How to Blur in Filmora (Including Motion Blur)

When you start editing videos and footage, you’ll likely come across situations where you need to use the blur effect. This may seem counterintuitive, as we usually strive to have our footage in perfect focus.

Ok, so why blur? Here are two quick reasons.

Blurring an image is a great way to remove excess noise. Also, you can blur an image’s background to help focus the viewer’s eye on a subject.

So if you want to learn, hop on board. We’ll take you through the easy steps to add Filmora’s blur effect to your clips.

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How to Blur in Filmora

Wondershare has created Filmora, a video editing software for novices and pros alike. The built-in editing features are powerful and simple to use.

The blur effect is no exception. It’s easy to add and also versatile: you’ll be able to adjust the opacity and choose the level of pixelation.

Blurring helps smooth over pixelated or rough footage, making your video look more professional.

Download Filmora

If you haven’t downloaded Filmora already, download it now. The best part is that this video editing software is free to use – just jump onto Filmora’s website and click download.

Upload Video

To open your video clip into Filmora, click New Project and locate your video to upload.

Your video file will open in the project media panel. Click on the video and drag and drop it down onto the video timeline track.

Before you add a blurred video effect, you will need to add an extra timeline track.

Click the plus symbol at the top of the video timeline panel and select Add Video.

A new timeline will appear where you can add a video clip blur effect.

Select Effects

Click on the Effects button in the top menu bar to open Filmora’s effects options.

Once clicked, the effects options will appear on the left-hand side of the workspace. Scroll down the effects to locate the Overlays folder.

Click the Overlays folder and a drop-down selection will appear below. Here you will find Bokeh Blurs.

Select the Bokeh Blur effect that you want for your video clip and drag it down onto the empty timeline.

The blur effect will usually be shorter in time length than the video clip.

To lengthen the duration in which the blur effect will be played, drag its end to stretch it to the same length as the background video.

Alternatively, if you want to blur out only the sides of the video, select the Filters folder from the effects side panel.

Scroll down the Filters folder until you find Background Blur.

Click on Background Blur and select your blur effect of choice, then drag and drop it in the empty timeline.

Preview

Press Play in the preview window to check your edits before exporting.

Export

When you’re ready to export, head to the top menu bar and hit the Export button.

Here you will be given the option to save it to your device, upload it to the web or burn it as a CD.

Read on if you want to learn how to use a motion blur effect or blur just a section of a video clip.

How Do You Blur Objects in Filmora

Most of the time, people want to blur backgrounds to help focus the viewer’s eye on the subject of choice, but sometimes you only want to blur out an object.

This could be the face of a person you didn’t have permission to film, or it could be an object or inappropriate text that doesn’t fit with the theme of your video.

Whatever the reason, it’s great to have the option to blur faces and objects so that you don’t have to scrap your precious clips.

To blur out an object or blur faces, you will have to activate the motion tracking feature.

Select the clip in the timeline so that it’s active.

To activate the tracking feature, click on the motion tracking icon above the timeline (the square with a plus sign that sits to the left of the crop icon).

Once clicked, the tracker, a square with a plus symbol inside, will appear on the video preview screen.

Drag the tracker over the face or object and increase or decrease the size of the area to be tracked by moving the bounding line of the tracker.

Then click the Start Tracking button in the panel to the left of the video preview.

Once clicked, the video will play, and the tracking box will remain positioned over the face or object even when it moves position.

If you are content that the tracker is covering the face or object for the duration of the clip, you can add the blur effect.

Click on the drop-down menu below tracking and select Add a Mosaic.

Now you will be presented with the option to select “Type”, “Blur Amount” and “Opacity”. Choose your settings, and preview the result.

This is a useful video editor function to remember for when you want to add motion blur effects, as the tracker will follow the object.

And that’s how you blur just a section of your video – a useful editing trick to know.

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