How to Use AI Object Mask in PowerDirector
Click one subject, let PowerDirector track it through the clip, and blur them alone or everything but them.
Updated Sep. 13, 2026 · 4 min read
In a hurry? Use the AI Object Mask quick guide instead.
PowerDirector's AI Object Mask follows one subject through a clip and keeps an effect on them, frame by frame, with no keyframes to set. Click the person, let it track, and a blur lands on them alone while the rest of the shot stays sharp. One checkbox turns the same mask around to blur everything except them.
- In Effects, open Blur and drag the Blur effect onto your clip.
- On the Effect tab, click the single-figure icon under Effect mask.
- Click the subject with the add tool until it is covered in red.
- Click Track Object and let it follow the subject through the clip.
- Click OK to save the mask. Tick Invert masked area to blur the background instead.
Steps to Use AI Object Mask
Step 1: Put Blur on the Clip
The mask shapes an effect, so the effect comes first. Open Effects, choose Blur in the category list, and drag the Blur tile onto your clip on the timeline.
The whole frame goes soft at this point. That is expected: nothing has told the blur where to stop yet.
Step 2: Open the Object Mask
With the clip selected, the Effect tab lists Blur under Applied Effect, with an Effect mask row beneath the Degree slider. Click the single-figure icon in that row to open AI-Based Object Mask.
Step 3: Click the Subject Until It Is Covered
The window works in three numbered stages, and this is the first. With the add tool under Selection tools active, click the person in the preview. Each click grows the red area; keep going until arms, legs and head are all inside it.
Finish this before moving on. Tracking follows whatever shape is red on this frame, so a missing hand here is a missing hand in every frame after it. The tool beside the add tool takes back an area that went too far.
Step 4: Track It Through the Clip
Click Track Object. PowerDirector carries the mask forward through the clip, reshaping it as the subject moves, which is the part that would otherwise mean adjusting a shape by hand every few frames.
Step 5: Save the Mask
OK stays grayed out until tracking finishes, then comes live. Click it to save the mask and close the window.
The Result
The mask you just made appears as a new tile at the end of the Effect mask row, already selected, and the blur now sits on the dancer only. That is the setup for hiding someone who wandered into shot.
For the opposite job, tick Invert masked area. The same mask now keeps the subject sharp and softens everything around them, which pulls the eye to one person in a busy frame. Mask feather radius softens the edge of either version.
Haven't got PowerDirector yet? Blurring a face or a passer-by that moves through the shot is one click on the subject and one on Track Object, with no keyframes to set.
Download PowerDirector Free →FAQ About AI Object Mask
Yes. Build the mask on the person exactly as above, then tick Invert masked area on the Effect tab. The blur moves to everything outside the mask.
That is what Track Object is for. It carries the shape you clicked on the first frame through the rest of the clip and reshapes it as the subject moves.
Fix it before tracking, on the first frame. Keep clicking with the add tool until every part of the figure is red, and use the remove tool beside it for anything that spilled over. Tracking copies whatever shape is there.
It becomes a new tile at the end of the Effect mask row on the Effect tab, selected as soon as the window closes. Clicking the first tile, the crossed circle, takes the mask off again and blurs the whole frame.