AI is real, and it’s here to exist and develop, whether we like it or not. When it became mainstream a few years ago, I was just as skeptical of the technology as you. Is it going to replace us? What will the animation industry look like as these tools get more advanced? These were the questions we all asked ourselves.
Now, some of these questions still lurk around in some corner of my mind, and maybe yours too, and they are genuine. But at the moment we are talking, AI is still just another extension of your team that makes your life much easier, especially when it comes to video editing… and I’m liking it so far.
If you think you’re in the same boat as me, I’ll highly recommend sticking around for a few minutes. Why? Because today, I am going to share with you a bunch of AI tools that can completely transform how your video production pipeline works. Caution: you won’t be going back once you try them!
The Best AI Tools to Transform Your Video Production Pipeline
1) Adobe Premiere Pro – AI Features
Adobe Premiere Pro has always been the standard software for high-end video production. And why not! The convenience it offered for those into video production has always been top-notch. But what Adobe has done by introducing brand-new AI features to the software is truly next level. Let’s break down each of those in easy terms:
- Text-based editing: The brand new text-based editing turns your video into a giant word document (not literally) through auto-transcription. So if you need to cut a part from the video, all you need to do is just remove the particular text, and it’s gone. No clipping and dragging anymore.
- Generative extend: You also get a generative extend feature, which basically generates extra visuals and sounds to make a clip longer if it feels too short. This feature is especially beneficial when your transitions feel rushed, and you want your clip to last a little longer to make things smooth.
- Media intelligence search: Another great feature is the media intelligence search that enables you to find the exact clip through just a simple description. This means you won’t have to sift through hundreds of clips to find what you’re looking for.
- Other Features: Other than that, Adobe Premiere Pro also offers a bunch of other good features like object masking, autocaptions, and remixes, cutting a lot of effort you would otherwise have to put into these tasks in post production. Your work gets much easier.
Pros
- Strong built-in AI
- Cuts down on assistant-level work
Cons
- Many features are in beta.
- Requires advanced skills for proper utilization
2) Adobe After Effects – AI Features
Just like Premier Pro, Adobe has also introduced a bunch of new AI features to Adobe After Effects as well to help you apply visual effects to your video as effectively. Let’s have a sneak peek at some of the most important ones to give you an idea:
- Next Gen Roto Brush 3: Manual rotoscoping used to be a headache. You had to trace each object frame by frame, do hours of cleanup, and manually correct hundreds of things before you were done with the job…it was nothing less than hours of torture. Roto Brush 3 turns these hours of labor to just a matter of a few clicks.
- Content-Aware Fill for Video: If you have used a Google Pixel phone, you’d know how easily you can remove an unwanted object and fill up the space seamlessly with the help of AI. The content-aware fill feature is just that, but for videos.
Pros
- Saves hours of time on roto and cleanup
- Makes simple fixes super easy
Cons
- Eats a lot of GPU and RAM
3) DaVinci Resolve – DaVinci Neural Engine
While Adobe still remains the premiere video editing and polishing software, DaVinci Resolve is quickly catching up as a more powerful and affordable alternative for video editors. That stands true for the AI features as well, thanks to the powerful DaVinci Neural Engine. Let’s have a look at some top-of-the-line AI features that DaVinci Resolve has to offer:
- Magic Mask: The magic mask helps you find a particular object or person within the video and track it across the whole clip, and then edit the color and brightness of that object or person alone. You can also add VFX to enhance your video.
- Person Mask: It’s more like the Roto Brush from Adobe After Effects, but on steroids. The matter of the person is cleaner, more dynamic, and super sharp. You can use this feature to change the background, adjust lighting, or add effects to a particular person alone.
- Face Recognition: When you go to your iPhone gallery, you see the pictures sorted in the library by different people’s faces to quickly find pictures where that person appears. Face recognition in DaVinci Resolve is just the same. The only difference is, it helps you find clips and instances where the particular person appears.
- Speed Warp: If your original video wasn’t shot in slow motion, it might become choppy or blurry if you slow it down. Speed Warp solves this problem, and smoothens up the slow motion by adding new in-between frames, making the transition seamless.
Pros
- Highly efficient for grading and finishing
- Excellent for color pipelines in videos
Cons
- Not for beginners at all
- Limited third party plugin support
4) Colorlab AI (plugin for Premiere, FCP, Resolve, and others)
If you thought the simple Colourlab AI plugin was awesome, wait till you use the latest version of it. It has the same AI capabilities, but with more finesse and much more speed and power than before.
- AI Matching Engine: Have you ever watched a scene from a movie and imagined how great it would be to have your video look just like that? Well, the AI Matching Engine lets you do just that, analyzing the color, contrast, and lighting of any reference image or footage you give it. The best thing is, it doesn’t require the cloud and does it on the device.
What does that mean for you? Well, you save hours of color grading, and the edited version of the video is sent back directly to your Final Cut Pro, Premiere, or DaVinci Resolve for final touches.
Pros
- Fast grading, consistent look across every frame
- Works with many editing software
- Great for multi-camera shots
Cons
- Requires another app and plugin to maintain
5) LTX Studio
Wouldn’t it be awesome if you had a tool that could make storyboards while also being able to generate full-blown videos from text and images equally well? LTX Studio is just something you would love. The tool has the capability too:
- Create Storyboards: It’s simple! You type the scene you have in your mind as clearly as possible, and LTX Studio makes it for you just the way you imagined it…or close. You can save hours of manual work that you can put into other parts of the production.
- AI Movie Maker: While not super advanced, LTX Studio can efficiently make cinematic shots from your text instructions, making the exact camera angles, lighting, and pacing as you want it. This could be a game changer for you to actually visualize your concepts before moving to production.
Pros
- You can quickly visualize screen flow, camera angles, and tone before production.
- Perfect for planning stages to create rough scenes
Cons
- Still needs a human touch in post-production (if the production is wholly AI)
- Requires an export pipeline like other generative AI tools
6) Topaz Video
Topaz Video (by Topaz Labs) is a post-production wizard with deep learning capabilities to fix, clean, and improve your video quality unlike any tool in the list. It’s especially great for polishing low-quality, old footage to make it ready for use in your videos. For context, Topaz Video can:
- Sharpen: Do the objects in your video seem blurry? Great! Topaz Video can sharpen up each and every detail in the video to restore all those defined edges, making it super sharp.
- Denoise: Rather than you spending hours on restoring grainy footage, Topaz does it for you in just a few minutes. That too, without destroying any detail.
- De-artifact: Sometimes, those weird color patches could really make the footage look ugly when compressed. This tool efficiently deals with it, fixing all the ugly artifacts.
- Upscale: Not really one of the tool’s greatest strengths. But when required, Topaz can upscale any image or footage to improve its quality by adding a little more detail.
Pros
- Excellent at restoring footage
- A common tool for video remaster
Cons
- Can create extra clean, artificial-looking footage sometimes if overused
7) ElevenLabs
Do you know there’s an AI tool that can mimic anyone’s voice, can talk in many languages, and could potentially solve your voice-over problem forever? Well, ElevenLabs is just that: a multilingual text-to-speech and AI dubbing software that supports dubbing in up to 32 different languages to cater to your voiceover needs. One feature we frequently use at Kasra Design® is the “Change Voice” feature. It does an amazing job of recreating your original voice over exactly as it was recorded. Same pace. Same emotions. Same pauses. It is extremely helpful when a voice over is already synced to a video and needs updating. You do not need to re-sync the video. How cool is that!
If used wisely and within the restrictions set by the law, ElevenLabs could solve your voiceover problem forever. However, keep in mind that where advanced voiceover is needed to make for a script that’s expressive, real voiceover artists would still be a better choice.
Pros
- Powerful dubbing capabilities in numerous languages
- Could be a great choice for temp VO and animatics
Cons
- You’ll need strict consent and rights handling if you want to use known voices.
- The voiceover can be a little flat when it comes to conveying emotions.
8) Runway (Gen-4 / Gen-4.5 text-to-video and edit)
Runway is a generative AI model (and an AI tool) that helps you make a video from text, image, or footage in your desired format and animation type. Here’s how Runway AI does it for you:
- Gen-4 and Gen-4.5 Models: These are actually the base models that drive the video generation of the software from text, image, and video. The tool has an amazing temporal consistency, making sure your characters stay consistent throughout the video, with the same clothes, background, and motion.
- Aleph: Aleph lets you edit parts of a video, extend or regenerate them, and even apply transformations to them using the original clip itself as the context. The benefit? Well, you can comfortably apply edits that are context-aware and realistic, helping you preserve the original motion and structure of a particular shot. Plus, you have much better control over what the tool generates since you won’t be relying solely on text prompts, resulting in fewer failed generations.
- Act Two: You can provide Act Two with a real performance video along with a character reference, and Act Two transfers all the movements and expressions of the performance video to that character. As a result, the facial expressions are more natural, and the body movements are anatomically accurate, much like a real human.
Pros
- An awesome tool for previs and concept shots
- Could be used for experimental sequences before full-blown production
Cons
- Still faces issues in creating long, complex scenes
- Needs compositing for final delivery, like any other AI-generated footage
Wrapping Up
Well, there are many tools in the market right now that I probably missed and should have included in the list. But the ones here are some of my personal favorites that we consistently use to power our own video production pipeline.
Including these AI tools in your video production will not just help you cut costs and save a lot of time but also make sure you give the best possible output to your clients. In fact, some of these tools even let you know how your video looks even before it gets to the actual production.
In other words you can make the necessary corrections beforehand, so when the video is produced, there’s less back and forth, saving you time that would otherwise be wasted on revisions and repetitions. Which tool intrigued you the most? Do let me know. Good luck!
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