AI Smart Mask 2.0 on stills needs improvement (add still button)...

bitman wrote on 7/3/2024, 3:57 AM

First, I am impressed by the Smart Mask 2.0, and this post is not about the result you get (good or bad), but how it treats stills. I had a 5 second still photo on the timeline, and let it process on the first frame (as all frames are the same anyway in a still). However, using the complete button, it analyzed and processed every frame in the 5 second clip which is insane (and not needed if it is a still), as it takes a very long time.

Obviously the smart mask cannot know it is a still (it is not that smart!), and as such, the behavior is to be expected.

I would suggest to add an extra button in the GUI to indicate it is a still and so all further frames do not need to be analyzed and only processed to copy the mask to all frames.

As a workaround to overcome this "time looser" I reduce the duration of the still to one frame, run the smart mask, complete it, and then increase the clip duration to the wanted duration, although it saves some time, this workaround is also not optimal.

Comments

bitman wrote on 7/6/2024, 3:29 AM

I found out that "complete masking" button does not need to be pressed if the other button "auto analyze current frame" (ticked on by default) is unticked for stills. If the auto analyze button is on and you do not press the complete masking then the timeline playback is seriously affected to the point of unusable, so you have to press the complete button which takes a long time to complete...

Solution for stills: untick auto analyze current frame and do not press the complete button, just press the button analyze current frame at one of the frames of the still clip.

Although this is a solution for stills (and not needing the workaround I described above), it still feels like a bug, as this creates a single masking keyframe (could be in the middle of the clip, depending on your cursor position), however the mask at the one keyframe is applied everywhere in the clip. I would have expected it to "flip" into the mask at the keyframe only... I do not know if this is intended behavior or if it is still a bug, maybe the developers @VEGASDerek could enlighten me?