Adjustment Layer + Gaussian Blur + Position Animation - Not Working

[ZAYA1]

Hello, 

I will be happy if somebody can help me with this issue. 

The task is to blur the personal information on the website, while it's scrolling. 

Since there are several places to blur (ex: login, email, address), I decided to add an Adjustment Layer on top of my video and add the Gaussian Blur effect with several masks to blur that info (login, email, address). When the first frame was done, I tried to animate the position of the Adjustment Layer, so all the masks would move together and I don't need to animate them separately. 

But when I change the position, my masks didn't move. All masks stay in the same place and start cropping from the bottom or the top. 

But why I can't change the position of all my masks together? 

Or what is the fastest way to blur personal information, and track it? 

Thanks!

[Warren Heaton]

Instead of animating the Adjustment Layer Position, animate the Mask Path of the Mask that's been added to the Gaussian Blur effect.

While you can nudge the mask manually frame-by-frame once Animation is toggled on, you should be able to use the" Track selected mask forward 1 frame button" to make sure it's tracking frame-by-frame as expected for a few clicks and then switch to "Track selected mask forward".

Here's a quick video of using Track selected mask forward.

Also, you might prefer using the Mosiac effect instead of the Gaussian Blur effect.

[ZAYA1]

Thanks for such a quick reply!

Yeh, that's what I'm using now. But as I said I have 4 different masks (for email, login, password, etc.), and the distance between these fields on the website is the same, so I thought would be great to just move the Adjustment Layer with all the masks, instead of moving 4 masks separately. 

Because now I'm doing as you said and I need to track that for 4 masks separately, instead of moving all masks together. That's maybe not a problem for a single video, but I have to edit about 70 videos like this, that will take a lot of time if I'll track all masks separately. 

I'm just wondering if I make something wrong or if that's NOT possible in Premiere Pro to move the Adjustment Layer?

Thanks!

[Warren Heaton]

I'm not in front of Premiere Pro any more, so I can't test this first.

Try applying the Transform effect after the Gaussian Blur effect and animating the Position that's part of that effect.

This puts the position change after the Gaussian Blur effect rather than before it.

Another option is to send these clips to After Effects where Masks on an Adjustment Layer render before Effects and Effects render before Position.

[ZAYA1]

Thanks!

[Warren Heaton]

You know... forget the Transform effect.

That is going to change the position of all Clips under it.

[ZAYA1]

Yeah, I see( 
So, maybe the only way is like you described. Track each mask individually

That's strange that Premiere Pro doesn't allow to change the position of the Adjustment Layer

[Warren Heaton]

It is strange and it isn't.  The Motion options are relative to the Source footage and the Mask options are relative to the Sequence.  We get trapped in the order in which Premiere Pro renders things.  I'm sure you've noticed this: the Masks might as well be drawn with the Gaussian Blur effect applied to the video clip rather than an Adjustment Layer.  Using Adjustment Layers requires that the width and height of the Adjustment Layer be the width and height needed for the name, then another Adjustment Layer be sized to the login, and then another Adjustment Layer be sized to the password.  Then those three Adjustment Layers could have position animated with Gaussian Blur applied.  In other words, a lot of busy work.

Does it need to be the Gaussian Blur effect?  If you can go with a redacted appearance, you could draw multiple Rectangle Shapes with a Black Fill in one Graphic for each email, login, and password and then animate that over the scrolling video.

Are you up for learning some After Effects?  Be it Masks tracked over the scrolling video or via Masks on AE Adjustment Layers, it'll be easier.

[ZAYA1]

Yes, these videos require a Blurring effect( 

I'm not experienced with AE so much, but I think I should start learning this program) 

[jstrawn]

Or what is the fastest way to blur personal information, and track it?

Drop multiple Gaussian Blur effects onto the still image track item, add a polygon mask to each effect instance, turn up the blurs as needed, then animate Position for the whole track item.
OR
Blur what you need to in Pr, save a flattened version of it, import that into Pr, then animate the whole image as one.

You could also use a nested sequence workflow if your masks + animation are especially complex. But at that point you might be better off using Ae.

[ZAYA1]

Thank you!

I'm just not sure I understand option 1 correctly. I don't have a still image, it's a screen recording that scrolling down. 

[jstrawn]

Oh I see, I was looking at that still image example that Warren posted. OK, if the scrolling is baked into the video then you will have to use an adjustment layer, add all the Gaussian Blurs to that (with mask rects) and then animate the Adjustment Layer track item as one.

[ZAYA1]

Yeah, that's what I said... if I animate Adjustment Later it doesn't animate correctly. Masks are not moving. 
Could you check on your PC, please? Maybe it is just a problem on my side... 

[jstrawn]

Yes I do see some strange behavior. It's as if the effect's poly mask box is animating but the effect itself is not' Let me look into this and get back to you.

[Warren Heaton]

@jstrawn 

I'm confirming that this happens under the following versions of Premiere Pro macOS 11.7.1 and Windows 11 Home:

• Premiere Pro 15.4.3
• Premiere Pro 22.6.3
• Premiere Pro 23.1

Gaussian Blur, Horizontal Flop, Mosaic, Tint, etc., etc.

[jstrawn]

OK forget the Adjustment Layer approach, I'll look into a bug for that separately.

Try this:
(1) Apply Gaussian Blur effect directly to your scrolling video
(2) Add a rectangle mask and make it fit over one of your blur spots
(3) Toggle on animation for the Mask Path
(4) Set a keyframe for the bottom, and then the top, to stay over the text or image you want to blur
(5) Repeat steps 2-4 for any other blurry spots you want

This screen capture should help:

[ZAYA1]

Thanks!
Sorry for so long reply) 

That's what I did, I was just interested if I can move all masks together, but looks like Premiere doesn't allow that. Only separately. 

[jstrawn]

Not with that problem where the Adjustment Layer loses the mask path movement. I submitted an internal ticket for that so hopefully will see a fix for it in the not too distant future.

[ZAYA1]

Thank you!