Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1513434
30 cgw o c t o b e r • n o v e m b e r • d e c e m b e r 2 0 2 3 A t Blackmagic Design, our company philosophy includes help- ing true creativity blossom, and our approach to articial in- telligence (AI) is simply that. We view AI as a tool that can help creators, whether they be VFX artists, editors, colorists, sound engineers, or all of the above, save valuable time so they can invest themselves elsewhere in their creative process. While AI has been a hot topic this year, it's been part of the foun- dation of DaVinci Resolve Studio since 2019 when we announced the DaVinci Neural Engine. This advanced system uses state-of-the-art deep neural networks and machine learning, along with AI, to power features such as SpeedWarp motion estimation for retiming, Super- Scale for up-scaling footage, and facial recognition for automatically organizing media into bins. The DaVinci Neural Engine provides simple yet powerful tools to solve complex, repetitive, and time-consuming problems. With tight deadlines, time constraints can oen be the enemy of creativity and ingenuity, so the role of AI is to help vanquish that foe. By automat- ing some of these more tedious post processes, we're able to free up time that can then be used to further develop the creative, and hopefully fun, parts of the job. Aer all, no one got into the VFX in- dustry because they wanted to spend all day sorting footage. When artists are unencumbered, new and unique ideas are allowed to ourish and drive innovation. Empowering, Not Replacing Creatives The goal of AI within both DaVinci Resolve Studio, our editing, color grading, VFX and audio post production soware, and Fusion Stu- dio, our VFX and motion graphics soware, is to allow lmmakers to work not only faster and more eciently, but also more creatively. We want AI to empower their work, not replace it. With that in mind, we recently introduced several new AI-powered features into the soware. For example, both the latest versions of Fusion Studio and Da- Vinci Resolve Studio include a native AI-based depth map tool that lets users instantly generate a 3D depth matte of a scene to quickly grade the foreground separately from the background and vice ver- sa. This allows them to quickly bring attention to action in the fore- ground, help interview subjects stand out, or add atmosphere in the background of a scene. There is a new Relight FX that allows users to add virtual light sources into scenes to creatively adjust environmental lighting, ll dark shadows, or change the mood. Light sources can be directional to cast a broad light, a point source, or a spotlight, and be adjusted for surface soness and specularity control. We also introduced new AI-powered text-based editing with au- tomated transcripts that are generated by the DaVinci Neural En- gine. The AI speech-to-text transcribe feature automatically tran- scribes video and audio clips so users can mark in and out points to edit or delete text, generate sub clips, add markers, and even remove silence. Users need to simply select the clips in the media pool and use the menus to select audio transcription and then transcribe. Moreover, users can also quickly generate subtitles with the new auto subtitle feature. For AI audio classication, the DaVinci Neural Engine can catego- rize audio clips based on their content, which makes editing choices faster when reviewing unfamiliar materials. Aer analysis, audio clips appear in collections bins for dialogue, music, and eects with de- tailed subcategories, such as explosions, water, or insects. Additionally, the new AI-based voice isolation track FX lets users remove loud, undesirable sounds from voice recordings, which is perfect for interviews and dialogue recordings from noisy locations. SPOTLIGHT CREATIVITY, TIME, AND INNOVATION: THE REAL BENEFITS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BY SARAH JONES SR. TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS SPECIALIST, BLACKMAGIC DESIGN