<p>Replace it with a fictional plate?</p>
<p>Alternatively, track the four corners of the plate where there's just solid background colour.</p>
<p>Apply each of the four tracks to a null (call them Null 1, Null 2, etc).</p>
<p>Make a solid colour layer.</p>
<p>Apply a 4-Color Gradient to the solid.</p>
<p>Set each of the positions of the colours in the &quot;4-Color Gradient&quot; effect to match Nulls 1-4 respectively.</p>
<p>Add the following to each Fill colour in the &quot;4-Color Gradient&quot; effect, so that the colour at the position of each null on the car layer (car.jpg) is sampled and applied to the 4-Colour Gradient:</p>
<pre><code>target = thisComp.layer(&quot;car.jpg&quot;); // tells which layer to sample from
colorpicker = thisComp.layer(&quot;Null 1&quot;);  // Change this to the name of each Null respectively
target.sampleImage(target.fromWorld(colorpicker.position), [0.5,0.5], true, time) // Changes the fill colour to match the colour beneath the null
</code></pre>
<p>Mask out the solid layer to obscure the number plate.</p>
<p>Feather the mask.</p>
<p>Add a bit of noise / Match Grain to the solid layer.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/OTi8I.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/OTi8I.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-25T16:13:05.200Z
2022-03-25T17:00:10.250Z
2022-03-25T17:00:10.250Z
tomh
<p>I need to blur out a car plate on a scene. I already tracked the plate with Mocha and used a mask with Camera Blur but the result is anything but subtle. Everything else on screen is on focus and blurring out just the plate just calls attention to it. Any thoughts?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-25T16:54:15.173Z
its a little hard to give advise on this without seeing the clip you edited. is there any way you could share it? (a screenshot i mean)
desperrrr
<after-effects><video-editor><editing><tracking><visual-effects>
How can I subtly blur a car plate?
Ferndinand Ursa
# How can I subtly blur a car plate?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-03-25)

I need to blur out a car plate on a scene. I already tracked the plate with Mocha and used a mask with Camera Blur but the result is anything but subtle. Everything else on screen is on focus and blurring out just the plate just calls attention to it. Any thoughts?

**Tags:** after-effects, video-editor, editing, tracking, visual-effects

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: its a little hard to give advise on this without seeing the clip you edited. is there any way you could share it? (a screenshot i mean)  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2022-03-25. Score: 3

Replace it with a fictional plate?
Alternatively, track the four corners of the plate where there's just solid background colour.
Apply each of the four tracks to a null (call them Null 1, Null 2, etc).
Make a solid colour layer.
Apply a 4-Color Gradient to the solid.
Set each of the positions of the colours in the "4-Color Gradient" effect to match Nulls 1-4 respectively.
Add the following to each Fill colour in the "4-Color Gradient" effect, so that the colour at the position of each null on the car layer (car.jpg) is sampled and applied to the 4-Colour Gradient:
target = thisComp.layer("car.jpg"); // tells which layer to sample from
colorpicker = thisComp.layer("Null 1");  // Change this to the name of each Null respectively
target.sampleImage(target.fromWorld(colorpicker.position), [0.5,0.5], true, time) // Changes the fill colour to match the colour beneath the null

Mask out the solid layer to obscure the number plate.
Feather the mask.
Add a bit of noise / Match Grain to the solid layer.


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