Better Blurring In Davinci Resolve: Part 1

Stepping Up The Quality Of Your Blurs

In non-fiction and documentary TV, blurring out things like product logos, license plates, addresses, and names is almost a guaranteed task most colorists will have to tackle at some point.

However, if you watch any TV these days – you’ll notice that this has become a bit of lost art. The amount of really ugly, lazy, badly done blurs and paint jobs I see on TV absolutely drives me insane!

Adding Value For The Client

Personally – I always try to take my blurs/paints to the best level they can be.

I really feel like my clients appreciate the little bit of extra effort, and it helps them keep coming back. So in this Insight – I want to go through some of the techniques I use on the Color Page to get more seamless, better-looking blurs.

I’ll walk you through:

• Looking for challenges to address when doing a blur
• How to get better window tracks by separating window positioning from tracking
• Where to put blurs in the node tree
• How to use color generators for more seamless patches where possible
• Keyframing tips to deal with objects going off-screen or drifting
• Using garbage mattes to deal with foreground objects and letterboxes
• Keyframing blurs/patches on and off

This Insight will focus on Color Page techniques – which is where I do most of these kinds of fixes. However, for some shots – more horsepower is needed, and the Fusion Page can really come to the rescue. In part two, I’ll go over a technique for painting out logos in Fusion.

Until then – leave any questions or comments below

-Joey