Blur out a moving face through easy automatic tracking Premiere Pro
To blur out the moving face of a person, click on Window to activate Effects panel as well as Effect Controls panel Adobe Premiere Pro. → Watch Video Tutorial.
Now select the clip in timeline. Come to the Effects panel, enter ‘blur’ in search. You can apply Mosaic, Gaussian, and Fast blur but I will double click on Camera Blur to apply this effect on the clip. Whole clip will be blurred.
So, in the Effect Controls panel, under mask name, select Ellipse shape.
For automatic forward tracking (play button in Effect Controls), bring the playhead at the start of clip. But, if a face enters screen from the side, then backward tracking will be easier for such clip. So, move the playhead at the end of clip.
For better view, you can drag the bold line between program monitor and timeline to increase the area of program monitor.
Drag and position the mask over face.
For the time being, reduce the opacity of mask so that you can see the face movement behind mask.
To resize mask in the same shape, bring pointer on a vertex point, press Shift on keyboard, and when mouse pointer becomes double arrow, move it to change the size of mask. Alternatively, you can also drag the vertex points to set the mask over intended portion of the face. Adjust the mask to blur the intended portion of face. If necessary, you can add more vertex points and set the curve through its handles.
Now in Effect Controls, click on the wrench symbol and select ‘Position, Scale & Rotation’ option.
Now click the arrow button of backward motion track.
Premiere Pro will start analyzing the masked area and mask will start moving along with the face. It will also create keyframes in timeline view.
If Premiere Pro is not tracking well, you can stop it, reset the position of mask and start tracking again.
In playback, test the movement of mask over face and refine it. You can right-click to delete some or all keyframes in timeline view (on the right side of Effect Controls) or delete even the mask to start over again.
Finally, you can increase the opacity value for more thickness of blur. You may also increase the mask feather to soften the mask edges and blend it with background.
More Resources
Blur multiple Faces or multiple objects in Premiere Pro.
Blur out a face moving behind another person without blurring the face on front.
Method to Blur BACKGROUND behind a Text in Premiere Pro.
Method to Hide Something on Screen in Premiere Pro without using Blur.
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