Keynote Image Editing – How to Blur an Image Partially in Keynote

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I'm making a keynote presentation (animation, really) where there's an image on the slide. Next, after a few seconds, some text moves in on top of the image, and what I want is for that image to simultaneously blur (albeit not fully – maybe 50% blur, kinda like they do in movies when focusing on one person and not the other, if you know what I mean). I know there's a blur animation, but when I tried it, it fully blurred out the image. Can someone please help me? Thanks.

Best Answer

I have tested the following under macOS BigSur 11.4 and Keynote version 11.1, yet I remember this functionality has been there a very long time.

  1. Select the image you want to blur.
  2. Select "animate" in the top right corner:
    enter image description here
  3. Right below select "action"
    enter image description here
  4. Click on "add action" and select "opacity"
  5. You will now have a slider for both duration and opacity enter image description here