I need to blot out a face on a DVD

I was hoping you guys could lead me in the right direction. I need a program that can follow a person's face like in the news that will block out their face. I'm sure it will take some high dollar, scientific, space thingy. But anything less would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, RSS

 

I use a program can Pinnacle Studio Plus that allows you to blur a portion of the video. Here is a tutorial of the effect:
http://www.jakeludington.com/pinnacle_studio/20070520_how_to_blur_faces_in_a_movie.html
The problem arises when the person you wish to blur moves in the frame. You have to chop the movie into segments and change the location of the blurring to match where the person is in each segment.
Time consuming to say the least.
I'm certain there must be professional software that is used by news programs, but I'm sure their cost well exceeds my need for this effect.
Pinnacle Studio Plus is available either in big box stores or on eBay.
http://search.ebay.com/search/searc...ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=32&fsoo=2&fgtp=
Make sure you get the "Plus" version. The standard version of Studio does not have this feature (or many other useful features)

 

Or you can try this:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/ZS4_d4825.html
100% free to download and use. Here's a link to some tutorials supplied by the applications development team:
http://www.zs4.net/tutorials and here http://www.zs4.net/tutorials?from=10
Detailed features: http://www.zs4.net/features
User manual: http://www.zs4.net/manual-overview
Technical articles: http://www.zs4.net/technical and here http://www.zs4.net/technical?from=10
Due to the nature of video editing, you're going to need as powerful of a PC as possible. Their web site says that anything over 512mb RAM and a 1.0ghz CPU should be OK, but that seems a bit light-weight to me. I'd double both those specs to 1gb RAM and a 2.0ghz CPU for good results. It will run on 128mb RAM and a 500mhz CPU, but you'll be able to bake bread and take a nap between each task.
ZS4 is awesome.... a friend of mine uses it and he says it's freakin' great. He was stunned that such kick-a** software was free. I haven't used ZS4 so I can't really do much for you in the way of tech help, but at least I provided some links.

Good Luck!
[dlb]
:major

 

This is intriguing.
I was unaware that this freeware existed.
After a quick read of the manual and a couple of the tutorials, I am very impressed.
I will check this program out and post a comparison.

 

Initial impressions:
ZS4
Smaller (HDD space required)
Free
Full of "Whizbang - gee gollies" for making "artsy" videos
Confusing interface.
Online help only (trust me, you'll need it)
No DVD support (that I can find) By this I mean you have to take your finished movie project and burn it to a DVD using seperate software.

Pinnacle Studio Plus
Larger (much larger)
Not free, but very reasonable.
Everything you need to make profession looking videos.
Very user friendly - intuitive controls
Easy to understand help files and tutorials
Full DVD support. Easily creates DVD (or .avi file to HDD).

Conclusion: it depends on what you want and how much time you have to invest learning the software.
Personally, I'll stick with Studio Plus