mask

derek-brown wrote on 7/7/2024, 9:29 AM

Hi trying to hide a car number plate in a video clip. Is there a simple solution ? is it possible to create a text box filled with a solid colour? of does it have to be done in a series of steps using distortion?

Comments

Gid wrote on 7/7/2024, 10:57 AM

@derek-brown

Hi,

Add your video clip to the timeline
Add a suitable mask from the Templates tab to the track below, these have chroma key already applied, you can create your own B/W mask if you want in a separate photo editor but you'll have to add chroma key to it from the Effects tab.
Duplicate you video clip & drag that below the mask
Add Gaussian blur (Or a colour, any effect you want) to the duplicate.
Keyframe the mask to suite the movement of the number plate with Suze/Position/Rotation if the camera is moving

When you are moving the mask look for the apexes of the movement, that is the point where the number plate stops travelling in one direction & starts moving in another direction, move your mask to that point, move the timeline marker along until you get to the next apex of movement, move your mask to that point & so on, Then go back & refine the mask to follow better, you want as fewer keyframes as poss, this way the movement will flow rather than being jumpy or shaky,

I made a video but the forum won't let me upload. I'll try again later.

This is a jpg of that video, you can see I've only created 7 keyframes, different videos of course will require different amounts,

derek-brown wrote on 7/7/2024, 11:07 AM

Hi Thanks. Should of added car is static.

Gid wrote on 7/7/2024, 11:12 AM

@derek-brown This car isn't moving it's parked, it's static but the camera is hand held so thee is movement.

Is your camera static, ?

I put the video on YT instead

derek-brown wrote on 7/7/2024, 2:13 PM

Gid thanks for taking the time to show me your clip. I hoped the solution was going to be pretty straight forward. I have a three axis DJI ronan gimbal and film real estate. The car is parked to the side of the house I am filming and as I swing the camera/gimbal towards the front of the house and move inward the car appears and I wanted to hide the registration plate. I am not sure I want to go through all those steps to hide it. Is it not possible to simply create a effect similar to a title and apply solid colour to cover the plate?.

Gid wrote on 7/7/2024, 2:54 PM

@derek-brown Yes you can do that but if you're swinging the camera you'll still need to keyframe the colour or text so it covers the plate, hard to say exactly without seeing the video,

You can add a solid colour from Templates - Test Images, reduce the size with Size/Position/Rotation, Split the video where the number plate comes on screen & then split it again where it goes off screen so you're only working on that part of the clip, Then use the right click option on the timeline clip to 'Attach to picture position in the video' this will track the number plate. But if simple keyframing is hard this tracking option might not be an option.

I have a much better piece of software that can hide your number plate but you'd have to share the clip, you can put on Google Drive & share the link in a message if you want & I'll supply a black & white mask that you can aply in Movie studio..?