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Blackmagic’s ATEM Mini brings broadcast quality to your YouTube and Twitch streams
If you livestream on Twitch or YouTube, you may have thought about getting a multi-camera switcher to boost your production values. The problem is devices that can handle that while doing picture-in-picture and other effects can cost up to a grand. However, Blackmagic Design's ATEM Mini is a four-input switcher that can handle transitions, picture-in-picture, pro-level audio control and more for just $295. As a video editor, I was intrigued. Blackmagic Design sells other ATEM-branded video switchers that cost 10 times that price, yet it promises much of the same capability in a far tinier, cheaper package. It seemed too good to be true, so I decided to test it out by simulating a game stream with multiple cameras.
Apple bought real-time video editing startup to boost its AR push
Apple has doubled down on AR by acquiring Danish machine learning company Spektral, whose software erases backgrounds from videos instantly. The purchase remained quiet until Danish newspaper Børsen broke the news today. Fortune notes that the deal closed in December 2017 for a cool $30 million.
YouTube is replacing the green screen with an AI tool
Google is bringing pro-level video-editing techniques to your phone. The search juggernaut is using AI and machine learning (naturally) to make replacing the background of video you take as easy as adding an Instagram filter to a photo. There's a lot of technical jargon explaining how it all works at the source link, but suffice to say, based on the results it looks pretty convincing. All without the need for an elaborate green screen setup, too.
Lytro's first pro movie camera is designed for visual effects magic
While there are plenty of advanced digital movie cameras, most of them aren't really designed for the modern realities of movie making, where computer-generated effects are seemingly ubiquitous. You'll still have to bust out the green screen if you want to put those real actors in a digital world. Lytro might have a better way, though. It's introducing the Lytro Cinema, a movie camera built with digital effects in mind. Since Lytro's light field technology captures a massive, 3D picture of the environment (755 RAW megapixels at up to 300FPS), you might never need a green screen again -- you can accurately determine the objects you want to keep in a given scene.
The Xbox One's built-in video editor just got a lot more powerful
Microsoft has been touting its Upload Studio since before the Xbox One launched, but until now, the video editing suite only offered a few options for gamers. Now its first major update is bringing a ton of new features -- it can splice together recordings to run for up to 30 minutes, drop in text overlays and toss in tons of new effects and transitions including many styled for games like Forza Horizon, Halo and Call of Duty. The biggest change, however, may be the ability for players use the Kinect camera to drop themselves into the video, using green screen effects without the need for an actual green screen backdrop. According to Major Nelson, the system can see your body and pick it out of the background, but we've seen enough camera glitches and voice commands missed to be skeptical until more people have tried it out. There's a demo video laying out the new Upload Studio experience embedded after the break (plus a clip I tossed together with the new tools), and if you have an Xbox One the update should be live right now for you to try out.
Kinect for Windows SDK update lets developers add green screen effects
Kinect for Windows developers can now get a little more creative: Microsoft has released version 1.8 of the camera's SDK, which lets app creators produce a green screen effect by removing the background. The update also brings a new Kinect Fusion API that scans the color of an object in addition to its shape, saving some 3D modelers the trouble of creating a separate texture map. There's better scene tracking and more code samples, too. Programmers who crave the new software tricks can grab the refreshed SDK and its companion tools at the source links.
Stop-motion music video relies on OpenOffice and Excel, finds formula for success (video)
It's already considered a grind to produce stop-motion video -- imagine creating a clip using the spreadsheet app that many dread seeing at work every morning. Joe Penna, better known to the internet as Mystery Guitar Man, isn't afraid. He and his team recorded a performance against a greenscreen, gave the video a mosaic look in After Effects and proceeded to recreate 730 of the frames in OpenOffice (and occasionally Excel)... by hand. We don't want to know how long it took Penna and crew to wrap up their work, but the result is probably the liveliest you'll ever get out of an app meant for invoices and corporate expenses. The fully produced video is above; click past the story break if you want to smash illusions and see how the pixelated rumba came to be.
Avatar special edition takes another dip on iTunes Tuesday, brings exclusive extras
If you've made the switch to watching movies delivered via the internet instead of disc, one of the things that you'll usually give up is interactive special features, but Fox is turning that trend around with its latest repackaging of Avatar. The iTunes Extras Special Edition of the movie goes on sale Tuesday and includes "Green Screen X-Ray" features letting viewers deconstruct the extensive special effects during 17 scenes as they watch, as well as an original screenplay from director James Cameron, his scriptment, and a gallery of 1,700 images. You can get an idea of how the X-ray feature works from the images here and a trailer (included after the break), but at $20 for an HD copy, we figure it will be just the most dedicated fans taking a trip back to Pandora before the 3D Blu-ray is freed from exclusivity next year.
Sin City Recut, Extended and Unrated Blu-ray special features previewed
A highly stylized flick like Sin City is sure to look great in high definition, so you're probably already planning to grab when it the Recut, Extended and Unrated version hits Blu-ray this week. For those who can't wait or are on the fence, MovieWeb has this quick snippet (embedded after the break) of Cine-Explore Bonus View special footage from the home version that shows off how the special effects were done while the movie plays on in the background. Other than that, the disc packs a couple commentary tracks, a 5.1 audio track including audience reaction (apparently so you can pretend you're at one of those movie theaters you no longer go to) and an interactive comic book.
Found Footage: Colbert + iPod
Some of you may be aware that Stephen Colbert, the holder of the Truthiness, is having a green screen contest. The above video is one entrant into the contest (though the videos are supposed to feature Stephen fighting an alien, we here at TUAW cast our vote for this one).[via TVSquad]
ChatFX - video effects within iChat
ChatFX can bring some fun to your iChat video conferences by adding quirky video effects; basically it's like Apple's Photo Booth for iChat. Using the power of Quartz Composer (built into Mac OS X 10.4), ChatFX can apply eight different effects to your video conference in real time, including a green-screen effect for that perfect "sure, I'm still at school/the office" cover story. Using the green screen, you can even place a movie in the background - the sky's the limit with that feature.ChatFX offers a demo download and sells for $20.
