Fellow videographers, whether you're a professional or a hobbyist, this post is for you, if only just to discover something amazing: let's talk about Runway ML. Before I start, I just want to say that Runway ML is not sponsoring this at all, this is just my own honest opinion.
This online app using artificial intelligence and machine learning (hence ML) to make video processing easier than you could ever imagine. There are different features available (and more coming) that I encourage you to go check out, but today I wanted to focus on how they can help you do green screen work and rotoscope elements in your scene in just a few clicks.
First, you'll need to create an account. Fortunately, they have a free plan, so all you need is an email address and you're all set to try it out. If you're convinced by the free plan you can upgrade to the Creator Plan for $28/month, giving you access to more features and HD/4K exports, but the free plan is perfectly fine to start playing around with it.
Once your account is created, you'll be able to access the app on app.runwayml.com, where all the magic happens. There, you'll have to select Green Screen in the menu and then upload your own footage, or use stock footage that's available straight from within the app.
Once your clip is loaded, you'll see a timeline, as shown below, and there you can start rotoscoping. You have to choose if you want to include or exclude an element, tell the software if said element is situated on the foreground or the background, and then click on the element. Just one click is enough and, after a few seconds, you should see this (click the gif to play it):
Your element is rotoscoped. It's not always perfect on the first try, but I'd say that 99% of the work is done. And then you can click on parts the AI missed (like the feet in this example) to add it to the key.
I can already hear you telling me "well that's nice Pierre, but it's just one frame of my clip, it's gonna be annoying to have to do that for every frame". To which I shall reply: now, click on the "Preview" button (on the bottom left), as shown in this gif:
As you can see, it took the app less than 10 seconds to rotoscope that whole clip, applying the mask to every frame, when it would take a human hours to do it by hand. This tool is insane, and even if it does not do a perfect work, it makes your life so much easier when all you have to do is fine-tune a couple frames here and there.
Once you're happy with your keying, you can export your file however you please: with a single-colored background, if you're going to key it out/fix it later on your editing software, with another video as a background if you want to do the whole edit on the app, or you can choose to export only the alpha channel if you're satisfied with the rotoscoping result.
The free plan only allows for 640x360 exports, but it's a good start if you just want to try it out before deciding to pay for the Creator plan or not.
So it's free, it's all in-browser, meaning you don't need to install anything, and it works beautifully to help us editors achieve one of the most tedious tasks of our job, so what's not to love?
Until next time, stay creative! See you!
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Thumbnail credits: Photo by Dane Kelly on Unsplash
