Crop/Zoom/Pan

Mike Hall

Newbie Joined: Oct 29, 2018 19:37 Messages: 13 Offline

Solved by

Apr 25, 2019 17:55

Hello Everyone,

I have a couple of issues with the Crop/Zoom/Pan Power Tool. I hope I can explain these well enough:

When setting pan keyframes, PD17 will join the blue dots in the main screen with curved lines which sometimes take the crop window outside the viewing area so that black areas appear at the sides or top or bottom of the video, even though I ensure my crop areas are not panned outside of the main window. I assume these curved lines ensure that panning is smooth and not jerky, but sometimes these curves are totally excessive and can't be controlled. Sometimes I have to delete all the keyframes and start over. Is there any way to configure panning so that the curved lines joining the keyframes can be disabled?

2. It would help if I could change the skin colour of PD 17 to something other than black. This would make it far easier to see the black areas produced by the pan going outside of the video? Can I do this?

3. The small preview window on the right is way too small. Can I make this larger?

4. Is there any way of changing the thickness of the crop window lines? They are to thin and faint for me to see clearly (yes, even with my glasses!)

Many thanks,

Mike

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 25. 2019 17:57

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Apr 25, 2019 22:47

I completely agree with your list of issues - unfortunately there aren't any user settings that can change any of them in PD, so the best I can do is to offer some alternatives and workarounds:

Having exactly zero control over the curves and unwittingly causing the frame to go off the edge are my two biggest complaints with this tool. If you preview your steps and notice that there is unwanted behavior, it's usually much easier to click the Undo icon (the counterclockwise arrow at the top right), or type Ctrl+Z to remove the most recent change(s) than it is to start all the way over. If you have the time and patience, you can also try placing a duplicate keyframe nearby which may remove the unwanted behavior. If you don't want any of the connecting curves, skip the C/Z/T tool and go with regular keyframes in the PiP Designer. You have 100% control over all aspects there.

PD's skin is actually a medium gray, but it can't be changed. If it looks black to you, adjust the brightness and contrast on your monitor until there's a clear difference between PD's windows and true black.

No You can make the tool full screen, which makes the work window much bigger, but the preview window is still very small. You can try changing Windows text and app scaling options to see if you find a setting that improves things.

Again no, but see above.

The best way to let the people at Cyberlink know that you'd like to see changes like this is to use Rate Us & Provide Suggestions from the File menu. That is one of the official feedback channels, and your suggestions will get more visibility than anything posted here.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 26. 2019 17:34

ynotfish

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

Apr 26, 2019 16:30

Hi Mike & optodata -

I'm pretty sure that annoyance #1 is shared by anyone using the Crop/Zoom/Pan tool... especially when that unwanted curved path is generated.

This is a bit speculative, because it doesn't always work predictably, but I've found you can often eliminate the curve (& hence the crop box drifting beyond the video edge) by either clicking on the selected keyframe to "snap it straight" or playing with duplicate next/previous keyframe.

As I said, it doesn't always do what you think it should.

Cheers - Tony

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 26. 2019 16:30

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optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Apr 26, 2019 17:42

Tony, that's a neat trick!

I often end up with only a single keyframe before/after the unwanted section, and I stumbled upon adding a duplicate keyframe nearby which sometimes removes the loop between them. Your method shows I can also manually add a keyframe on the other side of the loop and then move it to "snap it straight."

Thanks for that!

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Apr 26. 2019 17:44

MrAdyg

Newbie Location: UK Joined: Sep 03, 2016 19:03 Messages: 1 Offline

Apr 27, 2019 07:37

Crop/Zoom/Pan

I still find it hard to believe on such a great video editing tool this part of the software is so hard to use. I remember using Nero sofware years ago and that was so intuitive you didn't have to go a few frames before and after to edit it.
This is the no 1 reason why I won't be upgrading for a while.

Come on Cyberlink is this really the best you could come up with?

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Apr 27, 2019 11:18

Quote Crop/Zoom/Pan

I still find it hard to believe on such a great video editing tool this part of the software is so hard to use. I remember using Nero sofware years ago and that was so intuitive you didn't have to go a few frames before and after to edit it.
This is the no 1 reason why I won't be upgrading for a while.

Come on Cyberlink is this really the best you could come up with?