Motion blur effect often occurs naturally, both in photos and videos, when objects are moving faster than a camera can capture. It’s especially common if you’re shooting at a low frame rate. However, you may want to intentionally add motion blur to your video, and there are several ways to do that during post-production.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to make a motion blur video effect using VSDC, a free video editor for Windows.

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It’s an easy effect that will take you a few minutes, and you’ll be able to adjust it to your needs – for instance, by changing the motion type or fine-tuning blur levels. More so, you can apply the effect to the entire video, selected frames, or added graphics including text, shapes, or images.

But before we move on, let’s answer one important question.

What will the result look like?

Motion blur effect is a broad term, so it can be perceived differently. Some creators expect a video with a blurred background and an object that remains in focus. Others expect a visible motion trail created by the object’s movement – this effect is also known as a visual echo effect.

In this tutorial, we’re covering the first example of motion blur. If you’d like to learn how to make a visual echo effect, read this guide instead.

Now that we’ve sorted that out, let's get started!

Step 1. Upload your video to VSDC

To get started, launch VSDC on your computer and import your video into the program. You can either use the Import content button on the start screen or create a blank project and drag the footage to the scene.

Now, if you want to apply the effect to the entire video, move on to step 2. If you want to apply it to a fragment, use the razor icon at the top (or press Ctrl + K) to split the video and separate the desired fragment.

Step 2. Apply the motion blur effect

Select the video on the timeline, then open the Video effects menu, proceed to Filters, and select Motion blur.

In the next sections we’ll show you the difference between three motion blur presets and explain how to adjust their looks.

Select the motion blur preset for your video

Once you’ve applied the effect, it will open in the second tab on the timeline. From there, you’ll be able to adjust the appearance of motion blur using the Properties window. If you struggle to find the Properties window, make a right mouse-click on the effect, and select Properties – the corresponding window will slide in from the right.

In the settings, you can select one of the three motion types available:

• Linear motion
• Radial motion
• Zoom motion

Based on the name of these presets, you can probably assume what they look like. Linear motion is the motion in straight lines; radial motion is the circular motion around the center of the effect; zoom motion is the motion in the background of the object that’s zoomed in and appears slightly more in focus.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here is a quick demo:

Adjust the settings

Each motion type has slightly different settings, but essentially, there are two things you can change: distance and angle. The former defines the length of blur streaks, and the latter defines their angle. For example, if you select linear motion, you can adjust both, blur distance and blur angle. If you select zoom motion, you can only adjust blur distance, and if you select radial motion, you can only adjust blur angle:

Notice that you can move the center of the effect by dragging the crosshair around the scene and thus control the area that stays in focus.

Pro tip: you can also make the effect increase or decrease over time. If you expand the blur angle or blur distance menu, you’ll be able to set the initial and final values for these controls. For example, if you set the final value higher than the initial value, the video will be getting blurrier over time. This approach might work well for transitions, intros, and outros.

Step 3. Export your video

When you’re done, open the Export project tab and select the platform where you intend to use your video; then hit Export. For example, if you’re planning to publish it on YouTube, select Web —> YouTube. To change the video quality or other parameters, use the Edit profile menu under the preview window.

Bonus: how to add motion blur to text in a video

Before we wrap up this tutorial, let’s see an example of motion blur applied to text in a video. You can use this effect to create a stylish title intro or artistic captions.

Once you’ve added text to your video, select it on the timeline and apply the motion blur effect following the steps we described earlier. Since added text objects are static per se, we recommend either adding movement to the text or setting different initial and final values for the effect, as demonstrated below:

In the same manner, you can apply motion blur to any other added graphics in your video including images, shapes, and icons.

Wrapping up

There are a few reasons why you might want to use a motion blur effect in your videos. First, motion blur can help you create a sense of action and emphasize fast movement – whether it’s the movement of the object in your video or the background. Second, zoom motion is an excellent way to drive the viewers’ attention to the object in focus. Finally, blurring the video is a popular artistic approach used to convey a sense of drama or excitement, especially when transitioning between scenes.

With VSDC, you can add motion blur to your videos within minutes. Give it a try and explore other tools and effects this software brings at zero cost.

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The video echo effect can help you visualize a trail of movement in a video where it wasn’t originally present. You can think of it as an imitation of the long exposure effect or an unnaturally fast object movement.

Want to know how to make this effect within minutes using VSDC Video Editor? Then check out the tutorial below.

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Step 1. Upload your video to the editor

Launch VSDC on your computer and upload your video using the Import content option on the start screen or by dragging the file directly to the scene.

Step 2. Convert the video into a sprite and activate the Echo filter

In VSDC, the Echo filter is only available under the sprite properties menu, so you’ll need to convert the video into a sprite first. You can either use the Ctrl + P hotkey combination or make a right-button mouse click on the file and select Convert to sprite.

Once ready, go to the Properties window on the right and select the following options:

• Use as container – No
• Show effects – Yes
• Fill background – No
• Use echo filter – True

Activate the video preview to see what the default visual echo filter looks like:

In the next section, we’ll walk you through the filter settings and show how to use them to adjust the effect.

Step 3. Adjust the visual echo effect

To produce the echo effect, the software stacks frames from different times into a single layer and gradually fades the trail as new frames appear. As a creator, you can change the number of remaining visible frames and the way they blend on the screen.

Echo strength

Echo strength affects the speed of trail fading. The higher this value is, the stronger the echo effect appears: for example, at 100, there’s no fading and each frame is visible until the moving object reaches the end of the screen.

Notice that you can expand the Echo strength parameter and set the initial and final values to be different – so the effect increases or decreases over time.

Blending mode

Blending modes define the way the frames are blended, and therefore – the way the effect looks.

Three blending modes are available for the echo filter:

• Overlay – each new frame is overlaid on the previous one; this mode produces the mildest visual effect
• Streak – the values of the current and the previous frames are maximized; this mode produces the strongest visual effect
• Blur – the current and the previous frames are mixed based on the alpha channel; this mode produces a smearing echo effect

Here is how different blending modes work for the same video, at the same echo filter strength:

The first two modes are optimal for video effects and videos with transparent backgrounds. The third mode is optimal for non-transparent videos featuring moving objects.

Pro tip: you can apply the echo filter to any of the VSDC effects that include moving objects. Such effects are Particles, Raindrops, or even the Shadow effect when it’s pinned to a moving object.

However, for the filter to work, the effect must be a part of the sprite, too.

Echo filter is available in VSDC, starting with version 7.2

Visual echo is a simple and beautiful effect that will look great in music videos as well as sci-fi shorts. And the best part? It’s available in the free version of VSDC Video Editor. Download it to your PC and try it for yourself! If you have any questions, feel free to email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or tweet us at @Flashintegro.

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Tracking point is a tool that allows you to apply movement to coordinate-based effects in VSDC, such as Lens flare, God rays, Shattered glass, Text animation, and many more (at the end of this tutorial, you’ll find the complete list of effects you can animate). With tracking points, you can easily create a custom movement trajectory and pin the desired effects to it. As a result, the effect will move along the trajectory at the speed of your choice.

Below, we’ll walk you through the steps of setting up a tracking point and show you examples of what you can achieve with it. Feel free to watch the video below to see how different effects look when bound with tracking points.

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Step 1. Import your content

To get started, import your footage to the editor using the Import content option on the start screen. Then place the playhead on the timeline, where the animation should start.

Step 2. Add a tracking point to the scene

Go to the left-side toolbar and select Tracking point. Then click on the scene to indicate the starting point for the movement trajectory.

Step 3. Сreate a movement trajectory

Double-click on the tracking point block on the timeline and go back to the left-side toolbar to select the Movement tool. Then create a movement trajectory using vectors.

If you’ve never used the Movement tool in VSDC, and you need a more in-depth walkthrough, read this tutorial. Keep in mind that you can also apply ready-made movement trajectories created via the Motion tracking module.

Step 4. Select an effect to bind with the tracking point

Now that the path for the tracking point is ready, it’s time to select the effect you want to bind with it. Go back to the main timeline tab, select your footage, then open the Video effects menu and choose one of the effects eligible for binding. Here is a list of those effects:

1. Motion Blur (Filters)
2. Shattered glass (Transitions)
3. Lens flare (Nature)
4. Bokeh glare (Nature)
5. God rays (Nature)
6. Shadow (Nature)
7. Distort (Transforms)

For our example, we’ll use Lens flare.

Step 5. Bind the effect coordinates with the tracking point

Once you’ve applied the effect to the footage, make a right mouse-click on it and select Properties. In the Properties window, find the following settings:

1. Center coordinate type -> Tracking point
2. Tracking point binding -> Select the tracking point you created earlier

Then activate the Preview mode to see what the result looks like. The effects should be moving along the trajectory you’ve created:

Notice that even after applying the effect, you can change the movement trajectory by going back to the Tracking point tab and adjusting the movement vectors. You can also speed up or slow down the movement by shifting the yellow control points on the timeline.

Binding several effects with the same tracking point

Now that you have an idea of how tracking points work, you can create unique animations by binding several effects together. There are no rules for which effects to combine, so feel free to experiment with the options listed at the end of the article.

To bind an additional effect with the tracking point, apply it to the main footage first. Then open the Properties window and find the parameter defining the type of coordinates (it might have a slightly different name for different effects). Select Tracking point and apply “binding” using the same approach we described earlier.

Here is an example of the Lens flare effect combined with the Fish eye effect:

If you have a text object in your video, such as a title, you can bind it with the tracking point or with another effect as well. All you have to do is apply the Text Shift Position effect to the text, then move to the Properties window, find Initial glyph position, and select Tracking point; then apply the binding.

As a result, the text will be appearing on the screen, letter by letter, coming from the tracking point, as illustrated below:

List of coordinate-based effects you can animate with tracking points

Only few effects in VSDC can be bound with tracking points. To help you identify these effects as well as the binding settings, we’ve put together a table. Consider checking it out before applying this animation type.

Got any questions? Email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or tweet us at Flashintegro.

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The Lift, Gamma, and Gain color wheels are designed to help video creators perform professional-level color correction. Starting version 7.2, Lift, Gamma, and Gain have become available in VSDC Video Editor, so in this tutorial, we’ll talk about their purpose and show you how to use them, step by step.

What is Lift, Gamma, Gain?

Lift, Gamma, Gain is a set of color wheels designed for primary color correction. Unlike secondary color correction, which involves working with isolated colors, primary color correction helps you change the entire color tone composition of the video. This means fine-tuning dark tones (Lift), midtones (Gamma), bright tones (Gain), or the entire image altogether (Offset).

The tricky part is that by using either of these controls, you aren’t only correcting shadows, highlights, or midtones: the changes made with the Lift, Gamma, and Gain wheels affect the entire spectrum of tones. Feel free to watch this video explanation before continuing.

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How to access Lift, Gamma, Gain wheels in VSDC

When speaking about color correction, a picture is always worth a thousand words, so below, we’ll have a detailed visual walkthrough of the new tool.

First of all, switch to the Color grading panel in the bottom left corner to access the Lift, Gamma, Gain color wheels.

Each wheel controls a range of tones. Lift primarily adjusts dark tones; Gamma primarily adjusts midtones; Gain primarily adjusts bright tones, and Offset adjusts the entire image.

Changing color values for dark tones, bright tones, and midtones

To correct colors for a selected range of tones, use the control point in the center of the wheel. By dragging it towards a certain color range of the spectrum, you can change the temperature or overall aesthetics of the video.

For example, here is what happens when you make changes in the Lift color wheel: the lightest areas remain almost unchanged, while the dark areas change depending on where on the color spectrum you’re moving the control.

Notice that as you’re moving the control point of the selected wheel, the RGB color values under that wheel are automatically changing, too. If you’re more comfortable changing color values manually, feel free to do so by either typing them or using the Up and Down arrow keys on your keyboard.

Now, what’s the difference between applying changes to dark tones, bright tones, and midtones? To help you answer this question, we’ve prepared a visual comparison. Here’s what the blue color increase looks like for dark tones, midtones, bright tones, and the entire range of tones:

Although it’s the same color component, the results vary significantly because the changes apply to different ranges of tones. Again, you should notice that bright tones are barely affected when you’re working with Lift; dark tones are barely affected when you’re working with Gain, and both bright and dark tones are barely affected when you’re working with Gamma.

Pro tip: the little tumbler in the bottom left corner is called Maintain luma level, and it keeps the overall level of brightness, regardless of the changes you make. We recommend keeping this mode on because it makes color adjustments smoother and more gradual.

Dark tone pivot, bright tone pivot, and B/W threshold

In addition to color values, you can change the brightness and contrast values in the video using the following sliders:

• Dark tone
• Bright tone
• Black & white (B/W) threshold

Here is how they work. When you toggle the dark tone slider, all the dark tones below the selected value become darker. Naturally, when you push this control to the maximum, everything except for the brightest areas in the video becomes dark.

Similarly, the bright tone pivot dims all the color tones and reduces the number of bright tones in the video, until the image becomes completely dark.

Finally, the black & white threshold sliders decrease the level of contrast and saturation in the video. The slider on the left dims dark tones until the image becomes white, while the slider on the right decreases the contrast until the image becomes black.

Keep in mind that you can always undo changes by using the Reset buttons above each wheel.

Black point & White point

The next important part of the toolset is the Black point and White point. These controls can help you quickly fix overexposed and underexposed videos.

For example, if you have an overexposed image, it usually means that all colors are too bright, and there’s a lack of contrast. To fix that, select Black point from the panel and click on the object or area that’s supposed to be black. The program will apply black color to the selected area and recalculate the rest of the color tones accordingly:

Similarly, if your video is way too dark, select White point and click on the area that’s supposed to be white to rearrange all values.

Correcting isolated areas

If you need to perform color correction for an isolated area in the video or image, you can use the eyedropper tool in the bottom right corner of the Color ranges menu.

Click on the eyedropper icon and select the area you’d like to work on. To make sure the program has selected the right area, tick the Show corrected area box at the bottom.

You can start applying changes right away or use additional tools to expand or contract tone selection, in case the original selection was slightly incorrect.

Notice that by default, the eyedropper selects a range of tones, not an exact color (the long white extension tails on the Hue graph visualize exactly that). If you want to do the opposite and select a specific color with no range, press and hold the Ctrl key while using the eyedropper. In that case, the Hue graph will have no white extensions:

You can increase, decrease, or shift the selected range of colors by manually typing the desired values or using the handles as illustrated above.

Time to practice color correction

If you want to master the art of color correction, it’s crucial to have the right tools to practice. With the Lift, Gamma, Gain color wheels being added to VSDC, you now have everything you might need to perform both primary and secondary color correction. But most importantly, this toolset is available in the free version of VSDC and it works even on computers with limited processing power. Our team remains determined to make video editing available and affordable to anyone.

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