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Visual ADR: The New Way To Do ADR

Picture of Flawless Product By  Flawless Product  ·  3 minute read

Every director knows the moment: months into post, a line suddenly doesn’t work. Maybe it's too vague, maybe the story shifted in the edit, maybe test audiences just aren't getting it. You know it needs fixing.

Traditionally, you would have an actor back for additional dialogue recording (ADR). Record the pick up line, cut over the shoulder. If the line is critical to the story, the actors in the scene are available, and you can swing the budget – you do a pick up day. Each of these options involves sacrificing story, budget and/or schedule.

Today, there is a way to fix that line, without making compromises: visual ADR.

Visual ADR – using additional dialogue recording (ADR) to edit a scene while keeping the actor on screen – is a core use case of visual dubbing. 

This blog post explains:

  • What visual ADR actually is
  • How to use the technique
  • The benefits of visual ADR to filmmakers

What Actually Is Visual ADR?

Visual ADR is a key technique made possible by visual dubbing technology. It lets you match new dialogue to an actor’s performance – while they remain on screen.

You use the new dialogue recording created during a typical ADR session to drive a facial animation of the actor. This creates a visual dub where the actor is now saying the new line with perfect sync.

No costly reshoots, no awkward cutaways, no studio re-syncs. Flawless' DeepEditor lets you make dialogue changes without the stress. You can easily synchronize new dialogue recordings when the story evolves.

There are two scenarios where visual ADR is most commonly used:

  • For story purposes: when dialogue needs to change after production. Visual ADR is ideal for story tweaks, rewrites, clarity, compliance, or unexpected last-minute updates
  • For sound purposes: when the sound recording for the take you need is not up to scratch


The Benefits of Visual ADR 

Visual ADR offers a number of advantages over traditional ADR. 

  1. You deliver more impactful storytelling that maintains the integrity and authenticity of the actors’ performances on screen.
  2. The actor can focus on giving their best performance without worrying about matching every syllable to their old lip movements. The actor gets more time on screen. The ADR is faster – the actor doesn’t have to face the same fatigue and headaches that come with lip-timing gymnastics.
  3. You make the necessary fix to your edit without risking the budget or the schedule by having to return to set for costly reshoots. 

You're not fighting against the original footage anymore. You're working with it. And you can tell your story just as you intended.

 

How To Do Visual ADR on a Shot

With visual ADR, all you need is a new audio recording and the original shot.

  1. Create an audio recording of the new line

Have your actor record the new line, ideally in a studio. It’s helpful to have the new line match the timing of the original shot, so that it’s broadly in sync with any upper facial expression and body movements.

  1. Create a draft visual dub (vub)

Upload your new audio recording and original shot together in DeepEditor – either in the web app or via the Avid plugin. 

DeepEditor combines the two pieces of media together into a new shot: a vub.

Workflow Tip


In DeepEditor, there are two types of vub output: draft vubs and final vubs.

We recommend you use draft vubs for creative iteration and problem solving in the edit – they are affordably priced to let you use them in this way. They work in HD, making them perfect for offline editing. You can even remove the watermark for non-commercial purposes, like showing your director and producers your edit. 

Once everyone’s happy to commit, you can upgrade your vub to a final quality output (up to 8K, 16-bit and with lossless color), so the online edit has a truly flawless result.

Because DeepEditor is assistive AI, not generative, every output from DeepEditor is fully controllable after creation. If needed, you have the option to use the DeepEditor refinement tool to make tweaks to the vub. 

It’s also critical you get consent from the actor once your vub is created via the Artistic Rights Treasury (A.R.T.) to be compliant with guilds and unions. 

  1. Place your vub in your timeline

Insert your DeepEditor vub into your timeline in Avid or other non-linear editor, and continue your edit!

The result:

  • No reshoots required
  • No awkward cutaways to hide mismatches
  • Original performance preserved, only dialogue changes
  • Faster, cheaper than traditional ADR workflows

 

Visual ADR Is Just the Beginning

DeepEditor offers several powerful use cases for film and TV production, each designed to solve specific post-production challenges:

Visual ADR addresses one of the most common pain points in post-production. But the underlying technology – frame-by-frame facial performance control – opens up new possibilities for how filmmakers work.