DaVinci Resolve: blur a face and track it

How to blur a face in DaVinci Resolve

This is done on the Color page, using a node graph: one node for the blur, a window to contain it, and the Tracker palette to move that window with the face.

1. Open the clip on the Color page and add a node. Right-click in the node editor and add a new serial node — this is where the blur will live, separate from any grade you've already applied.
2. Apply a blur to that node. In the Effects/OpenFX library, add a Blur (Resolve FX Blur, or the built-in Gaussian) to the new node. Raise the radius until a test frame is unrecognisable — right now it's blurring the entire frame.
3. Add a window and shape it over the face. In the Window palette, add an oval (or ellipse) window to the same node, then resize and position it over the face. This restricts the blur to inside the window instead of the whole frame. Soften the window's edge so the blur fades rather than cuts off sharply.
4. Open the Tracker palette and track the window. With the window selected, switch to the Tracker palette and track forward through the clip. It follows the window's contents frame by frame, so the blur travels with the face instead of sitting still while the subject moves.
5. Review the tracked result. Play the clip at full speed and check fast turns or moments where the subject is partly out of frame. Resolve's tracker is comparatively strong, but a hand crossing the face or a hard change in lighting can still knock it off — reposition the window manually at that frame and re-track from there if needed.
6. Repeat with a new node per additional face. Each face needs its own node, window and track. Copy the node, move the window to the next face, and track it independently.
7. Deliver. Standard Deliver page export. Resolve does not strip GPS or camera metadata from the source clip as part of this process.

Where it's still manual work

Fair to Resolve: its tracker is the best of the desktop tools covered on this site for following a face through motion, and the dedicated face-tracking mode holds on to a turning head noticeably better than a generic point tracker. If you're already colour grading a project in Resolve, adding the blur node is close to free — the infrastructure is already open.

The setup is still node-based and manual per face: a node, a window, a track, and a review pass, multiplied by however many people are in the shot. For someone who doesn't already have Resolve open for a grading pass, launching it, learning the node graph, and doing this for a single clip is real time spent on infrastructure the task doesn't otherwise need.

It's also worth tracking after any trims or re-ordering on the timeline, not before — a window's track is generated against the clip's current position, and moving the clip around afterwards can leave the tracked keyframes out of sync with the footage they were built for.

DaVinci Resolve vs Deface

When to stay in Resolve, and when not to

If a clip is already on your Resolve timeline for grading or a real edit, do the blur there — the node approach fits into a colour pipeline better than pulling the clip out to another app. Resolve's tracker earns that choice.

If the whole job is "blur this one face before I send the clip," opening Resolve, building a node graph and tracking a window is a lot of infrastructure for one result. Deface detects every face automatically, tracks it through the video without a manual node setup, and lets you toggle individual faces or change style after the fact — a few seconds on the phone the footage is already on, plus it strips the clip's location and timestamp metadata, which Resolve leaves in place. That's usually the better call for footage headed straight to a story or a group chat rather than a graded delivery.