Technology Transfer
- After Effects CS5.5
We shipped the Warp Stabilizer, a new approach to video stabilization, in Adobe After Effects CS5.5. This feature is the culmination of several years of research with colleagues at Adobe and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, that resulted in a SIGGRAPH 09 publication and and a TOG publication (presented at SIGGRAPH 11). The final Warp Stabilizer combines these techniques and some unpublished improvements.
Information Week called Warp Stabilizer the best new feature across the Creative Suite 5.5. Some good reviews and discussions can be found in OutbackPhoto, the After Effects blog, ProVideo Coalition, and Tom Guilmette's blog. A large number of tests and comparisons can be found on Vimeo and Youtube, such as this example, and this cool stop-motion work.
- Photoshop CS4
Again inspired by Photomontage, I built a feature for creating extended depth-of-field composites in Photoshop called "Stack Images." Macro photographs have a very limited depth of field, so it is challenging to take an image with all regions in focus. Instead, we allow the photographer to take a series of photographs focused at different depths, and automatically compute a composite that is sharp everywhere.
Here is a tutorial on using the feature from Layers Magazine. Stack Images was mentioned as one of the top new features in CS4 in reviews by CNET, PC World, and Photoshop News.
- Photoshop CS3
I built a Photomontage-style layer blending feature in Photoshop CS3. The most common usage is panoramic stitching; simply leave the "Blend images together" checkbox checked when using Photomerge. The feature can also be used by selecting "Auto-blend layers" from the Edit menu.
The blending algorithm uses my new, efficient approach to gradient-domain compositing that was published at SIGGRAPH 2007.
A final version CS3 was recently released, and the feature is getting rave reviews. I've collected a few links.
- John Nack blog
- Hans Nyberg's comparison tests
- Demo videos by Russell Brown (1 & 2), Sujay Thomas, Lynda.com
- Panoramas on flickr.com tagged with CS3 & photomerge, or CS3 & auto-blend
- A fun example of stitching group shots, which is a challenging case for typical stitchers
- Photoshop Elements 6
- Microsoft Groupshot, built by Alex Colburn and Michael Cohen, was based on our Photomontage research. People seem to like it, and the software was recently demo-ed at CES 2007.
Three new features based on my Photomontage research shipped in Photoshop Elements 6.