Face or area blur in V3??

richardhince

Hi everyone, a fairly new user of Videopad here posting for the first time. I have a need to blur out things in my videos, at the moment I am trying to blur a car registration plate. Nothing I have tried so far has worked. I was wondering if anyone else had done this, or if there is a plugin somewhere that can do such a thing? I have spend a couple of hours downloading and installing various virtualdub filters but no luck with that approach either! Going a bit crazy... Richard

darrinb

Hi, I have been trying to do this too. The only thing so far I have been able to do is create a colored block in (i usually use white) in a graphics editor and then save it as a .png file on my desktop. Then I load it into video pad as an image. this is where it gets a little tricky. I create another video track, move the frame I want to block out some content, then I add the image to the new video track. I then select the frame in the the new track to make sure its on long enough to keep the private stuff covered. I then select the image frame on new track and edit effects, adding scale and position. And then all you need to do is get it to the right size and position. That is my current method, Hoe it helps, when I find out a way to do it easier or blur things out I will post again...

[deleted]

VP is not really designed to do this sort of thing but provided the area to be obscured is moving in a relatively straight line in the clip concerned it is quite possible but needs patience to set it up.(and provided VP doesn't crash!)

To start with.

Place the clip with the part to be obscured onto the main sequence track.

Create a blank frame (black or white depending on your fancy) and drag and drop this onto the overlay track.

Expand the track.

Select the overlay frame and drag it left so it is coincident with the start of the main video. Now drag the right hand end out so it has the same duration as the main track. (Or you can go into storyboad mode and set the duration there.)

Place the sequence cursor at the start.

Now.......

Right click the overlay image "Add or Edit Video Effects" star followed by "Add Effects"

Move the "Appplied Effects" window to the left so you can still see the sequence preview screen. It should display your overlay frame at this point as your main video is covered by this.

Select the "Motion Effect"

The next step is to reduce the size of the blank frame so it is the same size as the part to be obscured. So move the "Scale%" slider to the left until the blank frame is the size required. At this point the aspect ratio of the rectangle will remain unchanged. Assuming you have selected black for your blank frame you should end up by seeing in the sequence preview window on the right (behind the effects window) the first frame of your video with a black rectangle in the centre.

The next step is to move this black rectangle so it covers the part of the video frame required.

Do this by altering the "Position X (%)" and the "Position Y(%)" values. (Be patient and do it a bit at a time!)

Once you have done this click each of the Green Crosses to fix the position of the overlay for the first keyframe.

Click "Close" to go back to the main VP window and slide the red cursor along to the end of the clip. (You will see your black rectangle remain staionary at this point.

Open the overlay "Motion" effects window again (click the star etc.) and slide the effects red preview effects cursor along to the end of the overlay clip. (The overlay preview will not change as you do this and will appear as a black rectangle surrounded by a chequered area.).

The first keyframe reference points will turn green and remain in place when you do this.

Now repeat the positioning procedure once again with the Position X/Y% values using the last video frame visible in the sequence preview window on the right.

Fix the new values for keyframe 2 with the Green Crosses and press "Close"

When you now play the sequence you should see a black rectangle move with the video and covering your "unwanted" area.

(This is provided VP doesn't crash......which it did on several occasions during the positioning routine.) :angry: It did reload the auto-saved project each time however...

Anyway that's the procedure. It works best if the object you wish to cover moves at a constant speed in a straight line.

If you find the the black rectangle a bit too "abrupt" you could add a "Smooth" effect to it which would blur the edges.

Nat

monteman

there's some great youtube videos on this method.

I was hoping there was a plug in or something that would be a little more automatic and less time consuming!

I have a need to do this too and would like any help I can get