Welcome to another in a series of Adobe Premiere Pro tutorials presented by San Diego video production company, BizVid Communications. This tutorial is an update to a previous tutorial we created titled, “How to Blur Faces in Premiere Pro” which was created in 2012. In this new version, I will show you a much easier and effective way to obtain a tracking mask. So let’s get started.
I have already placed in my timeline a clip that requires some specialized blurring. In this case, I want to blur the face of the model as she walks across the set. First, I’ll position the CTI at the head of the clip. Next, from the Effects Panel, I’ll select the element I’ll use for the blur. I can choose “Gaussian Blur” or “Mosaic” and today I will use “Mosaic.” So I position my mouse inside the effects search window and type “Mosaic.” This gets me right to the effect without a lengthy search. Next, I click and drag the effect onto the clip. As you can see, the entire clip turned mosaic which is not what we want.
So it’s time to use a mask. I have three choices…the “Free Draw Bezier,” the “Four Point Polygon Mask” or the “Ellipse Mask.” Since I want to blur the face, I’m going to choose the “Ellipse Mask” which immediately adds a circle in the frame. You notice that the circle has “handles” so that it can be manipulated into the correct position. Next, I’ll form the mosaic around the face by stretching and moving. Now, I will position my mouse on the play button that will track the selected mask forward as the subject moves in that direction, and click. As you can see Premiere is now memorizing and tracking the mosaic blur with it.
Okay it is done and I can click and drag in the timeline to be sure that the face stayed covered. If adjustments need to be made, that is easy. Simply click and drag one on of the handles to the desired positon. By doing so, you are repositioning the keyframe that was automatically generated on the first pas. If the mosaic circle seems hard, feather it. And there you have it, a very simple way to track a blur by using a mask and Premiere’s built in tracking. I hope this tutorial was helpful. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Premiere tutorials as well as visit our website to see the type of video production work that we do. So until next time…..happy editing.