Kdenlive Motion Tracking: Auto Mask Tutorial

Make one object or image follow a head or person or character in your video with Kdenlive's automask feature!
Write a comment with your question or how-to request!

1. Cut your clip down to the region you want to track
2. Add the Auto Mask effect, increase both radius settings to maximum (as of making this video: 500px)
3. Press "Analyze" (If a popup appears, press merge)
4. Create a title clip, add an image, add the title clip to a track above the video
5. Select the video, then the transition and in the options of the transition, select to import keyframes.
6. Remove key frame limitation and press OK
7. Disable obfuscation in the Auto Mask effect
You're done!

More Kdenlive tutorials:

Could you follow the instructions? Got questions? Comment!
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[DrUseful]

Fantastic demo of Auto Mask, thank you for sharing! The first 3 recommendations didn't seem to know about the Maximum Distance settings... 😬

[LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

That is great, I am a long time Kdenlive user and I didi not know it could do that.

[DonovanGoodwin]

Thats insane! I really want to get into editing with this amazing piece of software and this just makes me even more excited.

[rendora]

Thank you so much making this video. I think this is the most clear and concise tutorial I've ever seen.

[Troy]

Very nice tutorials. Thanks for all the great Kdenlive tips !!

[TheDobermanTriangleMusic]

Thank you so much. Your videos are great. Here to learn and support other independent creators.

[roywatcher]

This is a really cool hint in using kdenlive. Very nice tip.

[ptanisaro]

Thank you, sir! This is very helpful!

[qd]

Hello, have you ever tried the Motion Tracker effect from the Misc section? I don't really know what to do with it. It tracks so much better than Auto Mask, but it seems like there are no keyframes to import.

[AdamSondel]

Amazing thing! I discover Kdenlive more and more with your channel. Good and useful job! Thx!

[eantoranz]

Probably there's a mismatch between the version of the video and the version I have running at the time (debian testing so I have 19.12.3).... actually a few. First, the transition shows up as *Cairo Affine Blend*. Then, I don't have an option to import directly from the clip. I have an option to import from clipboard so first I have to copy the tracking data from the effect itself (there's a button to copy the tracking info) and then I can import it into affine. But then I don't have an option to map Geometry to Geometry. On the right combo what I get is Opacity, Rotation, X Position, X Scale, Y Position, Y Scale.

[rathorsonu]

Where the transition come from after adding text layer

[andyspoo]

This is now a very old version of KDENLIVE and some of this doesn't work in the same way. Could you please do a video showing this function using a modern version of KDENLIVE please. And when you say 'click on the video clip' I think it's important to say which one, i.e. the title video clip, or the main video clip. Thanks.

[EmeraldBros]

How do I stop the transform effect from being in two video clip bars, it is now squished between video 1 and video 2??? It was when I did the Ctrl thing with the video and an image. PLEASE HELP!!

[priyasingh]

hi so taught so easily . . I just downloaded kdenlive and I am facing little issues like 1)my properties bar disappeared and I am unable to find it . 2) sometimes I get error message - ' enable video edit in monitor to add effects ' and everytime I try to add effect even after selecting the clip that makes the boreders turn yelliw after selecting the effects name shows up but nothing happens . please help me :)

[username]

Just started using kden after a miraculously finding a comment mentioning it on stack exchange while searching for reasons openshot kept crashing. kden is a godsend, its amazing, surprisingly easy to run on my OLD laptop too. Only issue is their docs are lacking, your video really helped.. I had same issue with clip import button not showing, so I was searching for half hour for that button. Anyway, I was able to import and track an object.. but I do not have the option for geo to geo, I only have position to geo on import... the dropdown has no other options, just the ones default. Have you ever seen this? thanks for the video btw.

[CaioSouzaTJ]

Obrigado! Seu método utilizando "Title Clip" resolve o problema do objeto ficar na posição errada após importar os movimentos.

[VGHOST]

Thank you, that was a very useful one! :)

[blastoise]

Great video!! It help me alot!! Do you if one can do "Lens Flare Effect" with Kdenlive?

[EpicLPer]

For whatever reason even the pixelated area won't follow the thing I marked in the video, not sure why... It'll move a tiny bit, then just stop.