Project Blink is now live, and you can sign up to try it out
(Image credit: Adobe)
If you're working with video professionally, you'll need to master the best video editing software, which will most likely be either Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro. But if you're a total newbie at video editing, you may have found these sophisticated tools a little baffling. And even if you're an old hand, you may still find their busy interfaces and complex menu structures a bit of a drag, when you just want to make a few quick edits to a video.
Should either of these things apply to you, then a groundbreaking new Adobe tool could be the answer to your prayers. Because it allows you to edit a video in a super-easy way: just by typing!
Project Blink was announced last night as part of Adobe Max 2022 annual Sneaks event, where the company showcases experimental new software that it's working on. But unlike the other tools it mentioned during Sneaks, this one is actually live already, albeit on an invite-only basis. Read on as we explain what it has to offer.
How it works
(Image credit: Adobe)
In last night's demo, Adobe's Mira Dontcheva uploaded a video of a conference talk to the new software, and showed how you could identify a specific section of video simply by typing words into a search box.
You can search for specific words spoken in the video. You can search for a specific object (such as 'backpack') that appear on screen. You can search for specific sounds (such as clapping or music), or types of activities that take place in the video. You can search for text that appears on camera (in this case, words projected on a wall). The AI also pulls out specific faces from the video, so you can click on them to select the sections in which they appear. You get the idea.
Once you've found the section of the video you're interested in, you can then tell the AI to automatically transform it into a new clip. The software figures out where the in and out points should be, so they seem natural. You can then continue to tweak the clip, just by typing. For example, in the demo Mira showed how you could remove the clapping at the end of a speech.
(Image credit: Adobe)
And hey presto: you've done some video editing, without having to mess around with timelines or any complicated tools. As Mira put it: "Editing video with project blink is just like editing text: you copy, you paste, you delete... that's it."
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There are clearly still some kinks to be ironed out; in the demo, Mira had to reboot at one point because it clearly wasn't working. But Adobe is keen for people to give it a try now and provide feedback. So if you need to take highlights from a long video and turn them into clips, such as for social media, we'd encourage you to give it a go. You can sign up for access to Project Blink at Adobe Labs today.
Project Instant Add
(Image credit: Adobe)
Project Blink wasn't the only 'sneak peek' Adobe was giving video creators last night. We also saw a demo of a forthcoming feature dubbed Project Instant Add. This simplifies the typically complex and time-consuming process of adding VFX effects in post-production by using AI to automatically map graphics to the chosen element in a video.
We were shown the example of a young man dancing on a rooftop. Using drag and drop, a logo was added to his hoodie, which then moved naturally with the fabric in a way that you couldn't see the join. Big, bold type and some other graphics were then dragged-and-dropped in behind the dancer, and again the AI did its job, adjusting their appearance in tandem with the movements of the camera.
It all looks pretty intuitive and the results were very impressive. We should add, though, that unlike Project Blink, there's no date for the release of Project Instant Add and it's very much still a work-in-progress.
To see all the forthcoming features demoed last night, you can watch the full Sneaks session in the video below.
Tom May is a freelance writer and editor specializing in art, photography, design and travel. He has been editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. He has also worked for a wide range of mainstream titles including The Sun, Radio Times, NME, T3, Heat, Company and Bella.
