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EbSynth - A tool for stylizing footage

DigModiFicaTion

DᴉმWoqᴉԷᴉcɑꓕᴉou
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So I was looking around at some reddit pages and found someone who was removing Jared Letto's Joker's tattoos. They were using EbSynth to do this.

Here's an example video from the EbSynth website.

The reddit user cited this video tutorial as what they used to guide themselves through the process.

And another tutorial:

This has some pretty awesome implications for fanediting. I once mused about making Luther into the Joker in BvS and this might actually make that possible, visually anyway. I suspect an editor could create A Scanner Darkly visuals more easily with this software as well. Anyway, I wanted to share this neat find in case anyone wanted to geek out on it and try it for themselves :)

You can download EbSynth at https://ebsynth.com
 

Jrzag42

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Thank you
I discovered this recently through YouTube, and I was contemplating making a thread for it. I would love to see this utilized in a proper fanedit.
 

TM2YC

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Fascinating. I'd be most interested in doing kinda the opposite of that Simpsons example. Turning live action frames into flat trad 2D animation "cells". This video seemed the closest I could find:


Then you could use this...

aragorn_5.jpg


...to make something like this...

bakshi-strider.jpg
 

lapis molari

Better edits through feedback.
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Ooh, you could complete the LOTR animated films! :D

I'd love to see the live > animated possibility used on Babylon 5. Artist Ahriman made a great image to start with:
tssh0tlrq8a21.jpg
 

Jrzag42

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This video almost looks good.
Still frames look good, but in motion it looks a bit weird. I don't just mean the thing not lining up fully, that's excusable. I think for a true animation look, the frames per second should be lowered, but that might not fix my problems either. Maybe just the look of human proportions in animation in general just looks too uncanny to me. It's not stylized enough. Maybe I just need to watch more old rotoscoped animated movies
 

addiesin

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jrWHAG42 said:
This video almost looks good.
Still frames look good, but in motion it looks a bit weird. I don't just mean the thing not lining up fully, that's excusable. I think for a true animation look, the frames per second should be lowered, but that might not fix my problems either. Maybe just the look of human proportions in animation in general just looks too uncanny to me. It's not stylized enough. Maybe I just need to watch more old rotoscoped animated movies

IMO it looks 100% better than any cartoon "filter" I've ever seen placed over video. It's close enough to hand-crafted A Scanner Darkly animation that I think I could watch something that has that look for an extended amount of time without getting a headache. I've seen other videos where it reminds me of the look of that Van Gogh movie Finding Vincent. I would call it Good Enough for this sort of project.

I think this could be great for some really specific use cases. One I can think of off the top of my head is changing Wolverine's claws from metal to bone or vice versa in footage from an X-Men film. Altering makeup/costumes from deleted/unfinished footage in FX-heavy films, similar to Dig's Joker idea, but replacing motion capture suits maybe.
 

Jrzag42

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addiesin said:
IMO it looks 100% better than any cartoon "filter" I've ever seen placed over video. It's close enough to hand-crafted A Scanner Darkly animation that I think I could watch something that has that look for an extended amount of time without getting a headache. I've seen other videos where it reminds me of the look of that Van Gogh movie Finding Vincent. I would call it Good Enough for this sort of project.

I agree that it looks better than any cartoon filter, and I suppose you're right about it looking like A Scanner Darkly. I guess my problem lies in rotoscoping in general, it doesn't look like traditional animation, it looks like tracing over video. If I was shown a clip from A Scanner Darkly and told it was made with Ebsynth, I'm sure I'd say the same things. So I take back what I said.

addiesin said:
I think this could be great for some really specific use cases. One I can think of off the top of my head is changing Wolverine's claws from metal to bone or vice versa in footage from an X-Men film. Altering makeup/costumes from deleted/unfinished footage in FX-heavy films, similar to Dig's Joker idea, but replacing motion capture suits maybe.

I definitely agree with all of this. Would you be willing to try this out to change Wolverine's claws in your upcoming Xmen edit?
 

addiesin

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jrWHAG42 said:
I agree that it looks better than any cartoon filter, and I suppose you're right about it looking like A Scanner Darkly. I guess my problem lies in rotoscoping in general, it doesn't look like traditional animation, it looks like tracing over video. If I was shown a clip from A Scanner Darkly and told it was made with Ebsynth, I'm sure I'd say the same things. So I take back what I said.

No need to take anything back. I agree rotoscoping in general doesn't really look like traditional animation, which usually follows twelve principles to exaggerate and emphasize actions and expressions. It has a look to it that is its own thing, but my point is that if you like that look this program can help you achieve it reasonably well, judging from other people's tests. That said, you don't have to like the look just because it's functional.

I definitely agree with all of this. Would you be willing to try this out to change Wolverine's claws in your upcoming Xmen edit?

While I don't know if I actually need that or would be able to use the results, I think I'm definitely going to test that out when I have some time. I also want to try one of those shots of Vision from the deleted Avengers 2 material. Or Iron Man's suit from the deleted Iron Man 2 opening.
 

addiesin

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Interesting alternate use of the software, face replacement.


As discussed in the video, this wasn't easy and the results weren't great. But I think with more key frames the results might be much better. Also I think replacing the entire body may be too "heavy".

... Brainstorm time ...

Imagine a missing Doctor Who episode constructed thusly: The missing episode's audio is gathered along with a transcript, and possibly storyboards to help with planning blocking. A group of cosplayers perform individually on green screen, matching the existing audio tracks. Faces are replaced using key frames from shots of existing episodes instead of from telesnaps, allowing more expression and movement. Then the individual performances are composited together with backgrounds probably made from telesnaps. The storyboards inform which direction the characters look/stand/walk and the already recorded audio provides a framework to keep everything in synch.
 

asterixsmeagol

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I had super low expectations, but this was actually pretty good. Obviously it's rough, but for a single guy working on this as a fan project, it was impressive.
 
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