Blur a small portion of video?

CJC

Member Joined: Dec 12, 2013 12:32 Messages: 53 Offline

Solved by

Jan 09, 2014 13:39

I'm wondering if there's an easy way to do this. For example on TV when they blur out nudity, etc. I don't need that exact effect, but I need to blur out things to make them unclear. I was thinking a mask would do the trick.. but I have never really used them before and ran into 2 issues. 1 is I guess I would need to make a custom mask as all the defaults are full screen masks, and 2. It appears I can only use a mask to darken/lighten a clip, not blur it (although I could technically make that work).

Any ideas?

CJC

Member Joined: Dec 12, 2013 12:32 Messages: 53 Offline

Jan 09, 2014 14:20

Ok I guess I jumped the gun as I figured it out right afterwards. For any future reference, here was my method, which turned out to be very simple.

Pick a photo you want to use as your blur/censor (find a texture online). I just used a black ripple texture image.
Create new pip with that image. I used a default mask just to round the edges. Feathered the mask a bit to round it more.
Set it to just barely transparent.
Unchecked aspect ratio and resized the Pip to be over the area I needed censored.
Pulled the pip image into a new track under my video and aligned it with the times I wanted to blur a part of my video.
Then used keyframes with the motion keyframe to ensure my blurred image was constantly over where I needed to blur.

Once I figured it out it was quite simple. I will need to do this often, so I saved the pip as (roughly) the size I will usually need it. So I will just need to insert it and fix the position with keyframes each time in the future.

CubbyHouseFilms

Senior Contributor Location: Melbourne, Australia Joined: Jul 14, 2009 04:23 Messages: 2208 Offline

Jan 09, 2014 16:56

Great work CJC

There is also a Blur FX in the FX room that can used too.

Happy editing

Happing editing

Best Regards

Neil
CubbyHouseFilms
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CJC

Member Joined: Dec 12, 2013 12:32 Messages: 53 Offline

Jan 09, 2014 17:09

Hehe... I suppose your way is much easier

I didn't even think to check there. But yeah that was exactly what I wanted lol. My only gripe there is that when using the keyframes it *appears* I need to keep clicking the mask button to move my blur instead of just having a draggable box in my preview screen. A little slower on videos where I have a lot of movement. But.. even if, that definitely looks a bit more professional than what I was doing.

CubbyHouseFilms

Senior Contributor Location: Melbourne, Australia Joined: Jul 14, 2009 04:23 Messages: 2208 Offline

Jan 09, 2014 17:59

Quote: Hehe... I suppose your way is much easier

I didn't even think to check there. But yeah that was exactly what I wanted lol. My only gripe there is that when using the keyframes it *appears* I need to keep clicking the mask button to move my blur instead of just having a draggable box in my preview screen. A little slower on videos where I have a lot of movement. But.. even if, that definitely looks a bit more professional than what I was doing.

Here's a quick Toot from the gang at PDtoots

They're using PD8 but the basics are the same:

And another using PD9:

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at Jan 09. 2014 20:32

Happing editing

Best Regards

Neil
CubbyHouseFilms
My Youtube Channel
My Vimeo Channel
PD3.5, 5, 6 & 7. Computer: Dell Dimension 5150, Intel Pen. 2.80 GHz, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT 256MB, Windows XP Pro!!
PD8 Ultra v3022. Computer: Dell Studio 1747, Intel, i7 Q740 1.73 GHz, 8GB RAM, ATI Mob. Radeon HD 560v 1GB, Windows 7 Ult. 64
PD10 Ultra v2023. Computer: HP Pavilion dv7, Intel, i7 2630 2.00 GHz, 8GB RAM, ATI Mob. Radeon HD 6770 2GB, Windows 7 Pre. 64
PD12 Ultra v2930. Computer: HP Pavilion dv7, Intel, i7 2630 2.00 GHz, 8GB RAM, ATI Mob. Radeon HD 6770 2GB, Windows 7 Pre. 64
PD13 Ultim v3516. Computer: HP Pavilion dv7, Intel, i7 2630 2.00 GHz, 8GB RAM, ATI Mob. Radeon HD 6770 2GB, Windows 7 Pre. 64
PD16 Live v2101 Computer: HP Pavilion dv7, Intel, i7 2630 2.00 GHz, 16GB RAM, ATI Mob.Radeon HD 6770 2GB, Windows 7 Pre. 64
Director Suite 6: PowerDirector 16 Live, PhotoDirector 9, ColorDirector 6, AudioDirector 8

Cameras: Sony(s) HXR-NX5P, HXR-NX70P, NEX-VG10E, a6300 4k, HDR TG5E, GoPro 4 Black, Canon 6D DSLR

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jerrys

Senior Contributor Location: New Britain, CT, USA (between New York and Boston) Joined: Feb 10, 2010 21:36 Messages: 1038 Offline

Jan 09, 2014 20:25

Quote: I will need to do this often, so I saved the pip as (roughly) the size I will usually need it. So I will just need to insert it and fix the position with keyframes each time in the future.

You must lead an interesting life. Jerry Schwartz

CJC

Member Joined: Dec 12, 2013 12:32 Messages: 53 Offline

Jan 10, 2014 09:15

Hehe, its actually for a very uninteresting reason. But yes, the blur tool makes it much quicker and nicer looking. Thanks!

I suppose my method can be used if anyone wants to blur using a custom image or texture!