How to blur a video (a face, the background or the sides)
Last updated 2026-10-20
There are three jobs. To hide a face or plate, blur only that area and keep it on target for every frame. To soften a background, mask around the subject and blur the rest. To fill the bars around a clip in a different-shaped frame, put a blurred, enlarged copy behind the sharp one. Woven has a Blur setting from 0 to 100 and masks, but no automatic face tracking.
Three jobs, three kinds of blur
People search for the same words and mean different things. Decide which job you have first, because each one blurs a different part of the picture by a different amount.
| Job | What gets blurred | How strong | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hide a face or plate | A small area, only while it shows | Strong: features unreadable | The blur slipping off when the subject moves |
| Soften a background | Everything except the subject | Medium: shapes remain | A hard edge around the person |
| Fill bars around a clip | A copy of the clip behind the sharp one | Strong: it is only a backdrop | Hearing the audio twice |
Hide a face or a number plate
Blur the region, not the whole frame, or the entire shot goes soft. Push the blur until features cannot be made out, then check a still at full size. A light blur can leave a face recognizable.
The weak point is movement. If the person walks, a fixed blur slides off the face for a few frames. The rule: if the subject stays put, a fixed blur is enough. If they move, the blur has to move too. Apple documents attaching an effect to a detected face or object in Final Cut Pro so it follows automatically. Woven has no tracking, so you move the blur yourself with keyframes.
Blur is permanent once exported. Keep your original file.
Soften a background
A blur setting acts on a whole clip, so keeping a person sharp means separating them from what is behind. Apple's Final Cut Pro guide mentions Magnetic Masks, which use machine learning to mask a moving subject. Woven has no subject cut-out, so the edge around a person is a shape you place by hand.
That works best for a talking head who sits still. Cover the person with a circle or rectangle mask and invert it on a blurred copy. Expect a rougher edge than an automatic cut-out. For a moving subject, shoot with more distance between them and the wall instead.
Fill the bars around a clip
A horizontal clip in a vertical frame leaves bars above and below. A vertical clip in a horizontal frame leaves bars at the sides. The fix is the same: a blurred, enlarged copy of the clip behind the sharp one.
Reach for a backdrop when a crop would cut off something viewers need, such as a second speaker or words at the edge of a slide. When one subject sits centered, a crop is less work. Whichever you use, mute the backdrop copy, or every sound plays twice.
Blur in Woven
Woven's Blur setting is on each video or image clip: Style tab, Appearance, Blur, from 0 to 100. It blurs the whole clip and stays inside the clip's edges. A mask limits which part of a clip shows, and mask position can be keyframed. Woven has no region-blur tool and no one-click face blur. The workaround is a blurred, masked copy of the clip on a lane above it, which you move yourself.
Ask in chat
- Blur the license plate from 0:05 to 0:09.
- Put a blurred copy of this clip behind it to fill the vertical frame.
- Blur a circle over the face on the left for the whole clip.
- Fade the blur in over half a second.
Or do it by hand
- 1Make the copy. Ask in chat for a muted copy of the clip on the lane above, starting at the same moment with the same trim. On the timeline, check that the copy lines up with the original from start to end. If you hear it twice, select the copy and press M.
- 2Blur the copy. Open the Style tab and raise Blur under Appearance.
- 3For a backdrop. Set Format to Vertical 1080x1920. In the Crop tab, set the copy to Fill and the original to Fit. Choose Arrange, then Send to Back on the copy.
- 4For a region. Bring the copy to the front with Arrange. In the Mask tab choose Circle or Rectangle and set Position X, Position Y, Width and Height over the face. Feather softens the edge. For a background, turn on Invert.
- 5Follow and check. With the Mask tab still open, press ⌥K. Move the playhead and adjust the mask again, as often as the subject moves. Step through with ← and → to check every frame.
Common questions
Blur only the face region and keep it covering the face on every frame where it shows. Woven has no face-blur button; the workaround is a blurred copy of the clip with a Circle or Rectangle mask over the face.
No. Woven has no face detection or tracking, so you move the mask with keyframes. Final Cut Pro documents tracking an effect to a face.
Blur a copy of the clip and mask it so the subject stays sharp. Woven has no subject cut-out, so the mask edge is placed by hand.
Put a copy of the clip behind the original, scale it to fill the frame, blur it and mute it. The sharp original sits in front, set to Fit.
No. Blurred pixels are gone once the video is exported, so keep the original file.
Sources
- Intro to clip effects in Final Cut Pro for Mac - Apple Support, checked October 19, 2026
- Track an effect to a moving object in Final Cut Pro for Mac - Apple Support, checked October 19, 2026
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