Event FX suggestion for spot blur

Gary James wrote on 7/22/2012, 11:04 AM
We've all seen those TV news spots where they show a guy doing a perp walk in handcuffs. Many times someone nearby has their face blurred out to protect their privacy. I'm looking to do a similar effect - for a totally different reason! 8^)

If Vegas has something built-in for this I can't find it. The closest thing I can come up with is to use a mask (several techniques for this), a duplicate second track, and blur the entire 2nd track.

I'd like the spot blur effect to have feathered edges, and be able to move as needed if the target object to be blurred moves. Does anyone have a better suggestion?

Comments

altarvic wrote on 7/22/2012, 12:13 PM
AFAIK, this is the only way to do this with the built-in Vegas tools.
The better way is third-party plugins like Boris FX Motion Tracker
mudsmith wrote on 7/22/2012, 1:33 PM
Sony has done webinars on this very subject, and they should be readily available here on the site........my memory is that it was pretty easy and pretty quick.
TeetimeNC wrote on 7/22/2012, 2:59 PM
Gary you can use the dual track method you mentioned and animate the cookie cutter fx on the top track to track the motion. You can also set it to feather the edges. It isn't difficult at all if the blurred part runs minutes. For long-running blurs, then definitely look into a motion tracking solution.

/jerry
Gary James wrote on 7/22/2012, 5:29 PM
The only problem with Cookie Cutter is you have to use one of the predefined shapes, and these aren't dimensionally adjustable.
PeterWright wrote on 7/22/2012, 7:27 PM
You can create your own shapes with Bezier Masking in Pan Crop.
Gary James wrote on 7/22/2012, 8:02 PM
Peter, that was one of the options I described in my original posting. I was hoping for something less tedious.