07/03/2026 7:50 am
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Ive been cutting in Premiere and Resolve for almost a decade now but man this latest project is actually driving me insane. I took on this corporate contract for a tech firm in Seattle and they dumped about 40 hours of raw footage on me that needs to be turned into 15 polished promos by next Friday. The lighting is all over the place and the background noise is just... its bad. I usually handle the masking and tracking manually but I just dont have the hours in the day for this one. I tried using the built-in AI mask in Premiere but it keeps flickering around the hair and looks like trash honestly.
I have about 500 bucks left in the budget specifically for software or plugins if it helps speed this up because at this rate Im gonna be pulling all-nighters until the 20th. I keep seeing ads for all these magic AI tools that are supposed to handle the rotoscoping and color matching automatically but I dont want to waste money on something that isnt actually pro level. Is Runway actually worth the subscription for high-res stuff or should I look into something like Topaz? I need stuff that actually integrates into a pro workflow and doesnt just spit out a low-res mp4. What are the best AI tools for professional video editing that you guys actually use in a real production environment?
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07/03/2026 9:25 am
Re: "> Re: "> Re: "Ive had a lot..." - " ngl i hear the frustration but i gotta disagree slightly on jumping ship to a whole new workflow mid-project. in my experience over the years i've found that targeted plugins are way more reliable than those big all-in-one AI suites. for that lighting nightmare i'd look at Color Intelligence Colourlab AI 5 Creator. it matches shots in seconds and saves your eyes from staring at scopes for 12 hours straight. also if you're struggling with hair masking dont sleep on Goodbye Greenscreen for After Effects v1.10. its super budget friendly and handles fine detail better than most native tools i've tried. plus it keeps you in the adobe ecosystem so you dont waste time round-tripping. just keep an eye on your vram tho... some of these tools get aggressive and you dont want a crash right before the deadline. better to keep it simple and safe.
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07/03/2026 8:55 am
> Re: "> Re: "Ive had a lot of issues..." - " Yeah web tools are a joke for pro deliverables honestly. Ive been really happy using Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve Studio 19 Video Editing Software for the magic mask feature... since you're already in Resolve its a total no-brainer and way cheaper than monthly subscriptions. No complaints here, and Adobe Podcast Enhance Speech AI Tool is surprisingly good for cleaning up that Seattle background noise on a budget. Saved me so much time on my last gig.
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07/03/2026 8:15 am
> Re: "Ive had a lot of issues with those..." Yeah unfortunately i had a similar nightmare with web tools lately. Runway just couldnt handle hair masking and it felt like a waste of time honestly. For that background noise tho... i saved so much time using Waves Clarity Vx Pro because it cleans audio without making it sound robotic. Also try Colourlab AI 2.0 Professional for that lighting mess. It matches shots way faster than doing it manually. Good luck!
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07/03/2026 9:55 am
Wow ok that changes things. Gonna have to rethink my approach now.
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09/03/2026 5:51 pm
Noted!
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07/03/2026 7:50 am
Ive had a lot of issues with those browser-based AI tools lately, honestly. Theyre just not as good as expected for high-res deliverables and usually look like a mess. Since you have a budget, skip the subscriptions and just get Topaz Video AI 4.0. Its a lifesaver for cleaning up bad footage. Id also look at Boris FX Mocha Pro 2024 for tracking... its way more reliable than Premieres native masking.
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07/03/2026 9:35 am
I once spent a weekend fighting flickering hair on a tech shoot and it was just brutal. You might want to consider Neat Video Pro v5 Noise Reduction for that grain, but be careful because it eats GPU power.
- Digital Anarchy Flicker Free v2 Plugin is great for lighting jumps. Honestly, DIYing with AI might fail... sometimes hiring a pro rotoscoping service is the only way to hit a Friday deadline.
