How to Blur Moving Objects/Faces in Vegas Pro

Benjamin Arango

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Many times it happens that you don't want the information or faces in the video to become public. This can be because of various reasons- the content you are showing might be sensitive, can distract somebody; restricted to be shared; as a blogger if you want to blur out the personal photos or on the other side you may want to focus on subject by blurring or pixelating the unwanted surroundings! Blurring helps in retaining the aesthetics of video without deleting anything! Sony (Magix) Vegas Pro can help in boosting retention of your video by providing you with active tools which can transition your video in a socially "acceptable" manner! With this software you can be sure that human time and energy invested in recording a video will produce a net positive ROI.

You May Also Like: How to Create a Watermark in Vegas Pro >>

Vegas Pro is undoubtedly a professional video editor which can give a unique edge to your video but it is priced at $599 and thus professionals can afford it but for novices Wondershare Filmora can prove to be a better option. Unlike Vegas Pro, it is available for both Windows and Mac and has pretty impressive dynamics to blur out. It free trial version is available for download through link below and is worth testing!

Blurring moving faces/objects in Vegas Pro

Four simple steps can help you in blurring things that you intend to hide in videos. Vegas Pro with its specialized tools will help in achieving the perfect blur/pixelate in just few clicks. Here is how you can get started.

Step 1: Importing of video file:

From the prime menu, choose the option to import the video by browsing through the location and then drag it into your timeline to start with effects!

Step 2: Duplicating the video track:

After video is imported, right click on the same and select the third option from the menu stating "Duplicate Track". This is to create the copy of the video and all the changes will be performed on this video keeping your original video intact. Now you are ready to place all of the emphasis on the desired subject!

Step 3: Beginning with Blurring:

a. On the upper event you can see a button like a rectangle which reads as Event Pan/Crop button. You can also find this by right clicking on the video track. Click on this option and continue with below steps.

b. A video Event FX Window will appear after clicking on option as above. The cropped video footage will appear and you would be able to see little rectangle shaped icons which will help in deciding the boundary of blurring. You can crop your images with this anchor creation tool and adjust the tangent angle to match the intricacies of image. But for blurring and masking you have to look at the window popped up at the bottom left and select Mask.

You might be interested in: How to crop video in Vegas Pro >>

c. Now select the Anchor Creation Tool which would be shaped something like a pen) and under sub-heading of Mask- switch option asking ‘Apply to FX’ as ‘YES’.

d. Now with this anchor and rectangles make a boundary around the face or object or information that you want to blur. You can draw it in any shape- rectangle, circle or anything! After you are done with selecting, this object with become highlighted and the remaining portion will be darkened a little temporarily.

e. Now on the timeline, you will see multiple tabs like Project Media, Explorer, Transitions, media generators etc. Go to the FX tab of video and search for Gaussian Blur or Pixelate effect. As soon as you will click, it will show some of the presets on the right of the window describing the levels of blurring. Select the one most feasible and drag it on to the top clip.

f. Even if you have chosen from presets, you can customize the blurring effect through the horizontal and vertical range. You can drag or simply type into the box the numeric requirement of blurring.

g. You are done with blurring! Just press space bar on your keyboard to see the preview!

If the object in your video is moving then you have to adjust the settings to ensure that the blur tracks the motion of the object. With Vegas Pro it is simple too! Just go to Event Pan/Crop option (where we went in step a.) and change the ‘anchor creation tool’ to ‘normal editing tool’.

This will move the blurring area as desired.

Step 4: Preview your effects and save it!

Check this Video Tutorial to know more:

Benjamin Arango

Benjamin Arango is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Benjamin Arango