00:01:16:00Feature · Sources & Licenses
An AI b-roll finder that tracks licenses.
Research is the OpenVids agent that finds b-roll and sources for your film and keeps track of where each one came from: the license, the author, and the credit. Licenses it can’t confirm are flagged for you to check. Export isn’t blocked, and the credit lines are ready to copy.
Last updated
One request, six sources
Every frame should know where it came from. In the demo project on the landing page, Research gets one sentence for the Cold open:
“Find open-licensed footage that shows where film editing came from, for the Cold open.”
Research added 6 assets for Cold open · 2 need a license check
- Big_Buck_Bunny_4K.webmBlender Foundation · CC BY 3.0Verified
- Sintel_movie_4K.webmBlender Foundation · Durian Open Movie project · CC BY 3.0Verified
- Tears_of_Steel_1080p.webmBlender Foundation · Project Mango · CC BY 3.0Verified
- The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17.jpgNASA · Apollo 17 crew · Public domainVerified
- Steenbeck-rollers.jpgAndrew Lih · CC BY-SA 2.0Uncertain
- Brad_Mays_editing_Stage_Fright_1987.jpgBrad Mays (uploaded as Bradmays) · CC BY-SA 3.0Uncertain
Four verified, two to review. All six are from Wikimedia Commons, and they are the stills you see on the OpenVids landing page.
What a license check says
A status on its own isn’t much help. The note behind it is what you act on. These are the notes from the demo:
- Verified
- The three Blender open movies: “Read from the file page’s license template. Author matches the credit line.”
- Verified
- The Blue Marble: “Public domain as a work of NASA. Don’t imply that NASA endorses the video.” Verified still comes with a condition.
- Uncertain
- Steenbeck rollers, CC BY-SA 2.0: share-alike. If the trailer counts as an adaptation of the photo, it has to be released under a compatible license, and that depends on how the photo is used.
- Uncertain
- Brad Mays at the Moviola, CC BY-SA 3.0: share-alike terms, and the photo shows an identifiable person. For a promotional video, check that the person’s consent isn’t needed.
“Uncertain” here doesn’t mean forbidden. It means the answer depends on how you use the material, which is a judgment only you can make.
Flagged, never blocked
Research doesn’t stand between you and the export. Export isn’t blocked: disputed licenses are flagged, and the credit lines are ready to copy. Whether a flagged shot stays in, gets swapped, or needs a closer read of its license is your decision, made with the note in front of you.
Credit lines, ready to copy
CC BY and CC BY-SA licenses ask for attribution, so a source is only half-handled until its credit is written. This is what finished credit lines look like, taken from the footer of openvids.ai for the footage on the landing page:
- “Big Buck Bunny” — Blender Foundation, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- “Sintel” — Blender Foundation (Durian Open Movie project), CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- “Tears of Steel” — Blender Foundation (mango.blender.org), CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- “The Blue Marble” — NASA / Apollo 17 crew, public domain
- “Steenbeck film editing machine” — Andrew Lih, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- “Brad Mays editing Stage Fright, 1987” — Bradmays, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
B-roll for the cut
Research works on the edit as well as the archive. Asked to “find B-roll that can cover the interview transitions without changing the story”, it came back in the demo with six selects: city-night exteriors and two workshop details that match the interview beats.
That request ran in Ask mode, so Research answered rather than edited, and choosing the selects stayed with you. The same agent works in Plan and Edit too. See how the agents and modes fit together.
00:01:28:00Outro
Every frame knows where it came from.
OpenVids is free and open source, for macOS and Windows.