Blur

Blur media using different algorithms to produce depth of focus effects, vignettes, color corrections and more.

This plugin has been completely redesigned in FxFactory Pro 6 to support advanced source and mask selection, chromatic aberration and animatable parameters.

The user interface encourages progressive discovery of the large number of features. Built-in presets offer shortcuts to popular styles and techniques. Master advanced techniques once and apply them to other plugins that share the same design.

Compatibility

Blur is compatible with Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro and After Effects.

Parameters

Presets

Presets contain a snapshot of your effect configuration. 43 built-in presets are available.

When you save parameter configuration to a file on disk, this file can later be loaded to recreate the same effect configuration. Presets generated in one video application can be used by the same plug-in running in a different video application.

Working with the Presets Browser

Preview

This parameter enables a canvas preview of the pixels selected through the Source and Mask parameter sections.

Previewing the Source and Mask

Blur

Filter

This parameter controls the algorithm used to blur pixels. Each technique produces a distinct style. Beware that Variable blurring only applies when Source and/or Mask have been customized.

Compare different blurring techniques

Channels

The following options are available:

  • All (default) — All color information is blurred uniformly.
  • RGB — Different amounts are used to blur the red, green and blue channels.
  • HSB — Different amounts are used to blur the hue, saturation and brightness.
  • CMYK — Different amounts are used to blur the cyan, magenta, yellow and black channels.
  • YUV — Different amounts are used to blur the luminance and chroma offsets, as represented according to ITU-R BT.601.
  • Oklab — Different amounts are used to blur the perceptual brightness and chroma, as represented in the Oklab color space.
When Channels is set to a value other than All, you will see up to four separate Radius sliders, to specify a different amount for each channel. When Channels is set to a value other than All and applying a Directional blur, you will see up to four separate Angle dials to specify a different direction for each channel.

Radius

Control the amount of blurring.

Angle

Controls the direction of the blur. This parameter is only available with a Directional bur.

Zoom Center

Specifies the origin of a Zoom blur.

This parameter is not available when a different blurring technique is selected.

Zoom Center: Rig

When Source is set to either to use object tracking or face detection, this parameter lets you rig the origin of the effect to the center of a specific object or face.

Rigging the Zoom center to a face detection

Rigging the Zoom center to a face detection

Once rigged, the origin of the Zoom follows the location of the selected object or face as it moves across the frame.

Contrast

Controls the visibility of each ray projected from the origin of a Zoom blur, or the sharpness of ring artifacts in a Bokeh blur. This parameter is not available with other blurring techniques.

Repeat Edges

This option decides whether the blurring algorithm will consider pixels at the edge of the frame to repeat infinitely. When this option is off, the edges of the frame will become transparent, as there is no color information outside the frame.

This option has no discernible side effects when blurring a title or graphic that sits in the middle of the frame, as these are commonly surrounded by mostly transparent space already.

Crop to Source/Mask

Determines whether the output of the blur is cropped to the pixels defined by the Source and Mask. When this parameter is set to 0, the blur is allowed to bleed color information everywhere on the frame, including pixels that aren’t selected by Source or Mask.

Increase this parameter to reduce the area where the effect is allowed to produce its output.

Cropping to Person Contour from 0% (left) to 100% (right)

Cropping to Person Contour from 0% (left) to 100% (right)

This parameter has no effect when Source and Mask have not been customized.

Subtract Source/Mask

When enabled, the output of the effect is post-processed so as to subtract any pixels that belong to the original Source and Mask. Once the original selection has been subtracted, only pixels that were blurred outside that area remain visible. This technique is helpful to create contours.

Comparing the original output, current mask, and output after subtracting it

Comparing the original output, current mask, and output after subtracting it

Source

Parameters in this section allow you to choose a set of pixels to apply the effect to, based on a number of techniques:

  • Luminance Range: select a range of pixels based on their brightness.
  • Color Key: select a range of pixels through a keying algorithm.
  • Edges: select pixels according to an edge detection algorithm.
  • Person Contour: select the main subject in the video frame through an AI-assisted algorithm. Works best with human subjects.
  • Object Tracker: select pixels by tracking one or more objects across the frame.
  • Face Detection: select pixels by detecting the location of human faces and tracking them across the frame for the duration of the clip.

Choosing Source Pixels

Original (left), selecting the darkest pixels (center) and lightest pixels (right)

Original (left), selecting the darkest pixels (center) and lightest pixels (right)

Mask

Parameters in this section define a shape used to crop the output of the effect with. When using an object tracker or face detection, the same mask shape is replicated for each object or face that appears in the frame.

  • Off: no cropping occurs.
  • Rectangle: crop the output to a rectangular shape.
  • Oval: crop the output to a circular shape.
  • Gradient: crop the output to a linear gradient.
  • Bar: crop the output to a two-sided gradient.
  • Custom: crop the output to a shape defined by a custom graphic.
  • Text: crop the outut to a shape defined by a title.

Choosing a Mask

Rectangular mask (left), gradient (center), gradient mixed with Person Contour (right)

Rectangular mask (left), gradient (center), gradient mixed with Person Contour (right)

Relative to Face/Object

Off by default.

Chromatic Aberration

Parameters in this section allow you to apply color distortions inspired by lens geometry, but with greater artistic range.

Using Chromatic Aberration

Original (left), distortion of the red and blue channels (center) and of chroma (right)

Original (left), distortion of the red and blue channels (center) and of chroma (right)

Animation

This section allows you to animate effect parameters over time.

Build In/Out

Build In/Out lets you enable and control animation progress.

When the animation is Off, no transition into or out of the effect occurs.

When the effect is set to build in and out by Trimming, the following parameters are displayed:

The Trim slider defines a range where the effect has been fully built. Any time outside this range is spent building the animation in or out. For example, if the Trim range is set between 20% and 80%, the effect builds in from the start of the clip up to 20% of its duration. The effects builds out from 80% to the end of the clip. If the clip were 5 seconds long, the build in and out animations last 1 second each.

When the effect is set to build in and out through a Duration, the following parameters are displayed:

The Build In (secs) and Build Out (secs) give you an exact way to decide how long each animation should last. Should your selection not be applicable to the current clip, a warning will appear in the output. For example, if your clip lasts only 3 seconds, it would be impossible to have the build in and out animations both last 2 seconds each (as the total would be 4 seconds).

When the effect is set to build in and out through Keyframes, a single parameter is displayed:

The Build In (Easing) and Build Out (Easing) parameters let you choose the animation curve when animating by Trimming the clip or by specifying a Duration.

The Progress parameter gives complete control over the animation to you. You will need to keyframe the Progress parameter using features of the video app.

Radius

Turn this parameter on to animate the Blur radius.

When blurring color channels separately, each radius may be animated independently from the other. For example, if you are blurring RGB channels, Radius 1 controls the animation of the blur radius in the red channel, Radius 2 in the green channel and Radius 3 in the blue channel. Radius 4 is available only when blurring in the CMYK color space, and thus controls the black component.

Radius Animation

Zoom Center

Turn this parameter on to animate the Zoom Center location.

This options is only available if the current Filter has been set to Zoom.

Zoom Center Animation

Aberration Amount

Turn this parameter on to animate the Amount value specified under the Chromatic Aberration section. A number of standard controls allow you to control the animation:

Aberration Amount Animation


Animating the Aberration Amount with Directional (left) and Radial (right) Fringing

Seed

A number that controls random aspects of the effect.

Click the New button to assign a new seed value. When the seed value is changed, the effect uses a different random sequence to produce a different output.

Channel Selection

This section allows you to limit the effect to specific channels, leaving others unmodified.

Limiting Output to Specific Channels