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I have to say, Pixelan, that I am impressed with how you are addressing these issues in a timely manner. It shows you actually care about your users! This is a quality that should be emulated by all companies.
Thanks again,
Russell
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Anyone else experiencing this? Which build of PD12 are you using? I heard one of them was giving some people problems.
Russell
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No, I'm wrong. The Active Camera plugin is not included with Ultimate, but it can be purchased for $169 as part of a set of ten motion effects from Cyberlink ( http://www.cyberlink.com/products/partner-plug-ins/partner-newblue_en_US.html ) or $29.99 on its own from their website ( http://www.newbluefx.com/products/creative-effects/motion-effects/active-camera ). The few Youtube demos I saw for Active Camera looked promising.
Russell
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D'oh! Guess I need to look into that! I think it's even included with PD12 Ultimate (which I have). I'll give it a whirl. Has anyone used it? Are the results good/realistic?
Still, it would be nice/useful if PD's motion designer displayed the pixel dimensions of the 'zoomed-in' rectangle and/or had numerical entry boxes for the dimensions you want. The output looks better if it doesn't need to be scaled (like a box size the same size as the final output video).
Russell
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Hey, yeah, I guess you're right! So it's fitting that you guys are partners of sorts - Hope to see even more cooperation in the future!
In fact, I have an idea for a plugin that, at least on paper, shouldn't be too difficult to write, but would be really useful for those of us doing homemade sfx kind of stuff but can't afford After Effects, Premiere, etc: A plugin that can simulate the movement of a handheld camera within a scene.
Imagine, I create a split screen (or layered green screen) shot of me interacting with...me... at some high resolution (like 4096x2304 or 1920x1080) and then I use this hypothetical handheld camera plugin to move a same aspect ration box (such as 1920x1080 or 1280x720) within the full-rez scene, so that it looks like it was filmed 'naturally'. This zoomed box would be the output video. Cool, eh? This sort of thing is possible with PD12 right now, except a) the smaller dimension box is just a guess because the dimensions of the 'zoomed' box is not given (and no numerical entry is available) and b) the movements have to be keyframed by hand. Although it looks cool, it doesn't look 'real'.
I have lots more ideas for plugins, simple-but-useful to more complex. I'd make them myself if I had any idea how to do it! LOL
Take care,
Russell
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Funny, I came here to the PowerDirector forum specifically to give the Pixelan website link because on Cyberlink's "Partner Plug-ins" section, only the SpiceMaster 2.5 is shown - even though there are many more to choose from (Which is good to know, because the more the merrier and NewBlue Effects, although nice and good and all, are a bit pricey). Glad to see this thread started.
Also, I wanted to thank Pixelan for pricing their plug-ins at a price point that is more in line with your average PD12 user's budget (we are not, for the most part, professional video editors).
And 'Happy 17th Birthday, Cyberlink!'
Russell
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Of course the best option is to shoot the video footage in high speed to begin with, but most of those cameras aren't cheap! Plus, using this software method (slomoVideo) you can crank the calculated frame rate up to THOUSANDS of interpolated frames per second - and they look just as good!
Since this code is open source, it would be nice to see it in maybe the next version of PowerDirector.
Russell
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Yeah, the definition of interpolated is technically accurate here, but still not quite right. (The frames themselves are not altered, just their frequency - the number of times they are duplicated or removed in the clip).
If you want to see some AMAZING super slo-mo done with software (versus an actual high frame rate camera), check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkg0-z8OVxY
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiqXN2r2c9Y
It's an open source program (slomoVideo) that uses "Optical Flow" to perform its magic. You can even have video speed up/slow down variably in the same video clip. Check it out! Would be a nice companion to PD12! (It is open source after all!)
Russell
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Ok, Dafydd, you've whet my appetite, but I still want more information on creating our own alpha transitions! I was hoping that each transition was stored on disk as either a multi-paged image file (such as a TIFF file) or a numbered sequence of png's (say, trans_000.png through trans_999.png), but that doesn't seem to be the case.
How's that alpha transition tutorial coming along?
Russell
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Does the 'slow motion with frame interpolated technology' use "Optical Flow" algorithms? If not, there's an open source program out there called 'slowmoVideo' that creates AMAZING super slo-mo video from your non slo-mo video (google it and check out the super cool demo video(s)). Anyway, the code is open source, so Cyberlink could probably incorporate it into PD13!
Russell
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So I see that a clip can have a maximum of 7 (too bad  ) effects dropped on it, but that you technically can have 8 if you include the one from the FX track. Other than superceding all other effects 'under' it, what's the main difference between the two effect drop targets (FX track or the clip itself)? Is it just that effects dropped directly on the clip apply ONLY to that clip?
And on that same note, is it possible to add additional FX tracks, or is it only possible to add Video and/or Audio tracks?
Thanks,
Russell
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Oh, ok. Sorry 'bout that. That didn't even occur to me. That being said, though, I would actually like to see a more full-featured DVD/Blu-Ray authoring program available from Cyberlink, either built in to PowerDirector (perhaps as a bonus for Ultra and/or Ultimate versions) or as a stand alone program. Cyberlink is so great at creating easy-yet-powerful programs with well organized user interfaces, I would certainly buy such a program - at a MSRP of $39.95....
Russell
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I recently upgraded to PD12 via a digital download, and was wondering if the printed paper manual is available anywhere - I didn't see it in the online store.
And speaking of manuals, did anyone notice that the free PD12 tutorial book (pdf) link gives the size as 31MB - whereas the actual file is 194MB (185Mb compressed)? Whoops! It's available here: http://www.cyberlink.com/stat/events/enu/2013/Q3/pdr12-book/index2.jsp
Russell
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The best stand-alone DVD creator that I have personally seen and used is Sony's DVD Architect Studio (You can find version 5 on Amazon for about $40US). I got mine as part of "Imagination Studio", which also included Vegas Platinum (not Pro), Acid Music Studio, Sound Forge and over 1000 sound loops and sfx.
Anyway, I use PD12 for creating the actual videos, and then DVD Architect to create the DVD/Blu-Ray. There is a "Pro" version of this also, but it costs about $100 and I can't honestly imagine a scenario where I would need more functionality. I believe you can download a demo of Architect Studio to see if it meets your needs. It can do just about anything you need it to do.
I guess burning DVDs/Blu-Rays is PD's secondary purpose, so they've not spent much time in that area, which is understandable. What *I'd* like to see, is even MORE functionality in the area of post production/compositing, so as to be more of a competitor to After Effects or at least HitFilm!
Russell
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I'm guessing that PD12 is Windows 8 approved, but I've heard other people having problems with it ( Win 8 ) even though their software worked fine under the previous OS. This is what happened to a lot of Windows Vista users, as well - One of the reasons it was not well received.
Anyway, I hope you have luck finding out where/what the problem is.
Russell
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Yeah, I've only had one or two crashes so far personally (both under PD11 - during DVD rendering), and the program detected it had crashed and opened up the 'send crash report' window.
A detailed logging report might help figure out what exactly is causing the problem/crash - And it's quite possible that it's something outside of the program, like incompatible hardware, OS issues, etc.
I have 32GB of RAM on my system, so it's unlikely, though not impossible, when these things happen that it's a lack of memory. Your 100GB of free memory, although with an SSD drive it actually is memory, is not seen by the system as memory but as storage space. The 128GB of virtual memory on the SSD is also seen by your system (on the lowest level) as storage space, not memory, although it's emulating memory. So, it's memory, acting as storage, emulating memory! Whew!
Hmm... I was just thinking: I wonder if that is a possible cause of your problem? Have you tried turning virtual memory off to see if the problem still exists?
Russell
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I don't have an answer for you unfortunately, but this does does give me an idea for these sorts of issues (especially if they are not random and can be re-produced): The ability to put the program in "verbose error-logging" mode, where every move by the user and the program is recorded as it happens to a log file, to help pin down where the issue is coming from (Is it a lack of system resources [memory, drive space, etc], user-error, or a bug/crash?)
Russell
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Ok, this is good to know.
However, I do wish they could see the benefit of releasing SDK and function docs to the general public. Heck, I'd like to see the SDK and appropriate documentation available on the install DVD! I'm not talking about making the program open source, just the proper information to expand the capabilities of the program within the confines of a plug-in environment. I don't see how this could do anything but benefit Cyberlink and its users.
Russell1967
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I hope they eventually "see the light" when it comes to opening up the program to third party development. It is almost always the right thing to do. I mean, why wouldn't you want potentially dozens of companies (and hundreds/thousands of users) developing new features for your program? The only thing I can think of is perhaps they are afraid that plug-in development could potentially undermine future versions/upgrades of the main program? But I don't think that would happen. Look at what plug-in development has done for other programs like After Effects.
The next best thing, I think, would be to have a scripting language interpreter within the program that can run user-created scripts to do various things to/with video/sound, etc using a python or BASIC-like language.
Anyway, I hope they do consider publishing an SDK at least.
I wonder how NewBlue got their PD documentation?
Russell1967
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Just wondering if there was a developer's SDK (Software Developer's Kit) for PD, if one wanted to make their own NewBlue-like plug-ins. I couldn't find any mention on this site, and even Google-ing didn't turn up anything (gasp!).
Russell1967
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Yeah, the CLPD's definition of PIP is a little different from what I envisioned: Like on a television PIP is the ability to have one or more additional broadcasts shown on top of the main broadcast (great for the sports fan!): It was, literally, a "picture" in a picture. But with CLPD I guess any kind of image or video object arranged on top (well, underneath  ) of another is considered a PIP. I can live with this definition, though.
Really, though, these are minor quibbles. I'm just glad I don't have to put up with Pi**acle Studio's frequent crashes and botched DVD burns (after several hours of rendering) anymore...
Take care,
Russell1967
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