How to add blur to your Youtube videos
It is a well-known fact that YouTube is the world's largest video sharing platform on the Internetб and, contrary to popular belief, it is not used only for watching cat videos and fail clips. Some users like to upload educational videos and share their knowledge with the rest of the world, while others are motivational speakers and desire to help people in need overcome difficult times.
However, some of these videos might contain sensitive information or some form of identificationб and sharing this information online for everyone to see might not be such a good idea. Luckily, YouTube provided its users with the possibility to blur the faces of people in the uploaded videos in order to protect their privacy back in 2012. But, as you can probably guess, that is not the only piece of information you might want to keep away from an unknown online user. Data like credit card information, social security numbers, license plates, home addresses or any other type of identification can greatly affect your privacy and even harm you if it falls into the hands of a malevolent user.
According to Google's latest announcements, a new feature will be introduced to YouTube called "Custom Blurring". It will give you the possibility to blur any desired moving or stationary object in uploaded videos, thus, taking another step in assuring the anonymity of users. This utility can be quite handy when editing videos directly on the YouTube website, via the video manager or when running desktop versions of YouTube. If you are curious how to do that directly from the website, then take a look at the following paragraphs.
First, head over to the YouTube website and access your uploaded videos by clicking on the "Creator Studio" -> "Video Manager". Once there, select the video you want to process, press the "Edit" button and select the "Enhancements" option, as seen in the photo below.
Video Enhancement Option
Now, simply click on the "Blurring effects" tab and select the "Custom blurring" option. Additionally, you can choose to blur all the faces that are detected in your video by clicking on the "Apply" button next to "Blur faces".
Blur Effects
After you have selected the above mentioned option, a new window should appear where you can easily select the parts you want to blur throughout your entire video by simply holding down your left mouse button and drawing the area. The new technology behind this new feature can analyze the chosen patterns and, with the help of motion detection, blur the object, even if its position changes. All you need to do then is click on the "Done" button, save your video and share it with other users.
Blur Area
As you can see, it is not at all complicated, and this utility completely eliminates the need for third-party video editing tools capable of modifying your movie before uploading it to your YouTube account. It's a simple, fast and efficient way to further ensure your online anonymity. This feature will help you blur objects from any type of video uploaded, and it might even work with 360 videos, if and when Google decides to offer VR support for YouTube, as it is rumored on various websites.
If you are a new or an experienced YouTube content producer, you might also be interested on how to make money on YouTube or what's up with the new YouTube Red service.
