Kristen Stewart's academic paper on AI in film making is described as 'brief and more like a case study' by experts
- She's co-written a paper published in Cornell University’s online library arXiv
- It explains the artificial intelligence technique used in her new film Come Swim
- The technique enables footage to take on the visual appearance of a painting
- The paper is brief at just three pages long and doesn’t provide rigorous testing or give a thorough explanation of the algorithms that underpin the software used
- But Stewart and her colleagues have made use of pioneering new production techniques that open the door to an infinite number of imaginative visual styles
Actor, director, model, teen vampire movie star – now Kristen Stewart can add research author to her list of credentials.
Stewart, best known for her portrayal of Bella Swan in the Twilight Saga films, has co-written an article published in Cornell University’s online library arXiv.
It explains the artificial intelligence technique used in her new short film, Come Swim, that enables footage to take on the visual appearance of a painting.
Scroll down for video
Kristen Stewart, best known for her portrayal of Bella Swan in the Twilight Saga films, has co-written an article published in Cornell University’s online library arXiv
Many popular software programs, such as Adobe Photoshop and GIMP, already provide filters that can make photographs take on the general style of oil paintings, pen sketches, screen-prints or chalk drawings, for example.
The algorithms needed to accomplish this first began to produce aesthetically pleasing results in the early 1990s.
The techniques that Stewart and her colleagues examine in their article take this idea much further.
The new methods they employed enable photographs or video sequences to take on not just a general style but also the look of a specific painting.
This could be as abstract or impressionistic as desired, enabling the film-maker to take inspiration from anyone from Pollock to Picasso.
The technique is known as style transfer.
Increasing u, the 'style transfer ratio,' enabled the film makers to make the image they filmed look more like a painting. Pictured are images manipulated with the Style Transfer technique
Come Swim was reportedly inspired by a painting by Stewart, which seems to have provided the impetus for the project that the article describes.
The short film uses the style transfer technique to generate dream-like sequences for the opening and closing scenes.
The paper, co written with producer David Ethan Shapiro (Starlight Studios) and visual effects artist and research engineer Bhautik Joshi (Adobe), describes the experience of creating these sequences.
The article is relatively brief, at just three pages including references.
It doesn’t provide rigorous testing, or give a thorough explanation of the algorithms that underpin the software used.
Instead, it is more of a case study that gives an anecdotal account of the filmakers’ experiences and how they fine-tuned the style transfer system.
It highlights the progress that has recently been made in using artificial intelligence software to apply style transfer techniques to video sequences, making it possible to use them in professional film-making.
Movie frames, along with the painting to be imitated (known as the style image), are fed into what’s known as a convolutional neural network.
Come Swim was reportedly inspired by a painting by Stewart, which seems to have provided the impetus for the project that the article describes
Bump up your basics with a slimming Spanx dress like Kristen
Hats off to stylist Tara Swennen when she dressed Kristen Stewart for the SNL show. She took what is usually a body slimming undergarment and made it into the perfect base layer for a bad a$$ look!
The black bodycon mini dress is actually a Spanx Signature slimming slip. Once you add the mesh wrap skirt and complimentary mesh Louboutins, this simple dress is now a wow-outfit.
Head over to Jet.com to buy this exact dress for only 49.99. The best part is you can wear this dress over and over again, underother dresses when you're looking for that little compression factor.
If Spanx isn't your thing, check out our edit below for simple black minis.
This is an artificial intelligence system that is inspired, both in what it does and how it is structured, by the way that neurons are interconnected in the visual cortex of the brain.
The neural network was trained to process the movie frames using the example of Stewart’s painting (the style image) to generate the stylised footage.
The software parameters were manipulated to process the images quickly with minimal computing power to produce footage that was 'in service of the story'.
The parameters experimented with included colour and texture, the source image’s resolution, the number of iterations the algorithm ran for, and the style transfer ratio (the degree to which the style image was imitated).
Until recently, style transfer in video sequence has been difficult because each frame would be converted into an individual image that didn’t necessarily look like the others in the sequence.
This meant when processed frames were combined into a video it produced jarring changes in the image on screen, compromising the aesthetic effect.
These limitations have now been overcome to some degree by software that can smoothly blend between two fixed images, enabling smooth style-transferred video sequences to be created.
These sequences can even be generated in real time and using multiple style images (for example several paintings) to produce videos that are a blended pastiche of numerous visual styles.
These exciting developments will enable video-based art installations, short films and perhaps feature-length films to be manipulated to adopt a particular visual style.
This means entire films could be given the impression of an animated painting or another source that the production team wishes to imitate.
Stewart and her colleagues have made use of pioneering new production techniques that open the door to an infinite number of imaginative visual styles.
Actor, director, model, teen vampire movie star – now Kristen Stewart can add research author to her list of credentials
Ian van der Linde, Reader, Vision and Eye Research Unit, Anglia Ruskin University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Most watched News videos
- Meghan Markle says Prince Harry proposal was 'amazing surprise'
- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce their engagement
- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle discuss meeting for the first time
- Prince Charles is 'thrilled' with the news of the engagement
- 'She's capable of anything' Prince Harry gushes over fiancé Meghan
- 'She's an incredible woman' Meghan Markle on meeting the Queen
- Shocking moment two commuters have sex at Melbourne train station
- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's tender moments during engagement
- Prince Harry: 'Hopefully we'll start a family in the near future'
- Investigators at the scene of fatal crash that killed five
- Thieves steal car in Solihull without even using owners keys
- Horrifying moment rescuers find dog cruelly encased in ice by owner
- 'This beautiful woman tripped and fell into my life':...
- A love nest fit for a Princess! Harry and Meghan will...
- PIERS MORGAN: Hearty congratulations, Harry, you picked a...
- 'Our daughter has always been a kind and loving person....
- Profile of a princess: How Catholic schoolgirl Meghan...
- EXCLUSIVE: Meghan Markle's mom prepared to become a royal...
- Miss South Africa who was held at gunpoint by carjackers...
- Police confirm five people who died in the Leeds horror...
- Britons brace for the big freeze this week as arctic...
- Shocking details emerge in mysterious death of American...
- Cruel dog owner FREEZES his pet to death by pouring water...
- How thieves can steal your car without even taking your...
- You look like an angel! Melania unveils the first Trump...
- 'It's wonderful to see how happy they are together': Kate...
- Long-dormant earthquake faultline has awoken and could...
- 'Oh my God, come on Poppi': Mother’s harrowing 999 call...
- 'What’s the f***ing point?' John McCain tells Hillary...
- TV chef launches foul-mouthed rant at customer who...