Blur out a face moving behind another person without blurring the face on front Premiere Pro
In this Adobe Premiere Pro tutorial you will learn the method to blur the face of the person on rear side but without hiding the other face on the front.
→ Watch Video Tutorial Below.
To do it, search blur and drag the Mosaic, Gaussian or Camera Blur over the clip. Please note that you can click Window to activate Effects panel and Effect Controls panel - if these are not already visible in dashboard.
Select Ellipse shape in Effect Controls. Temporarily reduce the mask opacity.
Select Mask in Effect Controls to show its guidelines in Program Monitor.
Resize and reposition the mask in program monitor to fit it over the face of rear person.
Bring the playhead at the start of clip. In Effect Controls panel, select the mask, then click on the forward track button. Premiere Pro will analyze and track face movements.
Premiere Pro will fail to track face movement while passing behind the person on front
You can stop tracking because Premiere Pro fails to track the face when it starts moving behind the person on front.
Bring back the playhead on the point where the face starts touching the shoulder of the person on front. Select and delete the unwanted keyframes next to the position of playhead, because you can recreate those keyframes one by one.
For close up view, increase the zoom level and through sliders make the intended portion visible in program monitor.
Now keep pressing the ‘1 frame track button’ and it will keep moving the mask over face while adding 1 keyframe on each click in timeline view.
What if Mask Comes Over the Body of Font Person
If the mask comes over the body of the person on front, you can add new point over mask and adjust other vertex points to keep the mask away from body. Each vertex point has two handles. You can drag, stretch, contract and move each handle to create a smooth curve.
Do not move mask when it approaches the body of front person
When the face of the rear person moves near to the face of the the person on front, you should precisely adjust the mask outline around the face of the person on front. After this outline, you should not move 1 frame track button (in Effect Controls, next to Mask Path) because it also moves the mask with rear face. Here I only need to move forward the face of the rear person. To do this, move only the playhead slowly either in timeline or in timeline view.
After moving face of the rear person a few frames forward, you can see that the extra mask portion behind the face will look bad in playback. Drag forward the rear vertex points, Premiere Pro will create a new keyframe in timeline view.
If you playback, you will see that mask starts shrinking as the face moves forward.
Avoid Deleting a Vertex Point of Mask
Please note that when the mouse pointer adopts the shape of a pen, you can click on mouse to add a new vertex point. To delete a control point, press Ctrl, bring mouse pointer over a point and when minus sign appears beside pen, click on the point and it will be deleted. However, you should be very careful and must not delete the previously added points, for example, if you delete some original vertex points, this action will deform the mask shape at all earlier placements.
Now move the face further behind the the person on front while adjusting the mask shape.
Add New Mask on other Side of the Face of Person on Front
Now move the rear face to other side of the front person. If this mask has only few vertex points then you can drag the same mask to the other side of the the person on front. However, do not take it to other side if the mask has too many vertex points and it will take extra time for readjusting the shape of mask.
Therefore, add a new mask on other side by clicking ellipse shape in Effect Controls panel. Adjust the size and position of mask over the face of rear person.
Now in Effect Controls, there will be two masks with their own properties - Mask 1 and mask 2.
Adjust Size and Position of Mask 2
Turn ON the toggle animation button of mask path of mask 2 which will create the first keyframe in timeline view.
Select the mask 2 and keep moving playhead while at the same time, adjusting the mask values to hide face of the rear person. If necessary, you can add new vertex point and fix the curves of the control points so that mask covers the moving face of the rear person.
When the complete rear face come out of the person on front, it is safe to move the mask and face at once. So, you can click 1 frame track button and keep repeating this action while at the same time adjusting the blur over face of the rear person.
Here if the path is too long, you can also apply fast forward automatic tracking option.
Now you can also increase the opacity of the masks.
Method to Hide the Still Masks
Now you have tracked the complete path of masks. Playback and adjust the mask shape if necessary.
But you will notice one problem; that the masks on both side of the the face of front person are continuously visible which looks bad.
To hide the unnecessary portion of mask 1, bring playhead over the last keyframe of the mask 1. Click the toggle animation button beside Opacity. It will create a value keyframe at the playhead location, next to the property of mask opacity. Please note that to show value keyframes, you must have expanded the Opacity property by clicking on the triangle button. Now move playhead and add a second value keyframe, closer to the first keyframe. Now click the line of value keyframes after second keyframe and drag it downwards.
Instantly, in program monitor, the unnecessary mask 1 will be disappeared.
In playback, you will also see that now the mask 1 is not visible when you play forward.
Using the same method, you can also hide the unwanted portion of mask 2, but this time you will drag down the line one the left.
More Resources
Blur multiple Faces or multiple objects in Premiere Pro.
Method to Blur BACKGROUND behind a Text in Premiere Pro.
Blur out a moving face through easy Premiere Pro automatic tracking.
Replace Complex Background of a Video through Masking.
Method to Hide Something on Screen in Premiere Pro without using Blur.
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