How to rebuild an edit when all you have left is the exported video
Give Vizard Agent the exported video and the original recording it was cut from. It detects where the cuts fall in the export, matches each frame back to the source to work out which part of the recording it came from, then re-renders the same cut from the source and puts the original audio back, so you get the edit you had, clean.
What do you type into Vizard Agent?
Ask for the cut to be recovered, not for the video to be recreated. Those sound similar but produce completely different results: one gives you the same edit, the other a new edit that happens to use the same footage. Give Vizard Agent the actual recording that was used, because a different take won't match.
Prompt
What does Vizard Agent actually do?
An export is a flat file that has forgotten how it was made, but every shot boundary and source moment is recoverable if you have the footage it was built from. Vizard Agent matches frames rather than eyeballing them, and solves the timings together, because frames matched one at a time can put shot four earlier than shot three. In the session behind this article it:
- Surveyed and transcribed the ninety-second export, and looked for the original build files in case they still existed.
- Detected the cuts in the export and matched every frame back to the source recording, comparing the pairs side by side.
- Re-matched allowing for mild zoom, since a shot pushed in during the edit has no source frame that matches it pixel for pixel.
- Inspected a difficult section directly against the source, then solved the shot timings with a continuity-aware match.
- Re-rendered the cut shot by shot from the source and remuxed the original audio.
- Compared every rebuilt shot against the export before delivery.
When does this not work well?
Some exports can't be traced back. If the footage has been heavily graded, cropped or re-timed since, or the export mixes in material you no longer have, the match fails on those shots, and Vizard Agent says which ones rather than filling them with something close. Ramped speed changes, generated inserts and very low-quality exports cause the same problem.
Common questions
Do I need the original project file? No. That is the point. But Vizard Agent checks for it first, because it is the better route.
What if only some shots match? Vizard Agent rebuilds the ones it can and tells you which it could not.
How do I check it really matched? Vizard Agent puts each rebuilt shot beside the export frame it matched.