Cropping Issue

James73

Newbie Joined: May 23, 2013 15:58 Messages: 5 Offline

Solved by

Jun 08, 2013 11:49

I have had one major issue with PowerDirector 8 that has not been rectified in version 11 -- that is, the usefulness of the cropping window. I work with fairly long video files that may run an hour or so. I often want to use the crop tool to zoom in and out periodically, However, PowerDirector will not allow me to set keyframes in the crop window that are close enough to each other -- it is often up to 10 seconds of run-time before I can set a new keyframe. No other video editing program that I have used has this limitation -- they will either allow me to set keyframes virtually on top of each other or will allow me to zoom in and out of the crop window timeline.

Yes, I know that I could chop the video file into a number of small segments so that the crop window keyframes could be set closer in time, but I really do not want to do this. Am I missing something?

James Dotson

Senior Contributor Location: Tennessee Joined: Aug 24, 2009 20:40 Messages: 3066 Offline

Jun 08, 2013 13:36

Have you tried clicking on the modify button and see if that does what you need? It may be more work, but you should get more exact results. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

James73

Newbie Joined: May 23, 2013 15:58 Messages: 5 Offline

Jun 08, 2013 14:24

Thanks for the reponse. I have looked at the Modify window, and it does allow the placing of keyframes in very close proximity to each other, as well as allowing the user to zoom in and out of the timeline within the window. Those features are sadly lacking in the crop window, Alas, the Modify window does not seem to give me what I want, which is a simple way to zoom in and out of a video file. The Motion effect in the Modify window just seems to shift the entire picture along a path. I'm really surprised this issue has not been raised and dealt with in the past.

ynotfish

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

Jun 08, 2013 17:46

Hi James -

1. You're not missing a thing and 2. The issue has been raised repeatedly in the forums over many versions of PD. An example http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/27766.page

What makes it even worse in PD11 is that modules like PiP/Title Designer got a makeover & can be undocked & made full screen, but poor old Video Crop (and Magic Motion) has been left behind. PiP/Title Designer also got time position scales added, but not VC or MM.

Not only that, I find the keyframe markers in Video Crop to be very unresponsive at times.

Of course, as you've found, the longer the clip the worse the issue. Unfortunately, the only way around it is to split the clip and work with shorter sections... then you get the added complication of the possibility of "jumps" where the crop at the end of clip "A" doesn't precisely match the beginning of clip "B".

If there was a suggestion box, this serious oversight would be a good candidate for attention.

It's a nagging problem up with which we all must put (as Winston Churchill would have said).

Cheers - Tony
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James73

Newbie Joined: May 23, 2013 15:58 Messages: 5 Offline

Jun 08, 2013 19:14

Thanks for the confirmation, Tony. One would think that this should be one of the easiest programming fixes imaginable. Which probably means it will never be effected.

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Jun 08, 2013 19:28

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wjr002

Member Location: Kingscliff, Australia Joined: Jun 29, 2011 20:22 Messages: 117 Offline

Jun 08, 2013 20:37

Even the sliders in the Timeline can be next to useless with the way they behave if you want to crop there.
Markers can help but I'd want to be able to lock the sliders in a position and also be able to slide them independently to the position where I've stopped play. /endof2ndrantoftheday PD12 Ultimate Suite (upgrade from PD11 Ultimate). PhotoDirector 5. PowerDVD13. YouCam 5.