Non-proportional cropping

chuckpuckett

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

Solved by

Jan 31, 2015 09:50

This may be simple, but I've not been able to discover whether it's possible, or if it is, how it is done.

When I Video Crop a clip, I am presented with handles on the clip. Drag the handles, and the visible regions expands or contracts, but always proportionally. When I think of cropping, I have always thought of selecting an arbitrary rectangle around some portion, and then hit the Crop button (as in most picture/photo editing software). That's what I want to do, but I can't see how to accomplish it.

While I'm on the subject, most of the time (90%), if I crop something, I'd prefer it to stay cropped. Instead, PD crops at the point I tell it, but then "moves" the cropping over the remaining time in the video. The only way I know to apply the crop to the whole clip is go to the end and Duplicate Previous Crop. That just seems way too arbitrary a behavior, and the opposite of what the default should be. If a person CROPS, the crop by default should apply to the whole clip. If you want some sort of "movement", then add your target cropping.

So... to what page in the manual should I refer? Or just go ahead and give this poor fool the secret knowledge.

Tnx! 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

PlaySound

Senior Contributor Joined: Dec 02, 2010 10:26 Messages: 2031 Offline

Jan 31, 2015 11:02

Quote: This may be simple, but I've not been able to discover whether it's possible, or if it is, how it is done.

When I Video Crop a clip, I am presented with handles on the clip. Drag the handles, and the visible regions expands or contracts, but always proportionally. When I think of cropping, I have always thought of selecting an arbitrary rectangle around some portion, and then hit the Crop button (as in most picture/photo editing software). That's what I want to do, but I can't see how to accomplish it.

While I'm on the subject, most of the time (90%), if I crop something, I'd prefer it to stay cropped. Instead, PD crops at the point I tell it, but then "moves" the cropping over the remaining time in the video. The only way I know to apply the crop to the whole clip is go to the end and Duplicate Previous Crop. That just seems way too arbitrary a behavior, and the opposite of what the default should be. If a person CROPS, the crop by default should apply to the whole clip. If you want some sort of "movement", then add your target cropping.

So... to what page in the manual should I refer? Or just go ahead and give this poor fool the secret knowledge.

Tnx!

To select a specific area of a video while maintaining the aspect ratio is simple.

Select the video in the timeline, click the button "Power Tools / Video Crop / Crop Video" select size and the position / OK

If to cut the video in free format, I would use masks with the disabled aspect ratio, this method of more work.

Note: There may be another method that I still do not know.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jan 31. 2015 11:04

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Spearhead

Newbie Joined: Mar 24, 2015 14:43 Messages: 3 Offline

Mar 24, 2015 17:01

Selecting the video on the timeline and choosing Crop Video in Power Tools creates a single instance of a crop then fades back out. Not being able to crop an entire clip at once is a deal breaker for me since I use a GoPro camera a lot. I will be requesting a refund to this software as I've owned it four hours and have had nothing but trouble with it.

ynotfish

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

Mar 24, 2015 17:24

Hi chuckpuckett & Spearhead -

To crop a video so there's no pan or zoom movement all you need to do is:

Set the first keyframe (start of clip)

Duplicate that keyframe for the 2nd (end of clip)

Chuck - masking is the only way to get non-proportional "cropping", which leaves part of the screen transparent (but you knew that).

Cheers - Tony
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