How To Prepare Your Media for a Vub
Learn how to prepare your source media and driving data before you start vubbing.
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 good Source Media
- What makes appropriate Driving Data
- How to make sure the two work well together
What makes good Source Media?
1. The Source Media should be a single shot with no black frames - i.e. 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 |
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 that contains the actor speaking with mouth interior visible.
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.
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 only 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.
When using audio driving data, make sure it 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.
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.
QUICK TIP: Solo the driving data audio and cover the bottom half of the actor's face in the source with your hand. Loop the playback and see if you’re convinced the actor is saying the new dialogue.
When you're satisfied with the alignment, export your Driving Data file.
IMPORTANT: Make sure your Driving Data has the same frame count and frame rate as your Source Media.