We have compiled a list of the most useful and promising AI-based programs that will definitely be useful for content creators and online marketers. We have tested many of them and we will tell you if they really deserve attention.
1. Runway
Runway combines all the most necessary video editing tools that moneymakers often need. Runway tools are based on AI and allow you to edit videos easily and efficiently in minutes. The service is available in the browser, and only registration is required to get started.
You can create 3 projects for free in Runway; afterward, you will need to subscribe. The "Pro" subscription costs $12 per month for unlimited projects and the ability to edit 1080p and 4k videos. There's also a Team subscription for $28 a month that can be used by multiple people.
The Runway developers on the site's homepage claim that their tools allow you to remove the background from a video, remove a selection from a video, and track a moving object. For the test, we use a simple dog video to test all the features:
First of all, we will test the "Green Screen" function, which removes the background. The editing mechanism is simple: upload a video for editing and wait for it to be processed. Usually, it takes about 3-5 minutes. Then click on the object to select it and keep it in the frame.
The selection has gone beyond the object, and therefore, we switch the highlighter from the include (including) mode to the exclude (excluding) mode in the panel on the right:
Select the areas that have gone beyond the object and get the perfect selection:
Next, save the project and download it on the main page in the maximum resolution for the free version of 720p. This resulted in the following video:
The result can be called good, and most importantly, it is easy to achieve. Plus, you won't have to worry about the video quality taking a hit at all.
Now let's try to remove the object in the video without losing its meaning using the "Inpainting" function. We decided to remove the human hand and see if the image would suffer from this.
To make it as simple as possible, you need to select the object or group of objects that you want to remove and wait for the video to be processed:
At the same time, we removed the TikTok icon, and this is what happened in the end:
Removing the hand smeared the picture, and now the video looks weird. The conclusion can be drawn as follows: the function will be good on a static video or on a moving one but with a solid background. This is useful when editing video, where the camera still captures the process of creating something. In complex moving videos, it will not be possible to remove large objects without a trace. However, the TikTok icon turned out to be removed imperceptibly. This will be useful when re-uploading other people's videos - you can easily remove unwanted watermarks.
2. DeOldify
If you need to colorize a black-and-white old video or photo, then the DeOldify AI is perfect for this. You can colorize only short videos, and if the video is long, then it needs to be divided into parts. The video must be uploaded to YouTube - it will not work to upload from a computer, it is only available for photos.
The program is available online in a browser, but you can download the open-source code. You can edit the photo in the online version at this link, and the video here. To begin with, we tried to restore the color on one old photo with children and a dog, and this is what happened after a couple of seconds:
The result is really magical, the colors are chosen very accurately, and all this is thanks to a trained AI. In order to process a photo, you must first log in - this is required by the My Heritage website. Photo editing is completely free and unlimited. The same can be done with video, and the result will be of the same quality.
Here is an example of a YouTube user coloring in an old video of the 1928 flight of the German airship Graf Zeppelin:
3. CogVideo
Chinese experts have created an AI that generates short videos on a text request. At the output, the model produces a four-second GIF of 32 frames. The developers noted that the actual text input for video generation is in Chinese.
At the moment, you can fully use the AI by installing the program from GitHub. This requires knowledge of programming. There is a demo available online. The functions there are limited, but you can see how the AI works as a whole. We have generated several examples for the following queries:
- An angry woman in a red dress:
- A person rides a bicycle in snowy weather:
The program is promising and will be useful when you need to create the perfect GIF for text. We hope that CogVideo will be fully available online for everyone.
4. Dain App
We talked about Dain-App in a recent article about AI, but today we will delve into the principle of operation and show the results. Dain-App works on the basis of artificial intelligence and is able to significantly increase the fps in the video. The AI itself determines the trajectory of the object and reliably completes the missing frames. Dain-App is a completely free program, for NVIDIA you can download it here.
Here is a YouTube user who increased the fps in a video from 10 to 60 using Dain-App and it looks super high quality.
Now let's move on to the settings and talk about the most important points of working in Dain-App. It’s worth starting with the fact that before work, you should restart your computer and do not open anything other than Dain-App.
Then you need to open this file:
Next, in the program itself, select the desired video, where to save the file, and start the process (by default, it doubles the FPS).
If an error occurs, as in the screenshot below, this indicates that there is not enough video memory.
The error is solved simply: go to the settings shown below and reduce the video resolution. This must be done before starting the process:
With this configuration, the allowed video height is 600 pixels. This guide should help you get started with Dain-App and we hope you found it helpful. To sum up, Dain App is an amazing and very useful program for those who are involved in video editing.
5. Unscreen
Unscreen is an online service that removes the background from a video in a couple of clicks. Unscreen is powered by AI (Artificial Intelligence) and therefore instantly and accurately recognizes the main subject and background, making it pleasant and easy to use. Unlike Runway, the user does not even need to select an object - the program does everything itself.
The service is completely free and available in the browser, but there is also a "Pro" version for €9 per month. For the "Pro" version, the resolution is Full HD, there are no restrictions on the length of the video, there is no watermark, and there is sound support. For the test, we took a clip from a YouTube video about applying makeup to see how well the AI detects a person:
After selecting the file, the problems started:
The video loaded up to 50%, and then the site gave an error:
The problem was related to the VPN, changing its video was processed without problems and loaded in a few seconds. Here is the finished result:
6. Topaz Video Enhance AI
Topaz Video Enhance AI is a paid application for Windows and MacOS that upscales video resolution up to 8K with quality enhancement. It is as easy and comfortable as possible to work in it, and the result is obtained quickly and efficiently. It only takes three steps to enhance a video: open the video, select the options you want, and save the video.
In the "Processing" section, you can select one of six AI models that will process the video. "Setting" is responsible for the quality of the output video. You can choose a resolution as a percentage, enter your own, or choose values up to 8K.
In the "Format" section, you need to select the output file format and the save path. Additionally, you can trim the video and select the graphics card you will work with.
But all this is only in theory and based on what is written in the program. In fact, everything is more complicated, since the result depends on the power of the computer. Even from a ten-second video, making a masterpiece in 8K will not work if the hardware is weak. On a computer with an Intel Core i7 and 32 GB of RAM, it was not possible to increase the resolution to 1080p. The process either did not start at all or moved very slowly.
A YouTube user tested Topaz Video Enhance AI and observed how the frame from the video changed: After the improvement, the face began to look strange and unnaturally smooth and blurry. If you look at the surrounding details, they definitely began to look better.
It might make sense to use this program to enhance videos with nature, technology, and anything but human faces. As mentioned earlier, the program is paid and usually costs $299, but currently, there is a promotion on the official website where it is available for $159.
7. Instant NeRF
Instant NeRF is an AI technology from NVIDIA studio that turns 2D images into short 3D videos. In other words, AI brings the picture to life and shows the object from all sides. In this way, you can create videos of the streets or simulate filming from a drone, as the users in the video below did:
In order to create a 3D video, you need to shoot the object from different angles and feed the photos to the AI. With the help of AI, Instant NeRF fills in the missing data and trains the AI model to recreate the 3D scene. Instant NeRF determines the direction of light from any point in 3D space, due to which the result is as realistic and reliable as possible.
Online use of AI technology will not work, but it is available in the public domain in the form of a code. The developers have even created a user guide to help get started. Of course, for this, you need to have minimal programming skills — without them, nothing will work.
8. Stable Diffusion
The Stable Diffusion AI can generate not only images but also animations. This feature has appeared relatively recently but already produces impressive results that astound the imagination. Animation is created based on a text description and consists of a sequence of individually generated images smoothly transitioning into one another. The video below took approximately 30 minutes to generate.
Also, in Stable Diffusion, you can enhance images and create seamless animations from two photos.
Essentially, this feature is similar to what the Dain App and Instant NeRF offer, but it does not require a separate program. You can bring not only short videos to life. From a large number of frames, you can create a long, seamless video of high quality.
You can download the program for free on GitHub by clicking on the link in the header, and you can see detailed instructions for creating animation here. The largest and most detailed version of Stable Diffusion for animation is Deforum Stable Diffusion V0.4. It contains a huge number of settings, each of which will help to achieve the ideal result when generating.
The only problem is that in order to understand these settings, it can take a lot of time and effort. Even if you understand the settings, it will be difficult to predict the final result - the settings behave differently in combination with each other. At first, everything will seem chaotic and very complicated, but you need not be afraid, and then everything will definitely work out.
Here is a video tutorial that will help you understand the settings of Deforum Stable Diffusion and will be useful at the beginning of the journey.
9. Phenaki by Google
The Phenaki AI from Google is capable of generating videos on a text request up to several minutes long, unlike CodVideo. At the same time, the connection between frames is not lost and, in general, the video looks pretty stable.
The downside of AI is that the results are small and of poor quality compared to other similar programs.
Phenaki works on a deep learning model to convert text tokens, such as phrases or words, into video tokens. The model uses an autoregressive approach where the video is built over time as each text clue corresponds to a scene in the video's story. This allows you to create dynamically changing scenes, which was not previously possible for any AI to generate video. That is why Phenaki is called a breakthrough in the field of AI.
At the moment, the AI is being finalized and all you can do is look at examples of its creations on the official website.
Conclusion
AI programs really speed up the work and improve the quality of the result, but, unfortunately, there are difficulties in using most programs. 5 out of 7 programs reviewed in today's review require programming skills and a very powerful PC. Plus, the result does not always turn out the way we would like.
Nevertheless, many of these programs and services are unique, and therefore they will be useful to those involved in video editing. We hope that in the future the use of these programs will become accessible, understandable, and simple for all users.
