Blurring faces, is there a better way?

TeetimeNC wrote on 1/8/2010, 12:23 PM

A client has me blurring faces in some footage she shot. There is enough footage that I want to be sure I am using the smartest approach. I've duped the video track, blurred the lower track, and am using cookie cutter on the faces to explose the blur.

I'm using my shuttlepro to move through the footage, placing cookie cutter keyframes as needed to track the moving faces. Each time I create a new keyframe I then have to then click in area of the keyframe timeline to give it focus so I can resume scrubbing with the shuttlepro. I'd like to know if there is a way to eliminate this excessive mouse work. BTW, I am on the original shuttlepro so no macros.

It occurred to me that it would be great if I could just play the clip at a slow frame rate and keep the mouse in the cookie cutter controls, clicking there as necessary to create keyframes. But unfortunately when I play the timeline, the cookie cutter play head doesn't move, which it would have to do for this to work.

Is there a way to play the timeline and update keyframes without having to shift focus between the keyframe controller and the timeline? Or perhaps some other neat trick I haven't thought of?

Jerry

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 1/8/2010, 1:15 PM

> Is there a way to play the timeline and update keyframes without having to shift focus between the keyframe controller and the timeline?

Yup! Go into Options | Preference and enable Make spacebar and F12 Play/Pause instead of Play/Stop. As you may know, F12 does not require the timeline to have focus in order to control playback. Keep the Sync Cursor enabled in the Cookie Cutter and now when you use F12 to pause playback, the cursor in the Cookie Cutter timeline will jump to the current timeline cursor position. ;-) All you need to do now is sit in the Cookie Cutter and use F12 to play/pause and add keyframes. You never need to loose focus to the timeline.

~jr

TeetimeNC wrote on 1/8/2010, 2:25 PM

EXCELLENT! Thanks jr.

MUTTLEY wrote on 1/8/2010, 2:53 PM

Great advice Johnny, as always.

Couldn't resist the opportunity to say once again how much I wish Vegas supported motion tracking!!! ... there, I said it. =)

- Ray
Underground Planet

rdolishny wrote on 1/8/2010, 4:33 PM

Avid has a really nice blur certain area filter combined with it's tracking ... you can track a huge number of faces in one pass.

Seriously if it's more than one or two faces I'd send the clip to someone with an Avid and it will take 10 seconds.

Earl_J wrote on 1/8/2010, 4:57 PM

rdolishny,
it is apparent that you don't know TeeTime personally, he is not the send it off type of guy ... grin ... He is more the there's gotta be a way to make it work, by golly kind of guy...
I love his golf video with the golfball intro ...
TeeTime, maybe you have that stored someplace that you can share with us? Or perhaps just the intro - I love it so...

Until that time... Earl J.

TeetimeNC wrote on 1/8/2010, 8:08 PM

Thanks Earl, I'll try to round up a copy sometime and post it. That's an old one but still one of my favs.

Regarding motion tracking and blurred faces - I have After Effects and have done some motion tracking projects with it. I don't have Avid experience so I can't comment on it. I do have After Effects and have done some motion tracking projects there. In this case I have about thirty 1-2 minute clips recorded with a button hole (hidden) camera. There are one or two faces per clip but they are moving in and out of frame alot. I decided the setup time for such short clips might be more trouble than just doing the blurring manually in Vegas. I might be wrong.

Back to Earl, you are right - I'm more inclined to do myself (with help from this forum) than send it off. It's an illness but I'm stuck with it ;).

Jerry

CClub wrote on 1/9/2010, 8:35 AM

What's infuriating about blurring faces using the method TeeTime uses (as I do also) is if you try to fade the video event. Trying to line up both tracks to have the upper AND lower tracks fade concurrently is nearly impossible. Any suggestions?

Tim L wrote on 1/9/2010, 9:33 AM

Anytime you want to fade multiple tracks simultaneously -- especially with titles, etc. -- just put a black media generator on a track above all the others and fade into the black event. That way your titles, etc., don't start to turn transparent as you try to fade to black (as they would if you just fade out all of your lower tracks).

Don't forget that a fade out on an event is really a transparency fade -- it's just that it normally looks like a fade to black because there's nothing but black below it.

TeetimeNC wrote on 1/9/2010, 9:49 AM

Or even easier, put a "fade to color" envelope on your top video track. This will fade that track and all below it.

Jerry

Grazie wrote on 1/9/2010, 10:12 AM

Eh?

I just did a Cookie Cutter added to the Track, as a Track Fx. When I roll the video and manoeuvre the positional Square in Cookie Cutter I automatically get a whole load of Keyframes. And setting the playback to something like 0.25 gets me enough control to be able to concentrate on the Preview while I move the positional square within Cookie Cutter.

On full playback I am getting a circle (Cookie Cutter) dancing all over the place!

Grazie

Steve Crouch wrote on 1/9/2010, 10:31 AM

If you want to cross fade between an event with an overlay and another event (instead of fading to black) I use compositing children with a multiply mask to fade both tracks together.

You end up with something like the following:

Track 1: Contains solid white generated media with a fade on the begining / end as required. The compositing mode on this track is set to "Multiply (Mask)".
Track 2: Contains your overlay using video FX / cookie cutter. This track is set as a compositing child of track 1.
Track 3: Contains the second layer of video. This track is also set as a compositing child of track 1.
Track 4: Contains the next event to fade into. Line up the start of the event with the start of the fade on the generated media on track 1. This is a top level track, it is not a compositing parent or child.

The mask in track 1 controls the transparency of all the child tracks, so all the child tracks fade to transparent and track 4 becomes visible.

Grazie wrote on 1/9/2010, 10:34 AM

Oooo... I like that Steve - Thanks!

Grazie

TeetimeNC wrote on 1/9/2010, 1:32 PM

Wow Grazie. I hadn't tried putting the cookie cutter at the track level. This is almost exactly what I want to happen. What is it with all that jumping around?

If I could get it to only put down a new keyframe when I actually change a value I would be very happy with this. Then I would put it in .5 speed and click a new position or size as needed. This would probably give me a pretty good first run at the blurring. For most of mine, some cleanup would be required, but hopefully minimal.

EDIT: Aha, try changing the automation setting to Automation Write: Latch! This gets us closer as it holds its setting. However, since it is spewing a steady stream of keyframes it makes it difficult to then go back and do cleanup. I wish there was an automation setting that was "Automation Write: On Change Only". That would work perfectly for me.

EDIT2: Double Aha. It does work, I just wasn't patient enough. It spews down "temporary" key frames as part of the automation. They disappear as soon as either of the following happens:

1. You stop the play, or
2. You change the setting.

Yahoo!

Jerry

Grazie wrote on 1/9/2010, 10:12 PM

Latch and Wirte (L&W) are useful functions when using sliders. Try it on an Audio envelope too. I do this directly from the audio "Mixer Console" Interface. Neat! - All the envelopes I've used at Track level allow me to use L&W. It's a pity we can't get Cookie Cutter or other FXs to have their own Envelope?

Thinking outside the box here, it would be real neat if we had a VISUAL Envelope Mixer, that controlled track Envelopes and we were able to use a mouse wheel to be able in real time to twiddle, again, in real-time do Visual Mixing? Maybe even fold Envelopes to affect other Envelopes?

Then how about Audio Envelopes that effected Visual Envelopes - and vice versa?

Can you imagine the creative options in Compositing and so on if we could mix envelopes?

It's as if we have gotten so far with VEgas. We have the tools but this underlying potential hasn't been further explored.

Can you imagine the future with a combined Visual and Audio Mixing Console?

Hey . . . ho . . . . .

Grazie