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Motion Blur

Intro​

Motion blur is used to mimic the effect of a physical camera (and the human eye). Rapid movement will appear streaked over a single exposure (or frame) depending on the shutter speed. A slower shutter speed results in a longer exposure resulting in a blurrier image.

In computer animation, a lack of motion blur can result in fast moving objects appearing stepped or staggered. This can be prevented by adding motion blur.

To enable motion blur for a Shape, load its UI into the Attribute Editor and choose an motion blur type from the Motion Blur drop down under the Shape tab.

Motion Blur Types​

Full​

Full Motion blur is recommended where Shapes are being deformed or animated using Path Animation. This includes Deformers that 'transform' Shapes like Sub-Mesh or Auto-Animate.

To enable Full Motion Blur for a Shape it must be enabled in two places:

  1. Enable Motion Blur via the icon at the top of the Scene Tree. It can also be enabled via the Composition Settings which can be accessed via the cog icon at the top of the Scene Tree. Open the window and check the Motion Blur attribute.
  2. Enable Motion Blur on the Shape. This can be done via the Attribute Editor. Load a Shape's UI and choose Full from the Motion Blur drop down under the Shape tab.

Further options are available in the Composition Settings window to fine tune how Motion Blur behaves.

info

Motion Blur must be turned on in the Composition Settings for any Shapes with Full Motion Blur enabled to appear blurred. Disabling Motion Blur in the Composition Settings will turn off Full Motion Blur for all Shapes.

Transform Only​

Transform Only motion blur is more performant than Full motion blur but does not support Deformers or Path Animation. It's recommended to use Transform Only motion blur where only a Shape's transform (Position/Rotation/Scale/Pivot/Skew) is animated. It can also be used with Camera animation.

To enable Transform Only Motion Blur for a Shape:

  • Load a Shape's UI into the Attribute Editor and choose Transform Only from the Motion Blur drop down under the Shape tab.

Further options are available via the cog icon to fine tune how Motion Blur behaves:

  • Blend Mode - Set the blend mode for how the motion blurred samples combine with the Shape.
  • Strength - Determines the mix of blurred and un-blurred samples (or output and input).
  • Blur Centre - Affects whether the blur is backward or forward of the current frame. The default of 0 will centre it on the frame (the motion blur will be even in both directions of travel).
  • Samples - Determine how many times the motion blur is sampled. A higher number will result in a smoother blur but also comes with a performance penalty.
  • High Quality Samples - When checked, sub-steps are calculated between frames. This can be useful to create a more precise blur for very fast animation with sudden changes in direction over individual frames.