Gaussian Blur

Gaussian (pronounced gousian), named after the 19 ^th century German mathematician, Karl Friedrich Gauss, produces a smooth blurring of the image. This blur does more, though, than softening the picture. It allows you to blur channels separately through a popup (Figure 11.6).

Figure 11.6: Gaussian Blur Controls

Selecting different channels can produce some interesting and unusual effects. If you want to blur the Red and Green channels, just apply the effect twice, once selecting red and the other time green.

Try blurring one color channel to 20, and apply the effect again. In the second effect, blur the Luminance the same amount. The order in which the effects are applied always makes a difference. Don t assume that because you apply Luminance Gaussian and Blue Gaussian you get the same effect by applying them the other way around. FCP processes the filters from the top down as they re stacked in the Filters tab. If you blur Luminance first, the color values smear, and you ll get less impact than if you blur the color value first.

Try it on Dance2. It doesn t reproduce well in grayscale, but I ve set it up in the first clip of the sequence called Effects Builder. A word of caution: be careful with blurring the