What NLE to blur license plate?

[n8mac]

I shot 3 videos of a car for my dads business but we forgot to take off the license plates and now they want me to blur or block the plates before putting the vids on facebook. What are my software options? (using 2010 Mac Pro)

The camera is a GoPro shot in 1080p and I have been using the free GoPro studio which I assume you can't get a plug in to do this? The second video will be easy as the GoPro is mounted on a tripod and the car doesn't move. The first and third videos are going to be trickier as the camera is moved around the car. I know this will involve some tedius frame by frame work but I don't mind. I counted about 20-25 seconds the plate is in view between the first and third videos.

Reshooting the video is not really practical. They prefer me keep it on the cheap as they don't have me do many videos and usually they are basic cuts when I do. I told them this process is not going to be easy or cheap though.

So far I have worked with iMovie 6 and FCP 5.

 

[MiG007]

You could download a trial of Adobe Premiere Pro. They have built in tracking on their masks. (I do it all the time.) Blackmagic Davinci Resolve is free for HD and has tracking in it but haven't used it.

In Premiere it is fairly simple. Import your clip. Create a sequence with that clip. Make a copy of that clip and put it on the next layer above. (Option drag)

Make sure you have pause the timeline at a point in the clip when the plate is most visible to camera.

Then select the top clip, go in to the Effect Controls tab for the clip -- you'll find that above the source (left) window. In the opacity section there is a pen tool.

Click and draw around the license plate on the clip in the record window to create a mask. Make sure to close the mask by clicking on the first point you started with.

In the same opacity section there are arrow buttons pointing left and right. These will start the tracking process either forward or backward. There are also buttons to do the tracking step by step for difficult tracks. The mask should track your license plate.

If the best view of the plate is in the middle of the clip, first track from the middle of the clip to the start of the clip. Then reposition the timeline to middle of the clip (you'll see keyframes being built in the Effect Controls window) and track forward to the end of the clip.

Sometimes it won't work the first time or it might start drifting off. Stop the tracking and delete wayward keyframes, reposition the mask and continue.

Once tracked click on the Inverse checkbox in the opacity section. This will invert the mask so the license plate will now be a hole where the bottom layer will show through.

Now go to the Effects tab open up the Video Effects folder and select a blur effect and drag it on to the bottom layer. Gaussian works.

Once it is on the bottom layer clip, select the clip then select the Effects Control tab and you should now see a Gaussian blur filter control. Dial it up and your license plate should blur.

NOTE: Sometimes it can be hard to see what is going on with the mask. You can right click on the bottom clip and disable it and then you should see black show through the mask.

Hope that helps. if text explanation is not helpful do a search on Premier Pro Mask Tracking

 

[n8mac]

Thanks so much for your reply and how to . Didnt think about trial software. So it doesnt have a watermark on export?

 

[jrlcopy]

You could download a trial of Adobe Premiere Pro. They have built in tracking on their masks. (I do it all the time.) Blackmagic Davinci Resolve is free for HD and has tracking in it but haven't used it.

In Premiere it is fairly simple. Import your clip. Create a sequence with that clip. Make a copy of that clip and put it on the next layer above. (Option drag)

Make sure you have pause the timeline at a point in the clip when the plate is most visible to camera.

Then select the top clip, go in to the Effect Controls tab for the clip -- you'll find that above the source (left) window. In the opacity section there is a pen tool.

Click and draw around the license plate on the clip in the record window to create a mask. Make sure to close the mask by clicking on the first point you started with.

In the same opacity section there are arrow buttons pointing left and right. These will start the tracking process either forward or backward. There are also buttons to do the tracking step by step for difficult tracks. The mask should track your license plate.

If the best view of the plate is in the middle of the clip, first track from the middle of the clip to the start of the clip. Then reposition the timeline to middle of the clip (you'll see keyframes being built in the Effect Controls window) and track forward to the end of the clip.

Sometimes it won't work the first time or it might start drifting off. Stop the tracking and delete wayward keyframes, reposition the mask and continue.

Once tracked click on the Inverse checkbox in the opacity section. This will invert the mask so the license plate will now be a hole where the bottom layer will show through.

Now go to the Effects tab open up the Video Effects folder and select a blur effect and drag it on to the bottom layer. Gaussian works.

Once it is on the bottom layer clip, select the clip then select the Effects Control tab and you should now see a Gaussian blur filter control. Dial it up and your license plate should blur.

NOTE: Sometimes it can be hard to see what is going on with the mask. You can right click on the bottom clip and disable it and then you should see black show through the mask.

Hope that helps. if text explanation is not helpful do a search on Premier Pro Mask Tracking

Uhh most of those steps aren't needed.
Just toss the Gaussian blur effect onto the clip, use the effect to draw a box around what you want to blur and then in your effects control just press the right and left arrows to track it.
No idea why you would need to duplicate/inverse/etc... Keep it simple is how the professionals do it!

 

[MiG007]

Yes that is simpler.

My habit of layers comes from some bugs in PPro with tracking on some files depending on codecs. Also allows trying different blur effects (and image correction) without having to cut and past masks.

nMac8 there is no watermark.

 

[Msivyparrot]

Final Cut Pro X would work, it has keyframes, and it would be so easy to do, really not hard at all...

 

[Boyd01]

SliceX from CoreMelt can do this and they have a free version. However it's a plug-in that requires Final Cut Pro X which apparently the OP does not have. But there's a fully functional 30 day trial. Nevertheless, since this is a two month old thread and evidently he needed a solution right away, this is all probably irrelevant. But maybe it will help someone else?

https://coremelt.com/products/slicex-free
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/trial/

 

[Msivyparrot]

That is the point of why I responded, and often respond to older threads, sure the problem for that person may have been solved/lapsed, but maybe someone else is looking for a result..I did not explain my solution, as it would have been a waste of time, but if someone needs a solution, and they ask, I will supply how to do it on FCPX...
[doublepost=1510496448][/doublepost]

That is the point of why I responded, and often respond to older threads, sure the problem for that person may have been solved/lapsed, but maybe someone else is looking for a result..I did not explain my solution, as it would have been a waste of time, but if someone needs a solution, and they ask, I will supply how to do it on FCPX...

You really don't need fancy tools, easy in FCPX, or any quality editor if you know what you are doing...many ways to solve this...and spending money on something like sliceX is not required....

 

[Boyd01]

You really don't need fancy tools, easy in FCPX, or any quality editor if you know what you are doing...many ways to solve this...and spending money on something like sliceX is not required....

I have spent considerable time keyframing animation in FCPX, so that is certainly possible. But depending on camera movement, motion tracking software can make the job easier. And if you actually read what I posted, you don't need to spend any money. The version of SliceX I linked to is completely free and fully functional. It just lacks the more sophisticated tools for keyframing polygons, which are not needed for blurring a license plate.

 

[martinX]

GeeThree makes (made?) plugins for iMovie 6 and they are still available.
http://www.geethree.com/slick/index.html

I used to have plugins for FCP5/6/7 that made the blurring process easier, but I can't seem to find the specific blur one. It just made a simple resizable blur and you added keyframes to track. Big PITA but that's why FCP X users get SliceX (it seems to be free now).

 

[Boyd01]

FCP X users get SliceX (it seems to be free now).

The free version only has the rectangle and ellipse tools, there's a paid version with polygons and splines. https://coremelt.com/products/slicex-powered-by-mocha