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CorridorKey 2.0

171 points ravenical 2 hours ago 53 comments

lambfoo 2 hours ago | parent

It is actually free for people other than organizations with more than US $20 million in annual revenue.

Source: https://github.com/nikopueringer/CorridorKey2.0

DetroitThrow 2 hours ago | parent

Wow, that's amazing to try in casual visual editing workflows. Very great results as well for something free.

teach 1 hour ago | parent

I also really enjoyed the "making of" video: https://youtu.be/svrdRAoIlxM?si=cG1gSRyWdGg8RnEM

Niko goes into some more detail about the licensing choices they've made and why towards the end of the video as well.

[Edit: note that the above video is "content" so if you're not used to the style it might be offputting but I'm into it]

It's been so cool to watch this develop

CitrusFruits 1 hour ago | parent

Huge fan of Corridor. For those that don't have twenty minutes, one of the big takeaways is that a pretty high level VFX Supervisor critiques the keys at the end and basically has only nits that you need to zoom in on or have a trained eye to catch. Very legitimate feedback for a top tier professional context, but this can get you really far otherwise.

ipsum2 1 hour ago | parent

The issues aren't nits, they're really obvious, even after YouTube compression.

normalaccess 45 minutes ago | parent

Depends on the shot. Worlds better than version one of CorridorKey and they are using it internally on their own shows/content.

These tools can only get better and better as time goes on.

emkoemko 1 hour ago | parent

did i watch the same video? it was no where near professional level, he even said, as a first pass pre vis for test shots it would be great

folkrav 1 hour ago | parent

I mean, having done quite a bit of rotoscoping work in high school, if you can start from the output of this plugin and refine a little, you’re absolutely still saving hours. It was still most of the way there.

normalaccess 41 minutes ago | parent

I think that's a big chunk that people are missing. This tool ac get you from zero to 80%-90% for most shots in a handful of seconds.

Dylan16807 1 hour ago | parent

It doesn't output the final result that you'd expect from a human professional, but it does seem to be well into the professional level of tools. And for cheaper productions you could use it directly.

Eji1700 47 minutes ago | parent

> [Edit: note that the above video is "content" so if you're not used to the style it might be offputting but I'm into it]

I hate that it is because it makes me suspicious of every reaction. I happened to see the CD video on the clown wedding on the moon(sodium vapor maybe?) and so I at least have some grounding from this, but if I didn't I'd probably ignore most of this (as i ignored the thumbnail) because "literal industry defining tech" and "random temu mall ninja crap" has basically the same production pattern these days so why trust it?

I realize this is "old man yells at cloud" territory but it sucks that prostrating to the algorithm means all sincerity is lost because you have to ape Mr. Beast or whoever to get "engagement"

Edit-

And with that said, I'd say just jump to 23:40ish when the professional is talking if you're grumpy like me.

xfeeefeee 1 hour ago | parent

I'd love to use this but sadly my local GPU is just crap. I know everyone hates hosted offerings but I'd be a happy customer; I mostly use topaz's hosted stuff too for this reason

ShakataGaNai 1 hour ago | parent

A beta price of $50 or full price of $100 is really a steal. If you do ANY sort of video production work, this is an amazing tool. The more casual of a green screen person you are, the more impressive this is.

This is like Magnet Mask for Final Cut, but probably better. I haven't compared/contrasted the two yet, but I have faith that Corridor has knocked this one out of the park from the demos I have seen.

(Yes, you can download it for free. You're paying for the pre-packaged convenience. I 100% paid them to support the work they are doing).

jarjoura 1 hour ago | parent

Just to be clear, this isn't generative AI in the same way something like Nano Banana or Seedance is. You don't prompt anything into existence. However, this is using all of the latest SOTA techniques that the slop generative models also depend on.

I think it is an amazing example of how labs should take all of their fundamental research and turn into products entirely designed, limited and scoped only to empower artists instead of obsessed with trying to bypass them.

DrewADesign 1 hour ago | parent

> labs should take all of their fundamental research and turn into products entirely designed, limited and scoped only to empower artists instead of obsessed with trying to bypass them.

The software companies aren’t going to start doing this because the media companies aren’t interested in doing that. Tools like Nuke that already do this are expensive tools for people that the tech industry is trying to make obsolete. The media companies want to sell anything that will sell, and spend as little as possible in the process.

I’m pretty sure this will have to come from skilled and experienced artists doing amazing things with technology despite the tech industry sabotaging their careers, which in turn develops demand for actual art rather than bulk-created ‘content’. Sadly, I think we’re years away from that. I graduated in this field in 2024 and my career was dead before it started. Most people in this business with the hard-won skills to do this work that spent years developing their taste, storytelling sophistication, and craft are in the process of being systematically fucked over by the tech industry. Sad.

imaginationra 1 hour ago | parent

Already obsolete- who keys anymore besides youtube slop peddlers?

Just go full cg or full ai gen.

rtkwe 1 hour ago | parent

Movies are absolutely full of background replacement and other things that require keying.

imaginationra 1 hour ago | parent

So its for mainstream film studios? Thats tired status quo stuff.

cubefox 1 hour ago | parent

You seem unsure what to dislike more: "youtube slop peddlers" or "tired status quo stuff".

imaginationra 29 minutes ago | parent

Both and now they are one in the same.

zardo 56 minutes ago | parent

Then cg is also tired status quo stuff. I'm working on brain generated imagery where a carefully engineered prompt causes the user to picture a scene directly in their mind.

ilaksh 1 hour ago | parent

I think there is still a little bit of room for green screen. At least maybe until Seedance 3.0 in a few months.

But it is interesting how video generation turned the corner from several months ago to now. I think the next AI project they do probably has to be with a generative tool even though they may be very hesitant to do that because they don't want to emphasize AI models that threaten their own jobs.

But I remember when they did the Project Greenlight thing which resulted in a massive list of desired projects from subscribers that they could not possibly make a dent in.

I think in the next several months they may be able to revisit that or at least some of the projects that had to be shelved due to lack of time. To make that possible they would leverage the latest generative AI models and workflows, possibly a few that haven't been released yet. But we are rapidly approaching the point where the models plus tooling is good enough to replace 95% of the technical work, and it's down to creativity. I think it's only a couple of years before that progress bar really maxed out.

imaginationra 1 hour ago | parent

Indie filmmaker who had an original animated feature film in Sundance featuring lots of green screen in it many years ago- green screen is dead- game engines + pure cg/2d anim are the future of indie film-

Directors hate green screen, actors hate green screen- obsolete visual fx artists larping as storytellers/filmmakers love green screen.

Dylan16807 50 minutes ago | parent

Actors dislike green screen but do you think they like pure CGI more?

imaginationra 30 minutes ago | parent

No- but actors are unnecessary puppets- nowadays I don't need actors which is great for me as a director- as an animator you act out all the shots/scenes yourself anyway- and nowadays you can just do the mocap/change your voice etc- human actors are not needed anymore and thats a good thing. The status quo will slowly replace the human actors with ai one's.

Actors have been given this ridiculous unwarranted status in modern times- they are nothing but puppets so who cares what actors think? They are just puppets that play make believe that they don't even make up themselves = redundant.

vigilantpuma 13 minutes ago | parent

What a dystopian view.

For what it’s worth, there have famous actors for literally thousands of years. As to “nothing but puppets,” the idea that actors bring nothing to the table and everything is just down to the director seems like a very self-aggrandizing thing to believe if you’re a director.

udbhavs 51 minutes ago | parent

I'm not sure if this question is in good faith. I would ask whether you have any proximity to any sort of creative or filmmaking work (in response to "who keys anymore"- several, several, examples), but it's honestly worse if the answer is yes. I hope the field isn't so far gone that we're genuinely asking what's the point if, god forbid, someone wants to put a real person in front of a green screen instead of a generative avatar.

imaginationra 35 minutes ago | parent

Haha- yes a filmmaker for 25+ years- had an original self made/produced animated feature film in the Sundance film festival, have made 6 original animated feature films- I've made several green screen heavy projects in the past- they suck for everyone involved except vfx companies/software or plugin companies. I'm still making films- heavily modified game engine cg + mocap- green screen is terrible for everyone and its a good thing its dead.

0x696C6961 41 minutes ago | parent

Jesus dude, go back to reddit.

imaginationra 28 minutes ago | parent

I'm not on reddit this is hackernews- I am an indie filmmaker and a programmer amongst other things. Are you a bot?

ThrowawayTestr 2 minutes ago | parent

"indie filmmaker" is that what YouTubers are calling themselves now?

snitty 1 hour ago | parent

On the first image the arrows toggle between green screen and rotoscoped. On the second set of images, the arrows toggle between the images.

lrvick 1 hour ago | parent

I hope they open source it before someone else decompiles it and does it for them. Just charge for binaries that most will pay for anyway. Then things like Linux support could be handled by the community.

ShowalkKama 1 hour ago | parent

it's already open source, only the plugins are paid.

LeoWattenberg 1 hour ago | parent

It is source-available, not open source.

echelon 1 hour ago | parent

Open source is not always sustainable.

The OSI was created by the hyperscalers to pilfer free work from the commons.

Redis and elastic got owned by GCP and AWS because they went for OSI purity. The OSI is the hyperscalers.

Good fair source is more like shareware. The community can do whatever they want. Companies trying to profit must give back or pay to play.

Developers need to be compensated. It shouldn't be a labor of love that gets commercialized by hyperscalers whose own products are not open source.

The Corridor Crew model here is fantastic. As are fair source licenses. That's the way we should have done things all along.

CiaranMcNulty 1 hour ago | parent

The core tool is CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

They’re charging for the bundled plugins for various editing suites

LeoWattenberg 1 hour ago | parent

It is not, there's additional restrictions beyond the CC license.

paaloeye 1 hour ago | parent

What are they then? It literally says "CC BY-NC-SA 4.0".

LeoWattenberg 1 hour ago | parent

  This work is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), the full text of which is included below, subject to the following additional terms and conditions. These additional terms supplement the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence and take precedence where they conflict.

"This tool" means the CorridorKey software in this repository and the CorridorKey model weights distributed for use with it.

By exercising any rights to the Licensed Material, You accept and agree to be bound by both these Additional Terms and the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Public License.

1. PERMITTED USE

   a. You may use this tool for any lawful purpose, including for
      processing images as part of a commercial project, provided
      that such use complies with the restrictions set out below
      and the terms of the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.

   b. The images and video You produce with this tool are Yours.
      The Licensor claims no rights in them, and You may use them
      commercially.
2. RESTRICTIONS

   In addition to the restrictions set out in the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
   licence, the following restrictions apply:

   a. NO REPACKAGING OR RESALE
      You may not repackage, redistribute, sublicense, or sell
      this tool, in whole or in part, as a standalone product or
      as part of a competing product, and You may not charge for
      access to this tool's code or model weights.

   b. NO PAID API OR INFERENCE SERVICES
      You may not use this tool to provide inference as a paid
      API service, whether directly or indirectly. This includes,
      but is not limited to, offering access to this tool behind
      a paywall, subscription model, or usage-based billing
      system.

   c. DERIVATIVES MUST BE FREELY ACCESSIBLE
      You may build on this tool, but any project, fork,
      derivative work, or modified version that You release and
      that incorporates this tool must be made available to the
      public free of charge. Voluntary donations and
      pay-what-you-want pricing are permitted, provided that
      paying nothing is always an available option.

   d. COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE INTEGRATION
      If you operate a commercial software package or inference
      service and wish to incorporate this tool into your
      software, you must obtain a separate written agreement
      from the Licensor. Please contact:

          contact@corridordigital.com
3. LARGE ORGANISATIONS

   a. If You are, or are using this tool on behalf of, a Legal
      Entity whose total gross revenue exceeded US $20,000,000
      (twenty million US dollars) in its most recently completed
      fiscal year, the permissions in Section 1 do not apply
      unless that Legal Entity has purchased a seat of the
      CorridorKey plugin from the Licensor for each individual
      who uses this tool.

   b. "Legal Entity" means the entity using this tool together
      with all other entities that control, are controlled by,
      or are under common control with it. Revenue is measured
      across the whole Legal Entity.

   c. Each seat of the CorridorKey plugin includes a licence
      for one individual to download and use this tool and its
      model weights. Seats are available at:

          https://corridorkey.com
Etc. Pp.

bikeshaving 46 minutes ago | parent

None of the “decompiled” projects you’re alluding are legitimately open-source. Just because you turn the gaze of your plagiarism machine onto strictly licensed software doesn’t mean the result is a “clean room” implementation or even something that you yourself could copyright.

paaloeye 1 hour ago | parent

I always thought CorridorKey was free and open-source

david_van_loon 1 hour ago | parent

The underlying software is free and open-source: https://github.com/nikopueringer/CorridorKey2.0

The commercial package primarily consists of commercially supported plugins.

Yukonv 55 minutes ago | parent

Clarification required as the project is NOT open source following OSI definition[1]. It should be advertised as source available as the license is restrictive in how you may use the software.

[1] https://opensource.org/education/what-is-open-source

dozerly 46 minutes ago | parent

They explicitly call that out and mention if folks want to use it for paid projects, to just reach out. Thats a caveat obviously, but the intentions seem noble

bramhaag 45 minutes ago | parent

You would think so considering the creator constantly calls it that, but it is merely source-available. This has been repeatedly brought up along with other very questionable license decisions [0]. The charitable interpretation is that the creator is very confused about what open source is and isn't.

Here's a summary:

- The project is licensed under the "Corridor Key License" [1], which is CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 with extra clauses that permit commercial use (That's right, CC BY-NC with commercial use allowed).

- CC licenses should not be used for software, and the non-commercial restrictions make this project not open source.

- This project is based on Hiera, which licenses its weights under CC BY-NC 4.0 [2]. Again, non-commercial. He is selling this.

- The license was changed a few times after the community rewrote large parts of this project. The contributors should've retained their copyright to their contributed code as there was no CLA or similar, but to my knowledge their code was relicensed without their consent.

[0] https://github.com/nikopueringer/CorridorKey/issues?q=licens...

[1] https://github.com/nikopueringer/CorridorKey/blob/main/LICEN...

[2] https://github.com/nikopueringer/CorridorKey/issues/152

wongarsu 1 hour ago | parent

Obviously this prioritizes quality over speed, but how far are we from real time? Hooking something of this quality up to a live webcam would be a dream

cubefox 1 hour ago | parent

I suppose for version 3.0 they will abandon the whole green screen thing completely and the model will just recognize by itself (possibly with a user supplied hint mask) what the background is that needs to be removed and what the foreground is that should be kept, without any need for green screen or blue screen footage.

keyle 35 minutes ago | parent

Very nice, do they plan on doing a lighter version for OBS and real time compositing?

mathfailure 17 minutes ago | parent

The hell is this?

hackingonempty 5 minutes ago | parent

AFAIK, green-screen, a.k.a. "chroma key" replaces the green colored parts of the video with some other background image/video. However, you've noticed it works poorly around the edges, depending on the lighting and other things. This is software containing a machine learning model that produces more a accurate "key" (mask) than simple chroma-matching.