How to 'black box' censor a video

JasonJoel · Post by **JasonJoel** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 11:23 pm

I've been a VS8 user for a few months, and have successfully created many movies and DVDs. Now though, I've come up with something I can't figure a good way to do.

I've taken some video of my new baby bathing. I wanted to 'censor' out the private parts before sharing on the web.

Is there ANY good way to blur out, or put a black box over, a certain moving area in a video? If he was stationary it would be easy... But he moves in the video.

Any suggestions from someone who knows more than I do?

JasonJoel

kebrinton · Post by **kebrinton** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:45 am

What parts of a baby are private?

Could you make another film and just change the angles a little?

JasonJoel · Post by **JasonJoel** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:07 am

Heh, well the 'obvious' parts when you are bathing... Not that he cares, but I would rather not put a bunch of naked pictures of my baby on the internet. My hangup, not his.

Of course I could video a different bathing session and be more careful to what I'm filming.

I just thought there might be a way to black/blur out a section of the video. But if not, oh well.

JasonJoel

kebrinton wrote:What parts of a baby are private?

Could you make another film and just change the angles a little?

joosuna · Post by **joosuna** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:18 am

You are going to end up dividing the original video clips into sub clips. On the first sub clip, cover up the unwanted part with a black box. As the subject's privates move out of the black box, make another clip and put another black box to hide the unwanted viewed section. Do this through out the entire video clips. Hopefully the subject did not move a whole lot ?

phd · Post by **phd** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:49 am

Do you have an option to create an overlay track with another video or pictures? Don't know about VS8 but this could be achieved in MSP7.

This idea is a little classier and more subtle. Take a picture of some soap bubbles and use your favorite paint program to cut out a section as a circle or an irregular shape that blends well with the footage. Save it as a picture with a transparency background so it can be a floating clip rather than a rectangle.

Paste it into the overlay line and position accordingly if possible. It wouldn't be as harsh as a black rectangle and would be more thematically linked to the video. In MSP I have options for motion path and resizing so the bubble picture could track the video easier. I don't think you have those options though.

rwindeyer · Post by **rwindeyer** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:49 am

There is no way to do this in VS8. If you have some cash to splash around, there is a plugin called Moving Parts that I have seen recommended here. A link follows:
http://www.pluginz.com/product/11144?fr ... ategory=25

BrianCee · Post by **BrianCee** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:57 pm

Same product as that which Ron suggested (Moving Parts) but an easier link perhaps :-

http://www.stagetools.com/

With a little more information on what it can do.

JasonJoel · Post by **JasonJoel** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:26 pm

Thanks everyone.

I was thinking of doing as JOOSUNA said. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't an easier way to do this.

The Moving Parts plugin looks exactly like what I wanted. But $129 is more than I want to spend. Pity. If they had a more limited version for, say, $30 I would have bought it in a second.

JasonJoel

rwindeyer · Post by **rwindeyer** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:52 pm

I noticed on the Moving Parts site that you can download a fully functional demo version. Only drawback is that it gives you a red stripe through the image you are using to do the "censoring" with (which goes away when the product is registered).
You may find that you can live with that..