How to blur faces?

[funsoul]

Hi Folks,

Am hoping that someone here can help answer this question. For reasons that we don't really need to go in to (although I'm sure that most here can imagine), I want to blur out the faces from the home videos.

Do any of you know how to do this or know of any guides for doing it? I've got most apps so would be most interested in whatever people have found easiest.

Thanks in advance!
-funsoul

[Dr Mordrid]

I use the STAR video filter.

If you set it up right this results in a colored blob you can move around by adding keyframes as the subject moves around.

In order to "set it up right" you should set the opacity to 100%, the star and halo values should be set to 1 and the sun size to whatever diameter you need.

Also make sure the the start and end keyframes are set to the same values before starting to track the subject. If not you'll be resetting them every time you make a new keyframe.

To track the subject start at frame 1 and start advancing frame-by-frame through the clip. As the subject moves around the frame set a new keyframe and move the cross in the left window to follow him/her/it. Advance the video a bit more then adjust the position as necessary.

When your subject is out of the frame you just move the star to the side of the frame and set its size to 1 and its opacity to 0.

Once done with a given subject you can go back to the beginning and create more "stars" for other subjects.

Tedious in a long sequence, but effective.

Dr. Mordrid

[funsoul]

Thanks Dr Mordrid!!

I'm starting to play with it now and, you're right, this is the way to go. Need to rtfm a bit to get the hang of keyframes but your advice is very much appreciated!

Thank you once again for sharing your expertise!
-funsoul

[funsoul]

Hi again

ok...playing with it but am wondering why the settings for the star filter start to change all by themselves? It seems that the changes occur faster (after each frame!) toward the end of the clip, too.

Any ideas?

[Indiana]

Ever tried to use a Nvidia card for playback? O.K. this will blur the whole output and not just the faces....

P.S.: Sorry for not being helpful, but reading the title of your post I could not resist. Unfortunately I don't know a simple solution for your problem.

[Dr Mordrid]

Did you set the start and end keyframes to the same values before adding new keyframes?

This is essential or else it'll interpolate between the latest keyframe and the end one, which would explain the acceleration.

Dr. Mordrid

[funsoul]

Dr. Mordrid,
ahhhhh....that helps a lot! It took me another look to figure out how to do it but much better now...thanks! It does take ages so I reduced my test file from 10 seconds to 5...really excited to try one of those 30 minute scenes *

ok...now another couple issues/questions. With the settings in your post, there still appears to be a significant amount of halo-ing. The spot at the center is very solid, though. Also, with close-ups, the 100 diamter is still not enough to fully hide the face. Is there anyway work around this? Is there any way to add another sun and automatically get it to track at some point just next to the first one?

One last (but related) question...is there some way that I could make something with video paint and then overlay that onto the video? I'm looking around but can't quite make out how to make the background transparent.

Again Dr., thank you for the assistance!
-funsoul

PS- Indiana- sounds like a sweet card! Do they have full driver support? ;P Do you know other not-as-simple solutions?

[Dr Mordrid]

For close ups you might have to resort to a blob painted onto a 32 bit *.tga or *.psd file. This can be alpha channeled and moved around using a moving path. Best used for talking heads as you don't have those nice little crosses the Star effect has.

You could also use Video Paint as well, but I haven't need to go that far yet. The star and moving paths have worked for my needs so far.

Dr. Mordrid

[funsoul]

Thanks Dr! Will play around with it...working on reading up a bit.
Thanks again!