True cropping

chuckpuckett

Member Location: Alabama Joined: Jan 30, 2011 09:41 Messages: 95 Offline

Solved by

Dec 17, 2011 23:32

Was working on a video and realized that I could no longer "make work" the Video Crop in PD's Power Tools. I invoked Premier Elements and used their crop effect to just plain crop the video clip, rendered it out, and then used the resulting clip back in PD.

I must be missing something. The first time ever I tried to us PD's Video Crop, I fully expected to see some way to fence out a crop area, hit Apply and Voila! I would have a cropped clip. Instead, there's some kind of proportional fencing, automatic insertion of keypoints, and unless you fix it, a clip that automatically zooms in over the duration of the clip.

I worked around this when I first encountered the phenomenon, and managed to hobble something together, but it was never what I was really seeking. After being forced to resort to PE today, it occurred to me to ask: Surely there is some way to do a simple crop of a clip, so that only the portion I want to see is displayed, without proportionally filling the screen. The way crop works by default is more like zoom, not crop.

Somebody educate me please. Chuck Puckett
"I don't want to steal the show. I only want to borrow it for a while"
http://www.puckettpublishing.com
http://www.chuckpuckettsongaweek.com

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Dec 18, 2011 00:04

It is not exactly cropping, but you can adjust the coverage of the clip in the window on any track. Just shrink or expand the displayed part of the video.

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Xerox

Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Aug 09, 2009 01:36 Messages: 446 Offline

Dec 18, 2011 01:49

For the most flexibility in cropping a video, use the PiP designer by clicking the Modify button instead of the Power Tools button.

In the PiP designer, click on the third tab, the one with the hexagon icon. Next click on the white square mask. That should make the fence appear with handles. Clear the checkmark for maintaining mask aspect ratio. Now you can freely crop.
Gateway DX4380, AMD A8-5500 Quad Core 3.2GHz with ATI Radeon HD 7560D; 16GB RAM; 1 TB SATA 7200 RPM; Windows 8 Pro 64-bit; PDR11, PDVD12.

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Dec 18, 2011 02:40

Hi Chuck -

I hope this helps. I'm pretty sure it's what you want to do.

The thing about Video Crop in PD is that the default keyframes are set to zoom. All you need to do is make the last keyframe the same as the first & you'll get a static (zoomless) clip.

You can see this on YouTube in 720p...

Cheers - Tony

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Dec 18. 2011 05:13

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ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Dec 18, 2011 03:35

Quote: Surely there is some way to do a simple crop of a clip, so that only the portion I want to see is displayed, without proportionally filling the screen.

Chuck - that part of your post failed to register. Sorry. Cropping can only be done in the same aspect ratio.

I think the simplest way to do what you want, then, is to apply a mask to the video clip.

Modify > PiP Designer > Mask > uncheck "Maintain Aspect Ratio" > adjust mask.

Cheers - Tony
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chuckpuckett

Member Location: Alabama Joined: Jan 30, 2011 09:41 Messages: 95 Offline

Dec 18, 2011 08:41

Thanks to YNOTFISH and Carl312: This is exactly what I need.
Had never really been sure what the 3rd tab in PIP Designer actually did.
And had been eternally distracted by the name of the Video Crop Power Tool. You know, "crop"

Things are not always what they seem.
"What's in a name? A video crop by another name would surely crop as well."
Wrong.
Chuck Puckett
"I don't want to steal the show. I only want to borrow it for a while"
http://www.puckettpublishing.com
http://www.chuckpuckettsongaweek.com