Adobe Firefly video editor can now automatically create a first draft from footage

Adobe Firefly’s video editor is getting a new feature called Quick Cut which uses AI to edit footage and B-roll to create a rough draft of the final video based on user instructions.

Typically, you have to upload your footage and B-roll to a video editor, and arrange the transitions manually. With Quick Cut, users can describe what they want the video to be in natural language, and the tool will automatically edit out irrelevant parts of footage, stitching together different shots while using appropriate footage to make transitions between pieces.

Users can also select frames from B-roll and use one of the video templates available within Firefly to create short transitions.

You can use the prompt box within the Firefly video editor to specify settings like aspect ratio and speed between transitions, or add optional B-roll footage. Users can apply Quick Cut to the entire project, a specific timeline, or specific clips.

Adobe emphasized that the goal of Quick Cut is to provide a rough draft, so editors will still need to adjust elements, paste elements together, and work on transitions to put the video together.

“As we talk to our users, which are creatives and marketers, the biggest issue they’re actually communicating is the need for rapid transformation, the need for time-saving technologies that allow them to get to their creative vision as quickly as possible,” Mike Volgner, product lead for next-gen AI and video tools, told TechCrunch.

“The only thing we know is some of the mundane parts that come with the video [editing]like just arranging choices, this is not where they find fun and difference. They find joy in putting their spin on it. “So Quick Cut is meant to help creators with a mix of media find the story very quickly and get to the story as quickly as possible,” he added.

Adobe has been pushing out regular updates to its video tools. In December, it rolled out a new timeline-based video editor that brought layers and vector-based editing — the editor treats different objects as layers and allows you to edit them using prompts, or use tools like resize and rotate.

The company has also added quick editing capabilities to Firefly, letting users tell the video model how to edit video elements, colors, and camera angles, as well as a timeline view that lets you easily adjust frames, sounds, and other properties.