Facetune maker Lightricks brings its popular selfie retouching features to video – ProWellTech

Lightricks, the startup behind it a suite of photo and video editing apps – especially the selfie editor Facetune 2 – uses its retouching functions for videos. The company starts today Facetune video, a selfie video editing app that allows users to retouch and edit their selfie and portrait videos with a range of AI tools.

While there are other selfie video editors on the market, most these days generally focus on editing with filters and presets, adding makeup virtually, or using AR or stickers to decorate your video in any way. Facetune Video focuses on creating a photo-realistic video by offering a number of features similar to Lightricks’ flagship app. Facetune .

This means that users can retouch their face with skin smoothing, teeth whitening and facial reshaping tools, as well as eye color, makeup, hiding, glowing, and matte features. In addition, users can optimize tools for general video editing, such as: B. for adjusting brightness, contrast, color and more, as is possible with other video editing apps. And these changes can be applied in real time to see how they look while the video is playing, rather than afterwards.

In addition, users can only apply the effect to one image, and Facetune Video’s post-processing technology and neural networks simultaneously apply an effect to the same area of ​​each image throughout the video, making it easier to quickly touch up a problem area without doing so do frame by frame go to do this.

“The 3D face model plays an important role in Facetune Video. Users only edit one video image, but it is up to us to automatically project the location of their changes behind the scenes onto 2D face mesh coordinates derived from the 3D face model and then apply them consistently to all other images in the video, ”explains Lightricks Co-founder and CEO Zeev Farbam. “A Lightricks app not only has to be powerful, but also fun. It is therefore important to us that all of this happens quickly and seamlessly, ”he says.

Users can also save their favorite editing features as “presets” so they can quickly apply their preferred settings to any video automatically.

In a future version of the app, the company plans to introduce a “healing” feature that users like Facetune can use to easily remove errors.

Credit: Lightricks

The technology with which these selfie video edits work includes the deep neural networks of light tricks that use facial feature recognition and geometry analysis for the app’s retouching capabilities. These processes work in real time without first having to transfer data to the cloud. There is also no delay or delay in rendering files.

In addition, Facetune Video uses facial feature recognition along with the 3D facial modeling AI to ensure that every part of the user’s face is captured for editing and retouching, the company said.

“We also use light neural networks. Even before the user begins to retouch their selfie video, AI-based algorithms already work, so the user experience is fast and interactive, ”says Fabram.

The app also performs automated segmentation of more complex parts of the face, such as the inside of the eye, hair or lips, resulting in a more accurate end result.

“It’s about finding a balance between the accuracy of the facial modeling we use and the speed,” adds Fabram.

One challenge has been to overcome the jitter problem if the applied effect shakes while the video is playing. The company didn’t want the resulting videos to have this problem, making the end result look confusing. As a result, blur-like effects and other face tracking issues have been fixed to make the videos look more sophisticated and professional in the end.

With Facetune, the app builds on the company’s existing success and brand awareness. With the new app, for example, the retouching algorithms mimic the original Facetune 2 experience, so that users familiar with Facetune 2 can quickly get an overview of the retouching tools.

Credit: Lightricks

The launch of the new app further extends Lightricks towards video, which has become a more popular way of expressing yourself on social media thanks to the increasing use of apps like TikTok and features such as Instagram Stories.

Previously, however, Lightrick was the flagship video product VideoleapThis focused on the more traditional video editing and not on selfie videos where facial retouching could be used.

Facetune is so widespread that its name has become a verb – as in “She Facets Her Photos”. But it has also been criticized at times for its unrealistic results. (Of course, that’s more because users of the app move the smoothing bar to the end.)

Throughout its suite of apps, including the original Facetune app (Facetune Classic), Facetune 2, Lakes (for stories), Photofox, Video Jump, Enlight Quickshot, Pixaloop, Boosted, and others, including a newly launched artistic editor, Quickartthe company has generated over 350 million downloads.

The apps now reach almost 200 million users worldwide. With its subscription model, Lightricks now sees what Farbam calls sales, which “is growing exponentially year-on-year” but is continuously reinvested in new products.

Like its other apps, Facetune Video will make money from subscriptions. The free use of the app offers a VIP subscription for additional features at a cost of $ 8 a month, $ 36 a year, or a one-time purchase of $ 70.

Facetune 2 subscribers also receive a discount on annual subscriptions. The company will also sell the app in its Social Media Kit bundle on the App Store, which includes Facetune Video, Facetune 2, Lakes and an unpublished fourth app soon. However, the company does not yet offer a single subscription that provides access to all bundled apps.