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How to adjust video clip so it is perfectly level/horizontal?
BrianFinn139 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Mar 09, 2009 16:05 Messages: 3 Offline
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I have video clips in my project that are a few degrees off from being perfectly level or horizontal. How do I adjust the clips in PowerDirector so the horizon is perfectly level? My knowledge of PowerDirector is rudimentary. Thank you.
James Dotson
Senior Contributor Location: Tennessee Joined: Aug 24, 2009 20:40 Messages: 3066 Offline
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Select the clip in the time line. Then, in the preview window you can grab the center circle and spin the clip. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM
BrianFinn139 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Mar 09, 2009 16:05 Messages: 3 Offline
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Thank you for the answer.

A follow-up question. It still don't see how to get it perfectly level, because when I rotate the clip using the center circle in the preview window, the clip seems to rotate by larger increments than I want to. I only want to adjust it by a small amount, but it invariably goes too far either way.
optodata
Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline
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Brian, that's easy

Just select the clip in the timeline then click Power Tools and check the Video Rotation box. Enter a positive (for clockwise) or negative (for counter/anti-clockwise) rotation. You can't enter anything less than a whole number (e.g 11.4 is not allowed) but that should give you what you're looking for.

Note that you will probably also want to zoom in on the clip a bit so you don't have black gaps in the corners and along the edges. You can do that by going to the Modify window and using one of the following 3 steps: 1) drag any two opposing corners of the clip away from the center; 2) under the Properties|Object Settings panel, drag the Scale sliders to the right (note that the slider only stops at fixed values); or 3) enter a specific number in the Scale number boxes out to 3 decimal places (e.g 1.105).

Hopefully this will take care of everything you need for rotating you clips!

YouTube/optodata


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Adding smaller increments in the rotation would be another great suggestion for the "Cyberlink, listen to this suggestion" post
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/40351.page

1 degree increments is not enough finite control for fine adjustments.
Win8.1 Pro x64 / Dual x5670 / 24GB / GTX960 4GB / 240GB SSD + 640GB HDD / PD13 Ultimate
Carl312
Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline
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Quote: Thank you for the answer.

A follow-up question. It still don't see how to get it perfectly level, because when I rotate the clip using the center circle in the preview window, the clip seems to rotate by larger increments than I want to. I only want to adjust it by a small amount, but it invariably goes too far either way.


Perhaps if you turn on the Grid lines in the preview you can see the horizontal line. You can then align to the grid line.

It may snap to the grid line if snap is enabled.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 26. 2015 12:05

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.

SparkyMad [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Dec 11, 2015 14:42 Messages: 2 Offline
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I agree - if your tripod is slightly off horizontal you might need to adjust 1/2 or 1/4 of a degree so it looks correct. I'm using PD16 and it's still only able to rotate 1 full degree at a time.
And even with snap turned off the quick rotate circle snaps to 90 degrees so it's basically unusable for a small horizontal adjustment. You must use the power tool, which as mentioned can only rotate in full degrees which is not nearly fine enough.
Quote Adding smaller increments in the rotation would be another great suggestion for the "Cyberlink, listen to this suggestion" post
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/40351.page

1 degree increments is not enough finite control for fine adjustments.
PowerDirector Moderator [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan Joined: Oct 18, 2016 00:25 Messages: 2104 Offline
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Hi,
A much finer degree of rotation is available in the PiP Designer module. Difficult to test accuracy without some sophisticated gridlines, but increments of .01 degrees can be entered.
Cheers
PowerDirector Moderator


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SparkyMad [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Dec 11, 2015 14:42 Messages: 2 Offline
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The PIP designer has no place to enter degrees of rotation any finer than 1 degree at a time (the same as the on screen rotation). Sure - you can enter up to 0.00001 into the field, but it'll just round it to the nearest degree so it's useless for that.
PIP is also harder to use since rotation means literally that. It spins the video. It isn't designed to just allow you to straighten the horizon. You can use keyframes so it doesn't spin as it's played by copying the initial keyframe. But you'd never use PIP to level a video unless like you said you can enter incremental degrees - which from what I see I can't. I'm running the latest PD 16 update so as of today I don't see it.
Unless you can provide details as to where you can enter the 0.01 degrees I have to disagree with you. You can't do it! (And if you can it's crazy they won't let you do it on the main editor).
It's not just PD with this issue. The Windows 10 Photo editing app only allows picture rotation of 1 degree at a time. 1 degree for editing pictures or video is simply not enough. A human eye can often see a degree - especially if there is a perfectly horizontal line in the frame that's off by say 1.5 degrees.

Quote Hi,
A much finer degree of rotation is available in the PiP Designer module. Difficult to test accuracy without some sophisticated gridlines, but increments of .01 degrees can be entered.
Cheers
PowerDirector Moderator
PowerDirector Moderator [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan Joined: Oct 18, 2016 00:25 Messages: 2104 Offline
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Hi,
As I indicated, without doing some more accurate testing, the accuracy of the entered rotation is difficult to determine, but you can enter small increments and the video/image will rotate by that increment (apparently).
The issue of keyframes depends on how you set them, certainly if you set one only you will get a slow rotation. If you set none, or 2 the same, the rotation will be static.
Cheers
PowerDirector Moderator
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ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline
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Hi SparkyMad & PDR Moderator -

This maybe isn't a perfectly accurate test, but it would be good enough to indicate the accuracy (or not) of PDR's rotation with finer rotation adjustments.

I took the attached protractor image and rotated it anti-clockwise in Paint.NET by 5.0°, then 5.10°, then 5.11° saving as each time. Using the same graphic in PDR14, I repeated those rotations (-5.0°, -5.10° & -5.11) and took screenshots of each.

When the rotated images from Paint.NET were overlaid on the corresponding screenshots from PDR, they were in alignment. Overlaid images attached - PDR screenshots (outer) & PDN (inner).

i.e. accurate enough to rotate an image where the horizon was 1.5° off horizintal and make it right.

One small anomaly with PiP Designer... rotate -5.10° is OK, but when you return to PiP Designer it says -5.09. I can't tell whether it's actually rotated itself by 0.01° or not. The difference is miniscule: 5° 6' 0" vs. 5° 5' 24"

Cheers - Tony
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ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline
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3rd attempt to post. Grrrr. Forum doesn't like attachments.

SparkyMad -

Try this:


  1. Takethis Horizon2.jpg & insert it in the timeline (the horizon is 1.5° off horizontal)

  2. Open it in PiP Designer Go to Object Settings > Rotation

  3. Type -1.5 in the box (that's minus 1.5) Click OK

  4. Turn on Preview Gridlines


The horizon should be horizontal.

These screenshots may help.

Cheers - Tony
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ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline
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Quote: The PIP designer has no place to enter degrees of rotation any finer than 1 degree at a time (the same as the on screen rotation). Sure - you can enter up to 0.00001 into the field, but it'll just round it to the nearest degree so it's useless for that.


No - rotation of ° to 2 decimal places is possible in PiP Designer, as shown here. See the attached example showing rotation of 3.25°, confirmed with Screen Protractor app.

Quote: PIP is also harder to use since rotation means literally that. It spins the video. It isn't designed to just allow you to straighten the horizon. You can use keyframes so it doesn't spin as it's played by copying the initial keyframe. But you'd never use PIP to level a video unless like you said you can enter incremental degrees - which from what I see I can't. I'm running the latest PD 16 update so as of today I don't see it.


I guess you haven't had time to check that yet. Horizons can easily be straightened in PiP Designer.


Quote: Unless you can provide details as to where you can enter the 0.01 degrees I have to disagree with you. You can't do it! (And if you can it's crazy they won't let you do it on the main editor).


Yes you can.




Cheers - Tony
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