Pixelating part of a moving image to remove ID features

[Peter Wright]

Copy that part of video to a track above itself.

Apply blur or pixellation to top track

Apply Cookie Cutter FX of appropriate shape and size to offending name tag.
Adding feathering will help blend rather than sharp edge.

Use keyframes to change position/size if offending part moves within frame.

Tip – temporarily muting bottom clip (R/Click > Switched > Mute will help defining area to be blurred.

Peter Wright
Perth, Western Oz
http://www.allroundvision.com.au

[Joseph Dezordi]

ok thanks, sounds tricky but challenging

I have so much trouble understanding & using those key frames. Do I do the key frames inside the ?track motion or ?the pan crop setting or how…?

[Peter Wright]

Yes, it can seem daunting, but once the “penny drops” it suddenly becomes easy – I’ll try and explain.

The Cookie Cutter basically makes a “hole” in one piece of video through which the video on a lower track will show through. This is when the “Method” box is set to “Cut away Section”

When Method is set to “Cut away all but selection” it does the opposite – everything else becomes transparent and only the selected shape will remain.

To achieve what you want you could either:

Use “Cut away section” and apply blur to the bottom video, or

Use “Cut away all but selection” and apply blur to the top video.

There are several sliders in the Cookie Cutter box – for now we need to use

Shape – There are several, let’s use the default circle for now.
Size – self explanatory
Feather – good for blending – try setting at 0.30 for starters.
The Window at the left has a square which will move the selection around – we’ll be doing this, with keyframes …

now, KEYFRAMES

At the bottom of every effect there is a Keyframe timeline – here we’re staying in the Cookie Cutter Window. The left hand end represents the beginning of the Event we’re working on, and the right hand end represents the end of the same Event.

If you click say in the centre of this line, you will see the cursor line.
Click the + sign in the diamond shape beneath. This creates a keyframe.
This keyframe represents all the settings from above, AT THAT POINT WITHIN THE EVENT.

So, if you change the size and position now, the “hole” you created at the beginning will move and change size as you play the event. Watch the preview as you work. Vegas will invisibly write all the intermediate frames, so the “hole” will move gradually from one position to the next. There are ways of varying how it does this, but for now let’s keep it simple.

You can insert as many keyframes as you want to change the settings of that effect over time.

You can use the mouse wheel to zoom in for fine adjustments.

There are more aspects of Keyframes, but for now, have a play and see how you go ….

Remember, what you’re trying to achieve is to move the blurred part of the picture so it always covers that name on the kid’s arm.

Peter Wright
Perth, Western Oz
http://www.allroundvision.com.au

[Edward Troxel]

For a full article on that topic, look at the “Blurring Faces a la ‘cops'” article in vol 1 #12 of my newsletters (link under my name)

Edward Troxel

[Joseph Dezordi]

Thank you all genetleman & especially Peter for your helpful responses, I found your instructions clear enough & I think I have been able to make progress….. just one more things,….. how close together can consecutive key frames be????

I admit I was confused by the termininology cookie cutter… I had no idea what it was for…

[Peter Wright]

If you zoom right in you can have a keyframe every frame, but you wouldn’t normally need that many.

When doing this sort of operation, I usually start by doing on every 2 or 3 seconds, then play/preview that, and if the blurred area “loses” track of the part I’m trying to cover, I insert intermediate ones and move the Cookie Cutter as necessary.

Peter Wright
Perth, Western Oz
http://www.allroundvision.com.au

[Joseph Dezordi]

ok thanks

I noted that at times I have 2 name bands, arm & leg,
I had to deal with that by putting up a third track over the other 2 & repeating the process.. is that how you do it?

[Peter Wright]

Joseph, the easiest way is to apply a second Cookie Cutter to the same event – I once had to track half a dozen different kids round a school yard, and had six Cookie Cutters each following their own subject!

Peter Wright
Perth, Western Oz
http://www.allroundvision.com.au

[Joseph Dezordi]

you mean you can add a second or third etc cookie cutter & just label them.. without addind additional tracks??? Of thats right, then it makes my life easier!

[Peter Wright]

Sure can – just lift the same FX onto the Event and a second Cookie Cutter window will open.

Peter Wright
Perth, Western Oz
http://www.allroundvision.com.au