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Blurring Faces
I was handed a tape by a client whom is a private investigator. It is VHS, and he needs faces blurred out to hide the identities of a few individuals. It’s only a two minute tape.
What I’ve been doing is simply animating a mask over the original footage and then blurring the mask. I’m convinced that there’s probably an easier way to do this, however, so I perused the archives and didn’t come up with anything. I figured I’d ask the experts if there is an easier way to do it. The tape is short, but the camerawork is horrible (the PI using the camera didn’t do the best job holding it still) and the individuals are moving too. Since it’s short I’ve been going frame by frame, but it’s beginning to cut into the rest of the work that I’ve got for today.
Is there anyone who has any kind of experience with this type of thing and could suggest a better way?
Thanks again for all the help.
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1 Reply
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Thanks for the advice, Dave. I’m experimenting with the motion tracker right now. It’s taking quite awhile though, as the quality of the video and the motion of both the subject and cameraman are old school VHS.
Experimenting with your technique I found that, if I can get the motion tracking to work well enough, I can simply add an adjustment layer, pickwhip it to the feature center of the motion tracker, add an appropriate mask, and then blur the mask. The mask feather, expansion, etc. are adjusted if necessary.
Thanks, again, for the tips!
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