This plug-in makes Prisma-like painted videos possible on a PC

By Hillary K. Grigonis Published September 27, 2018

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Mobile apps like Prisma use artificial intelligence to redraw images in the style of famous artists — but now the same painting-inspired styles are available on desktop computers. On Tuesday, April 24, CyberLink launched the CyberLink AI Style Plug-in. The company says the tool, designed to work with PowerDirector 16, is the first time that live painting is available from a PC.

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The AI Style Plug-in uses AI and deep learning to add a specific artist-inspired style to a video. Unlike many AI-based solutions, the plug-in doesn’t need a connection to a cloud-based server because the tool runs locally on the PC. The plug-in requires nVidia graphics cards that are rated to support CUDA 3.0 or newer, but the tool can still handle full length videos and can export in a resolution up to 4K.

CyberLink was inspired by Loving Vincent, a film that became the first to use paintings in each frame of a full-length movie. That film, however, was made from 125 oil painters over the course of six years to create 65,000 paintings. The plug-in creates a similar painting-like style, but uses AI — rather a team of human artists — to reduce the time and investment in achieving that style.

“Through the power of artificial intelligence and deep learning, we have been able to train our AI engine to possess an almost human-like understanding of the artistic process,” Dr. Jau Huang, CEO of CyberLink, said in a press release. “With the CyberLink A.I. Style Plug-in we’ve leveraged this research to deliver a quality, cutting-edge product for our PowerDirector users, helping them expand their creative horizons to places that were once unimaginable.”

The company says the AI behind the plug-in isn’t just a style overlay — the software’s deep learning program is designed to mimic the strokes and colors used by actual artists. Again, this is similar to how apps like Prisma work.

The plug-in comes with the purchase of a Styles Pack, with each pack including 10 different style transfers. The plug-in is launching with the Van Gogh AI Style Pack and Impressionist AI Style Pack, offering two different style sets to choose from. Both are available from CyberLink’s online store and require the latest version of PowerDirector 16.

Hillary K. Grigonis

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…

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