Postproduction in times of AI: Tools ... and extinction?

In this tribune, Fran Porras, VFX supervisor of the study of visual effects Dare Planet, reflect on the growing use of AI (artificial intelligence) in postproduction processes and how this phenomenon is modifying the industry.

It is said that when Phil Tippett, responsible for the practical effects of Jurassic Park, he observed the computer generated dinosaurs that ILM had developed for the film, it was right to tell its director, Steven Spielberg: "I just extinguished”.

The audiovisual industry has lived All kinds of transformations And in his genetic memory is knowing how to adapt and overcome the challenges he has faced. We reached 2024 with an expected agreement between the actors union (SAG-AFTRA) and the Producers Alliance (AMPTP) that has paralyzed the productions 118 days and that, among other requests, demanded Protection against the rise of artificial intelligence. These measures, far from an anecdotal, evidence a short -term scenario (if not imminent), in which even the image of the actors and their voice will be easily replicable Thanks to technologies based on generative artificial intelligence.

Cinematographic postproduction and visual effects industry are part of that threat; being in turn, one of the sectors most vulnerable to change. We are facing a technological migration on whose scope we can only speculate, but whose results are already underway. On the table is the debate on whether these tools come to do our work easier, or if are part of an "extinction" announced.

AI tools already applied in the VFX world

According to analysts of Goldman Sach, Artificial intelligence -based technology could expose the equivalent to automation to automation 300 million jobs, although most jobs and industries would be only partially exposed to this change. More than a replacement, we would be talking about complementation. Those who work in front of the computer by processing frames, We have been living with some of these tools for months, and we are already clear that they have come to stay. That the big software developers such as Foundry or Adobe are developing and implementing tools based on AI in image composition and editing programs, supports the speech that the people involved in these processes will not be replaced by machines, since That would go against your business model. Today, tools like "Copycat" of Nuke are being applied successfully in those repetitive tasks in which the Tool training compensates for the volume of plans to which a certain effect must be applied. The tools Mattes extraction, they continue to evolve and although they promise to lighten entire days of rotoscopy, today, they still do not compensate for the virtues of planting a good chroma. In this aspect, and in order to satisfy the curiosity of an important part of the readers, I fear that these advances They are not being reflected in the budgets (moment).

Those who work in front of ordinator processing frames, We have been living with some of these tools for months, and we are already clear that they have come to stay.

The most disruptive aspect that this technology poses in our industry has to do with the Artistic nature of many of the tasks associated with visual effects. Artificial image generation intelligence tools through text, or through image such as Midjourney, Pika, Krea O Stable DiffusionThey offer the possibility of generating images of great realism through a duly formulated description. While it is true that these processes require a specialized profile that is understood with the tool, and that it is able to take the result to a specific narrative, artistic execution is relegated to the background. The mastery with the pencil in the elaboration of a conceptual design or of a “Mattepaint” is no longer so indispensable, such as knowing and developing with each and every one of the tools that appear daily in the market. For some, it will mean a democratization of processes, others may feel it as the death of art; But, above that, there will always be A person specialized in the process.

As if that were not enough, if an advantage has this technology, it is its Scalability. Today you can access it and obtain great results both at the user level making use of a personal computer, as in the largest audiovisual scales. Differentiate will become one of the biggest challenges of sector.

The AI, reflection of the sign of the times

In his famous essay "The work of art at the time of its technical reproducibility" (1936), Walter Benjamin He said: "The cinema is not only characterized by the way man is presented to the device, but also by how with this the world is represented around."

The cine, as an artistic expression tool, It is still a reflection of the world in which we live. And yes: this is going to be the century of artificial intelligences, automation and democratization of talent.

Surely Benjamin did not have in mind the scope that the Technology would have in the way we perceive and represent the world. The way in which one Artificial intelligence It generates a work of art, directly, it would disassemble its concept of the aura. More successful is this last mention to how cinema, as an artistic expression tool, It is still a reflection of the world in which we live. And yes: this is going to be the century of artificial intelligences, automation and democratization of talent.