From the course: Premiere Pro Guru: Compositing and Masks (2015)

Creating masks using Bezier curves - Premiere Pro Tutorial

From the course: Premiere Pro Guru: Compositing and Masks (2015)

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Creating masks using Bezier curves

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- Let's go ahead and open Sequence 6.2. In here, you can see a shot of a man walking and then the name of a hotel. We're going to blur both the man walking and the name of the hotel. So for the man, I'm going to go ahead and select the clip and add a Fast Blur effect. And I could blur just him by using the Elliptical tool. However, that's not going to work so well for blurring this. So I'm gonna go ahead and delete that mask, and I'm going to add a new mask using the free draw bezier. The Pen tool, which is what we're going to use for drawing this mask, works by adding points and handles to what we need. So let me give you an example. If I just click, and then click, and then click, click, and then close it by clicking in the same place where I had the very first point, I actually close the mask like so. And now I created a polygon. Everytime I clicked, I created a corner. However, if instead of just clicking, I click and drag, I create not just a point, but the handles that let me have curves. So, if you just click with a Pen tool, and then click again, and then click, you create corners. But if you click and drag, you're creating curves. You see, this works under the principle that every single curve is comprised by three points. The originating point, the ending point, and the handle that controls the curve. So if you don't have any handles, you will not be able to have curves. Let's go ahead and create a mask that is going to be half an oval for this hotel name. I don't need a curve here on this side, so I'm just gonna click. I do need a curve on the top, so I'm going to click and drag until this curve matches the shape. I'm going to single-click on the other corner, and now I'm going to close the shape by clicking exactly in the same place where I started. This closes the shape, and now I have a custom mask. But what happens if you make a mistake? So let's say I start with corners, and I have four corners, and now I realize that instead of a corner, I want a curve, say on this one here. For you to see this better, I am going to maximize this screen simply by placing the mouse cursor on top of the panel and pressing tilde key. You can clearly see the point now. Now remember, I have a corner, but I would like a curve. All I need to do is click and drag. See the curve? Now I have two. I can do the same here. Depending on which way I drag, I'm going to get a curve that goes one way or the other way. Now, you may have noticed that my tool changed shape to an upside-down V. This is your Adjust tool. In some programs, it's called the Convert Vertex tool. This let's you change corners into curves and curves into corners. How I get that tool is simply by pressing and holding the option or alt key. Now that I see the upside-down V, I can click and drag. Another thing that I can do with this tool is that I can break the relationship between the handles. Right now, my handles work in a way that if I lower one of the handles, the other side of the handle goes up, and this is so that I can have a smooth curve, but if I don't want a smooth curve, I can change the relationship between the handles by using the same tool. Remember, press and hold the alt or option key. Corner, corner, corner, back to bezier. In other words, curve. I'm going to minimize this now and delete the mask, just so that I can add another mask that is proper. So, click, click and drag to create the curve, click, and now close the mask.

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