Blurring out a part of a video is a common task. You may need it to keep the identity of a person anonymous, to make sure the GPS coordinates or the car numbers stay unseen, or just to cover an object that accidentally got into the scene although it was not supposed to. However, 3 times out of 5 what you need is to blur faces in a video.

VSDC Video Editor offers two ways to do it for free. The first one literally takes a couple of seconds and creates an instant “blurred mask” in the shape of a rectangle. It’s also ideal if you just quickly need to blur out such parts of a video as logos, watermarks, numbers, and other small objects. The second way will suit those who need to accurately hide an oddly-shaped object – say, a car or a person – without blurring the surrounding area. It takes a bit more time but provides precise coverage of any object in the footage.

Looking for a way to blur a face in a video for free?

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How to blur video parts in two clicks

For those searching how to censor a video quickly, there is a built-in filter called DeLogo. Technically it’s a ready-to-use blurred rectangle you place over the chosen object. Here is how to use it.

1. Add a video to the scene
2. Go to Video Effects, proceed to Filters and choose “DeLogo”. You’ll instantly get a blurred area in the video and a new tab on the timeline with the DeLogo filter – just as illustrated below.
3. Click once on the DeLogo object on the timeline and you’ll notice the contour of the blurred filter.
4. Move or resize the filter using its corners or the center point.

If you want to change the way the filter looks – for instance, you’d like to switch blur to pixels or mosaic – you can do that in the Properties window.

The Properties window is located on the right side. If you can’t see it, use the right mouse button to click on the DeLogo layer on the timeline and choose “Properties” – a window will slide in. Scroll down to “Delogo filter settings”. Choose mosaic, pixels, or any type of blur among filter presets and adjust the level of intensiveness according to your needs. See the illustration below.

This is it. Go to the Export Project tab and save the video to your PC in the required format.

Below, we’ll talk about how to blur faces in a video precisely following the shape of the object that needs to be covered.

How to blur video objects using a free shape tool

The Delogo filter we’ve talked about above has a pre-designed rectangle shape you can’t change. If you want to blur an custom shape area, you’ll need to use a tool called Free shape. Essentially, the Free shape tool allows you to create any shape manually using the vector drawing technique. Once you finish drawing, you’ll be able to apply the pixelized filter to the shape you’ve created and use it as a mask.

Here is how it works:

1. Add a video to the scene.
2. Select Free Shape from the menu on the left-hand side.
3. Start outlining the object you want to blur by placing points on its border until you get the desired shape. Notice that you can drag control points around and adjust the shape at any moment.

4. Once you finish, go back to the Scene 0 tab on the timeline. Use the right mouse button to click on the original video layer and select “Copy”. Then make a double-click on the Free Shape layer and paste the video in the Free Shape tab.
5. Open the Blending mode menu for the video you’ve just pasted and select “Source in” – as illustrated below.

Congratulations, you’ve created an inverted mask. Now, you need to apply the filter to blur the face in the video you’ve created the mask for.

To do that, open the Video effects menu, proceed to Filters and select Pixelize. Click “Ok” in the window that pops up to confirm that you want to apply the effect to the selected video file. You’ll see the result right away.

However, if a person in the video is moving, and you need the blurred mask to follow their movements while keeping the face hidden, you’ll need to apply motion tracking. Motion tracking is a part of the VSDC Pro version available for $19,99 per year. To create a motion-tracked video mask, follow the instructions from this tutorial.

How to blur background in a video using VSDC Video Editor

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Now that you know how to blur a face in a video using free software, you may want to check out other editing tutorials:

• How to remove video background using Chroma Key
• How to create a text mask within 3 minutes
• How to make your video look like a Hollywood film

Alright, let's face it. With mobile cameras taking over, the way we record video and the way we watch it have changed. You can love it or you can hate it, but vertical videos are everywhere today. It all started with people just being forgetful and holding their phones vertically when recording. Today, however, many brands create vertical videos on purpose because they look more authentic when published on social media which is (surprise!) consumed on mobile phones that are held vertically most of the times.

Who would have expected that back in 2014, huh?

But can I fix a vertical video if I don’t like the way it looks?

Yes, you can. You don't have to follow those modern media trends if you don't like them. And you certainly don't have to put up with two ugly black bars on either side of your footage, if you accidentally record it vertically - or what is called a portrait mode.

VSDC Free Video Editor offers several ways how to fix vertical videos, and below we'll show you what they are.

Download VSDC Free Video Editor for Windows

One of the most popular hacks is to blur the sides of a vertical video. This is an elegant way to get rid of the black side bars.

Vertical video fix #1 – blurring its sides

• Add your footage to the timeline. To do that, click ‘Add object’ >> ‘Video’ and select the required file from the explorer.
• Use the right mouse button to click on the video and select ‘Duplicate’.
• For the new video object, set the same size as the original video has. See the illustration below.
• Then go to the ‘Cutting and splitting’ tab at the top menu and choose ‘Auto cropping’. It will stretch the duplicated video to the size of the entire scene and create the effect of a background.
• Now, to finalize fixing your vertical video, you only need to blur its sides. To do that, in the ‘Video effects’ tab, select ‘Filters’ >> ‘Gaussian blur’. See the illustration below.
• Go to the Properties window and adjust the blur level to achieve the desired result. The Properties window tab can be found on the right side of the program interface.
• Enjoy the new look of your vertical video! By the way, you can use any other video or image for the blurred background effect if you don’t want to duplicate the original one.

Vertical video fix #2 – creating a project with the same resolution as in your original video

Blurring the sides of a vertical video is the most popular way to make it look decent but there is also a roundabout approach to it. You can just use the resolution the video is recorded in and create a project with the same size parameters. Technically, your video will remain in a “vertical format” but you’ll get rid of the black borders.

Here is how to do it:

• Add your vertical video to the timeline.
• Go to the View tab in the top menu – you’ll open a Project explorer.
• Click on your project name and go to the Properties window to find the scene’s size parameters.
• Reduce the scene’s width (and height if needed) to the size of your original video. See the video tutorial below.
• Now, click on the video object and go to the Properties window to use the “Set the same size as the parent has” button. This action will make the video perfectly fit the size of the scene.

Now you have a perfect vertical video without black bars on the sides. Note that once you perform it, all the objects – videos and images you add to the project – will be automatically adjusted to the new size of the scene.

Vertical video fix #3 – rotating a video that loads horizontally

Sometimes what happens is that we - the forgetful ones - start recording a video in a portrait mode and then rotate the phone to a landscape mode while the video is still being recorded. Or even the other way around! As a result, you can get a vertical video loading horizontally when played.

You can fix that too. In fact, it will literally require you a few seconds and a couple of clicks:

• Add your video to VSDC video editor timeline.
• Click ‘Rotate’ on the toolbar above the scene and preview the result.
• If your video appears to be larger than the scene size, you can manually reduce its size or adjust the parameters using the Properties window.

Now that you know how to use VSDC as a vertical video editor to blur the sides of the footage or change the scene size, you may want to check other guides for creating a great movie. We have over 200 of them on our YouTube channel. Don't forget to subscribe!

In this tutorial, we'll look at one of the most popular masking tricks - having your video be seen through a text.

It can help your video titles look more stylish and professional or significantly enrich your visual effects range, if you are video blogger.

The first method can be applied using the free version of VSDC Video Editor, in particular, the 'Source in' tool.

At first, add a text to the scene. The text tool is located on the bar on the left of the scene.

Play with fonts and select the appropriate font size. If it’s necessary, take the bold font.

Make a double click on the text layer and insert a video.

Place a video above the text so that it covers all characters.

Then select “Source in” among composition modes.

The second method enables you to make a 'video in text' mask only in the Pro version of VSDC Video Editor.

First, add your video file.

After that, add a text to the scene.

Select the appropriate font settings.

Then place the text above the video and paint it black.

Go to the composition mode on the timeline and select “Inverted mask”.  Enjoy your stylish title.

To download VSDC Free Video Editor, please, proceed here - www.videosoftdev.com/free-video-editor/download

Find more awesome tutorials on our YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/FlashIntegro/videos

Many videos require voice commentaries. Educational clips, how-tos, game walkthroughs, video blogs - all are typically produced with use of voice over software. There are various solutions to record your voice and add it to the footage. In fact, there are even 3-rd party tools for voice recording and processing audio on a professional level. Those are used in professional audio recording studios, for example. Yet, some video editors also have embedded tools for recording voice commentaries. VSDC Video Editor is one of them.

There are two ways to use VSDC as a voice over software. The first one belongs to the free version of VSDC video editor, and the second - a more advanced way - is available in VSDC Pro version. Below we'll take a close look at both ways, and explain how you can make use of the audio recording feature for your videos.

In both cases you'll need a microphone which is either embedded or connected to your computer. The biggest difference between the two, is the sequence of steps required from a user:

• In VSDC free version, you can create an audio commentary using an embedded Voice Recorder. Once you record an audio piece, you'll be able to add it to you project and apply to the required video fragment.
• In VSDC Pro version, you'll use a Voice Over software feature. That means, the voice recording is carried out along with the video preview in one and the same window. It allows for adding audio comments at required parts of the movie easier and more precisely.

Method #1. How to use VSDC as a free voice over software

• Open the editor, go to the ‘Tool’ tab and select ‘Voice Recorder’

  

• If you need the audio to be recorded in a prticular format, first you should choose it. VSDC voice recorded offers a lot of popular audio formats such as MP3, AAC, WAV and etc.

  

• Second, select the audio device you're going to use for recording.

  

• If necessary, you can check the option to split your recordings by their duration or by size.

  

• To start recording your voice, click the corresponding button.

  

• When your voice comments are ready, go to your project and add the audio files to the timeline - precisely where it needs to be added.

  

Method #2 How to use VSDC Pro as a more advanced voice over software

• Add your video where you want to add your voice.

• Click the ‘More Tool’ button on the panel above the scene and select ‘Voice Over’.

  

• Preview the video and decide where you’d like to add your comments.
• Move the cursor to the moment of the video where the recording is supposed to start.

• Click the ‘Start Recording’ button.

  

• Record your voice using the microphone.

• At the end of recording click ‘Stop recording’.

  

• Click on the ‘Playlist’ button to see the list of recordings.

  

• Close the voice over window.

• Your recording will appear on the timeline automatically.

  

Even though both ways help you get the job done, VSDC Pro version makes a more precise voice over software, saving your time and effort. So, if audio recording is not a one time job, but rather a regular task you 'll have to deal with frequently, you should probably consider it as a more convenient tool.

If you're looking for using voice over software in your video production process, you can also check out our YouTube channel to see how quickly and easily you can utilize VSDC for that purpose.