Protecting the Innocent
 

My boss just asked me to find out a way to blur up peoples faces to protect their identity for a reality show we are making. We are editing in Final Cut and he doesn’t want to export the footage to do a visual effect in After Effects so I have to do it in Final Cut. He also doesn’t want to key frame animate a mask to get it to look correct. Basically he wants to be able to use some kind of plug in to create the effects and somehow have it track in correctly. I told him this is probably impossible because we don’t have tracking markers on people’s faces. So I am looking for ANY advice on this subject. How do you guys do this effect fast and easily?

I don't know what the real way of doing this is but I have done it by just making a blue shape and importing it to fcp. Key the blue shape and then just ad a blur from the effects. Presto! Then just manually key frame the movement which your boss will just have to accept. Not that hard really and it looked just as good as the stuff on t.v.

I bet you anything there is an easier way. I just had to do it once so I didnt mind the work.

Yeah, I really can't think of anything that would auto track people faces. That would be an interesting plugin.

Yeah we are trying to find an easier way being that we have to do it for a 30 min show. I might have to just tell him that we will have to key frame it. If anyone else has advice please help me out.