Latest news with #videocreators
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Yahoo
Adobe Firefly can now generate sound effects from your audio cues
Since rolling out the redesign of its Firefly app in April, Adobe has been releasing major updates for the generative AI hub at a near monthly clip. Today, the company is introducing a handful of new features to assist those who use Firefly's video capabilities. To start, Adobe is making it easier to add sound effects to AI-generated clips. Right now, the majority of video models create footage without any accompanying audio. Adobe is addressing this with a nifty little feature that allows users to first describe the sound effect they want to generate and then record themselves making it. The second part isn't so Adobe's model can mimic the sound. Rather, it's so the system can get a better idea of the intensity and timing the user wants from the effect. In the demo Adobe showed me, one of the company's employees used the feature to add the sound of a zipper being unzipped. They made a "zzzztttt" sound, which Adobe's model faithfully used to reproduce the effect at the intended volume. The translation was less convincing when the employee used the tool to add the sound of footsteps on concrete, though if you're using the feature for ideation as Adobe intended, that may not matter. When adding sound effects, there's a timeline editor along the bottom of the interface to make it easy to time the audio properly. The other new features Adobe is adding today are called Composition Reference, Keyframe Cropping and Video Presets. The first of those allows you to upload a video or image you captured to guide the generation process. In combination with Video Presets, you can define the style of the final output. Some of the options Adobe is offering at launch allow you to create clips with anime, black and white or vector art styles. Lastly, with Keyframe Cropping you can upload the first and final frame of a video and select an aspect ratio. Firefly will then generate a video that stays within your desired format. In June, Adobe added support for additional third-party models, and this month it's doing the same. Most notable is the inclusion of Veo 3, which Google premiered at its I/O 2025 conference in May. At the moment, Veo 3 is one of the only AI models that can generate video with sound. Like with all the other partner models Adobe offers in Firefly, Google has agreed not to use data from Adobe users for training future models. Every image and video people create through Firefly is digitally signed with the model that was used to create it. That is one of the safeguards Adobe includes so that Firefly customers don't accidentally ship an asset that infringes on copyrighted material. According to Zeke Koch, vice president of product management for Adobe Firefly, users can expect the fast pace of updates to continue. "We're relentlessly shipping stuff almost as quickly as we can," he said. Koch adds Adobe will continue to integrate more third-party models, as long as their providers agree to the company's data privacy terms.
Japan Times
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Highlight videos online playing big role in Upper House election
Highlight videos, or short videos utilizing clips posted by political parties and candidates, on social media are playing a major role in Japan's election for the Upper House on Sunday. Social media is increasingly impacting election results amid the growing popularity of YouTube and other video-sharing sites. Some video creators seek to boost specific parties or candidates, while others are motivated by advertising revenue generated by views. A former company employee in his 30s living in Tokyo began posting highlight videos on YouTube in December 2023. He said he was inspired by a video of a news conference given by Shinji Ishimaru, then mayor of Akitakata, Hiroshima Prefecture, whom he said "spoke very logically." After viewing highlight videos made by other posters, the man came to believe that he could "convey (Ishimaru's ideas) in an easier-to-understand way." He viewed Ishimaru's other news conferences to "understand his thinking" and made short videos around a minute long for younger audiences. Although he hadn't formally learned video production, one of his posts racked up 100,000 views in the first hour and has some 12 million views thus far. His channel gained around 120,000 subscribers in half a year, and the current tally stands at about 290,000. He has posted over 1,300 videos. His income doubled from his days as a company employee thanks to ad revenue on his videos and tips from viewers. But he said his "working hours have also doubled, to around 16 hours per day" as he livestreams stump speeches and edits videos. He uploads videos every day. During election periods, the man travels around the country at his own expense to follow Ishimaru. Including costs for equipment such as cameras and computers, his annual expenses reach about ¥10 million ($67,250). "My aim is to get people interested in politics and vote," he said. "It's not just about revenue." The man said he thinks about his many viewers when working on videos, saying: "Public interest is essential for videos I post. (The work) also comes with responsibility." Ishimaru's political group is fielding ten candidates in the upcoming Upper House election, although he is not running, himself. Meanwhile, a company employee in his 30s from Obihiro in Hokkaido launched a YouTube channel as a side job last September, thinking that highlight videos would be a hit. He edits videos from around 9 p.m. after returning home from work. He uploads videos that are 10 to 15 minutes long using official videos of parties and candidates who allow their content to be used in such videos. But he has yet to monetize his channel as he cannot post regularly. Each video takes around six hours to make. "Highlight videos are attracting attention during the Upper House election period," he said. "I want to increase the number of posts." He avoids sensational expressions aimed at generating viral popularity, saying that prioritizing drawing viewers' interest over sticking to facts in an attention economy is "right from a business perspective," but he added that "it's best to cheer on your favorite politicians."
