | "all by themselves or with a small group of people," no?
               | The post where I explicitly did not "[discuss] all of the
               | work being done by a single person" that denies work also
               | being done by groups. You were the one who omitted the
               | "with a small group of people" part and started talking
               | only about a "single person hollywood replacement dream."
               | 
               | I think you're just arguing semantics at this point, as
               | to me, it doesn't really matter if it's a single person
               | or a small team making stuff, my greater point was that
               | it will be a lot cheaper than a full-blown Hollywood
               | production and will usher in a new sort of industry like
               | YouTubers today, as ubiquitous phone cameras have, only
               | now these creators will also make photorealistic
               | productions rather than just filming themselves doing
               | things.
               | 
               | [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37310759
        
               | chankstein38 wrote:
               | It's also a kind of cult classic and there's strong
               | evidence to suggest he knew what he was doing by making a
               | horrible movie.
        
             | NBJack wrote:
             | Stardew Valley is great. But note that the author took a
             | classic approach to solo assets and devlopment: pixel art
             | on a 2d canvas. This is a great game in a well established
             | medium, and the concept itself is part homage to Harvest
             | Moon, originally a 2d title released in 1996.
             | 
             | Contrast this with the fact that Steam is now averaging
             | about 1000 new games per month. [1] There are undoubtedly
             | some excellent games in there that haven't survived the
             | onslaught of choices. Sadly, finding them without either
             | significant marketing by the dev or the right conditions
             | makes it nearly impossible to sift out the gems from the
             | asset flips.
             | 
             | [1] https://steamdb.info/stats/releases/
        
               | brucethemoose2 wrote:
               | And yet Steam is a shining example of curation compared
               | to, say, the App Store or Google Play.
               | 
               | Excellent curation will be critical to gen AI. The window
               | for such curation to be established feels extremely
               | small, otherwise "app stores" will take hold and we will
               | end up with a sea of unnavigable spam.
        
           | throwaway287391 wrote:
           | Even assuming it's impossible for a single person to produce
           | something as good as a large team, why would this be
           | "something to be really afraid of"? There will still be
           | demand for high-quality films -- why wouldn't that demand
           | continue to be met? It's been the status quo for at least a
           | decade that one "normal person" can make and publish a
           | "movie" (e.g. filming something on their phone and posting it
           | on YouTube), and yet Hollywood somehow hasn't been upended.
        
         | rossjudson wrote:
         | I think you'll see that high production quality becomes more
         | accessible, while content quality remains as elusive as it has
         | ever been...
         | 
         | Unless you can successfully train the population to equate
         | content quality with production values.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | cdchn wrote:
       | All of the source videos that have people's faces seem to be
       | blurred. Are they blurred before transforming or do they blur it
       | just to post the samples on their web page?
        
         | AbrahamParangi wrote:
         | The latter, presumably they didn't ask.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | capableweb wrote:
       | Interesting enough ByteDance (TikTok/Douyin) seems to be behind
       | it.
        
         | ipsum2 wrote:
         | ByteDance does a lot of ML research on music/video.
        
           | danielbln wrote:
           | Their video editor CapCut is really good.
        
             | simlevesque wrote:
             | Their multi-object tracker ByteTrack is also one of the
             | best available.
        
         | xnx wrote:
         | Coming soon to TikTok filters (if it doesn't already play a
         | role in some of them)
        
       | aantix wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
       | Timon3 wrote:
       | It's crazy how consistent the Shutterstock logo is in the
       | outpainted examples.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | jjcm wrote:
         | Seems like it's reversed along the Y axis as well? I'm curious
         | what led to that. The nefarious side of my brain say it was a
         | very basic attempt at making the source training data less
         | immediately recognizable in any generated output, but I do
         | wonder if there's a more innocent explanation.
        
           | gs17 wrote:
           | A "more innocent explanation" could simply be data
           | augmentation. It seems pretty clear they don't care that it's
           | obviously using watermarked Shutterstock videos.
        
       | brink wrote:
       | Kendrick Lamar: "I'm so sick and tired of the Photoshop"
       | 
       | Who actually wants to look at this? It's a neat trick, but I
       | greatly prefer to look at what's real, and I imagine most people
       | outside of this AI hype bubble do too. It's implied that the
       | stable diffusion here is making the video better, but by most
       | definitions of the word "better", it's not.
        
       | htrp wrote:
       | Looks like its building on the same concepts as stable video.
       | 
       | https://github.com/rese1f/StableVideo
        
       | dylan604 wrote:
       | what would happen if they didn't say "pretty girl"?
        
         | pridkett wrote:
         | I'm disappointed that all of their examples of humans are "a
         | pretty girl". Yeah, I get that people use generative models for
         | that, but there's a lot more you can do.
        
           | phren0logy wrote:
           | They seem to have thrown a few "handsome man" examples in
           | there, too.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | That's not the point though. To me, it reeks of a bunch of
             | dude bros. I'm guessing they can't say "a hot chick"
             | otherwise the LLM would show a baby chicken on fire or at
             | least sweating in front of a fan??? Does "hot chick" even
             | translate to Chinese well?
             | 
             | It's the fact that they felt the need to use "pretty"
             | instead of just "girl" or young woman.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | xnx wrote:
       | This looks like a nice improvement on current video to video
       | techniques: https://stable-diffusion-art.com/video-to-video/
        
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       (page generated 2023-08-29 23:00 UTC)