How To Prepare Your Media for a Vub

This article will help you choose appropriate Source Media (original shot) and Driving Data (new performance) that, when combined, will create a seamless vub.

It will cover:

• What makes an appropriate Source Media video
• What makes appropriate Driving Data
• How to make sure the two work well together

What makes an appropriate Source Media video?

1. The Source Media should be a single shot with no black frames. One continuous video clip of up to 1,440 frames (approximately 50 seconds). See more in Supported Media Formats. 

2. Choose a video that has one person in shot.

You can still work with videos that have multiple faces in the shot, but you’ll need to obscure any faces that will not be vubbed. (Support for vubbing multiple faces is coming soon!)

3. Ensure the actor’s face is clearly visible and without occlusions. The actor’s face should be:

• Fully in view, with the jaw and both eyes clearly visible
• Well lit
• Not obstructed by objects like hands, excessive make-up, etc.

	Ideal	Medium	Challenging
View and rotation	Minimal head rotation, both eyes in view	90-degree head rotation, only one eye visible	Head rotation beyond 100 degrees
Appearance	Clean shaven	Facial hair	Full beard

4. Make sure your shot includes the actor’s mouth interior

This helps DeepEditor understand how their teeth look, ensuring higher quality results. If your shot doesn’t contain a clear view of the actor’s mouth interior, consider uploading Training Data.

What makes appropriate Driving Data?

Driving Data is the new performance that you want to transfer to your Source Media. This can come from alternate takes, alternate shots, or ADR.

1. You can use video or audio as Driving Data.

If you upload a video file and it contains both video and audio, we will use the video to "copy and paste" the actor's performance onto the Source Media. The video will drive the new performance, while the audio will be the audio played in the final vub.

Do not use video of a different actor to transfer performance to the actor in your Source Media - this can lead to poor results.

If you upload audio as Driving Data, we will use that audio to generate the performance.

2. Use audio that contains only the voice of the actor you want to vub. Ensure that no other actors are speaking in the clip and there is no music or sound effects.

Make sure your Source Media and Driving Data work well together

To create a seamless vub, you need to make sure your Source Media and Driving Data work well together. This comes down to file duration and performance timing. 

Place your new audio so it matches the body language and performance of your actor.

Remember: DeepEditor doesn't decide the placement of the new audio. That's up to you. 

In your editing timeline align the new audio with the source media as accurately as you can to ensure the new audio feels well synchronised with the actor's body language. 

Then export your Driving Data, making sure it is the same frame rate and frame count/duration as your Source media.