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Censoring Faces In Openshot 1.4
I was asked how to blur faces in openshot 1.4. As far as I know there is yet no way to apply an effect like "blur" only to separate sections of a video image.
Anyway you can cover faces by a mask that you position over the face. Unfortunately this will take a lot of manual adjustments in clips with much movement.
Open gimp to create a mask. File->New
Enter the format of your video size. For example 1920x1800 for HD or 600x800 for PAL/NTSC.
Select the selection format that fits your planned mask best from the toolbox. I like the ellipse.
Draw it as big as the section to censor will be inside your video.
Click Edit -> Stroke Selection to draw the outline.
Select the bucket tool from the toolbox and fill the area.
Click Layer -> Transparency -> Add Alpha Channel from the menu.
Select the magic wand from the toolbox. Click on the white background and delete it.
Save the file in gif format.
Switch back to openshot.
This is the clip I am going to censor.
Import the previously saved mask and drag it to a track above your clip.
Adjust its length to the time frame you want to censor.
Search for the timestamp when the video content starts to move out the mask and make a cut there.
Make a second cut where it reaches a steady position.
Rightclick -> Properties -> Layout at the steady mask part and adjust the position for start and end of the clip.
The mask jumps now. For a smoother behaviour edit the position just for the end of the middle mask's part.
Don't fail on fade out like I did :)
Production, Direction and Camera: XXLRay
Music (CC BY 3.0 License): Felixdj - Make Believe
Software: openshot, ffmpeg, gimp