Fast Blur with Animated Radius
The author explores the development of a new Gaussian blur technique called 'Smol Gaussian' to address performance limitations in existing blur algorithms. By utilizing a 'downsample, blur, upsample' approach, the method achieves high-quality, animated blur effects that scale efficiently.
Why it matters
Optimized image processing algorithms are essential for real-time graphics and video editing software, directly impacting user experience and hardware efficiency.
Almost a year ago, while testing some Blender compositor related things, I noticed that their "Fast Blur" mode is not very fast in some cases, and I started to wonder maybe Blender should get a Dual Kawase blur mode, but that had limitations, and after a whole bunch of poofing around I assembled a bunch of existing blurry ideas into Smol Gaussian .
So! As everyone knows, doing a Gaussian blur in the most naïve way is a cost that grows up as square of the blur radius. But luckily enough, Gaussian is separable, so you can do horizontal & vertical blurs separately, and now the cost scales linearly with radius. That is perfectly fine for blurring just a little bit, but if you need really large blurs, that becomes slow.
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