Messages posted by Rick3516

Thanks Tony,

Based on your reply I assume there is still no ease-in/out feature for the keyframes in the Magic Motion pan and zoom.

I'll check back in sometime in the future to see if newer versions finally incorporate the feature.

Thanks again - Rick

Hey Tony!

I realize this is a very old thread now but I check in with the forum every now and then to see if PowerDirector has fixed this issue in their latest release. You and I had a discussion about this issue several years ago - I called the issue a strange "wobble" when panning AND zooming using the PiP with ease in/out.

I'd also like to know if the latest version includes an ease in/out feature as part of the Magic Motion pan and zoom.

I like PowerDirector - straight forward to use but I have had to move on to other programs because of this issue. I'd like to come back to it once this feature is fixed.

Thanks
Rick

I'm checking in with the forum to see if someone can tell me if PowerDirector has yet included the ease-in / ease-out feature in the "User Defined" option of the Magic Motion Designer. I'd like to do pan and zooms on photos that don't start and stop abrubtly using this tool. I believe the latest version of PD is 18 (I currently have 14). Waiting to upgrade.

Thanks,
Rick

Hey Pete,

I have PD 14 and have not upgraded due to the fact that PD has not included the ease-in/ease-out feature for Magic Motion (most recent version is PD16). One thing that I have noticed when watching YouTube videos of versions 15 and 16 is that in the PiP editor an ease-in/ease-out option has been included for Scale in addition to the ease in/out option for Position that was present in version 14 (see attached file). I suspect that the inclusion of the Scale ease in/out will eliminate the odd "wobble" that I make reference to in my previous posts.

So, I think (but don't know for sure) that a smooth Pan and Zoom using ease in/out can be accomplished using the PiP that will not result in a wobble.

That said, PD really needs to include the ease in/out feature in the Magic Motion P&Z. I've submitted this request for versions 15 and 16 but so far it hasn't happened. I'm no longer hopeful that it will be included in any future versions.

Rick

Please include an ease-in/ease-out feature (preferably adjustable) for Magic Motion keyframes in order to achieve smooth starts and stops for pan and zooms.

I realize I can use the PiP designer to utilize its ease-in/ease-out feature but keyframes all need to be readjusted if the clip length is changed. Keyframe time locations are absolute using PiP. Keyframes times are relative to the length of the clip in Magic Motion and adjust relative to the length of the clip.

Thanks for your consideration - Rick

Thanks Tony.

Seems like Magic Motion is all about panning and zooming therefore should be the logical home for the ease in/out feature. Maybe in the next version.

Rick

I would like to know if PD 16 has incorporated the ease-in/ease-out feature in the Magic Motion tool.

I currently am using PD 14 to make slide slide shows. Unfortunately, version 14 does not allow me to do true Ken Burns effects - that is, accelerate and decelerate (ease-in and ease-out) pan AND zooms.

Yes, I realize I can use the PiP designer to achieve this effect (although version 14 only has ease-in/ease-out for postion and not scale which results in strange P&Z's). It appears that later versions of PD has corrected this issue by including the ease-in/ease-out feature for scale as well as the position in the PiP designer.

My issue with using the PiP designer to generate the P&Z's is that the keyframes are absolute wrt time. If I change the length of the clip during development, which I often need to do, I need to go back and adjust the position of the keyframes. In the Magic Motion tool, the position of the keyframes are relative to the length of the clip therefore are adjusted when the length of the clip is adjusted.

I'm anxiously waiting for this feature to be included in the Magic Motion User Defined option before I upgrade. Hopefully someone can give me the the good news!

Thanks,

Rick

Hey Tony - welcome back.

Its comforting to see that someone else is getting the same result as myself (although thats not necessarily a good thing in this case). After going through all the trials and tribulations of trying to figure this out, what I would really like to see included in PowerDirector 15 is an ease in/out option within the Magic Motion Designer that provides a "sync'd" ease in/out for zoom and position at each keyframe. Like I said before, I like to do the P&Z using Magic Motion because the timing of the keyframes scales to any later adjustments to the photo segment length. I think this additional feature within Magic Motion would make Ken Burns proud.

That said, in addition to the current ease in/out checkboxes for position in the PiP Designer, seems like additional ease in/out checkboxes should be made available for scale (zoom), freeform, as well as rotation that all worked together to avoid the dreaded "wobble." It would also allow for smoother starts and stops for scale, freeform, and rotation even if there is no change in the photos position.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Rick

Tony,

It looks like your P&Z video is done with the ease in/out not checked. Correct?

Rick

Tony, I'm back ...

After some more experimentation I think I disagree with your statement "The speed of the zoom is affected by ease in/out because of the slower take-off & landing speed." Yes, the zoom (scale) and the pan both start and stop at the same time (assuming keyrames at the same times) but the "speed" of the zoom and the "speed" of the pan can be totally independent of each other. In fact, I'm convinced that they are independent in PowerDirector. With ease in/out the speed of the pan starts and ends very slow and travels much faster in between (as you stated in your last post). The zoom on the other hand remains a constant speed - starts suddenly and ends suddenly.

As I said I did some additional experimenting. I used PowerDirector to generate a P&Z (with ease in&out checked) on a single photo. I started off with the photo shrunk to 1/4 of the screen with the top left corner "snapped" to the top left corner of the screen. I then P&Z'd finishing with the photo centered on the screen all the way zoomed out such that all 4 corners of the photo were snapped to the 4 corners of the screen. I then dusted off an old computer that had Pinnacle Studio 10 on it and used its P&Z with ease in&out to conduct the exact same P&Z (Studio 10 did not have keyframes so only the P&Z start and finish points can be defined) .

I have attached the resulting movie.

Since the P&Z starts and ends with the top left corner snapped to the top left corner of the screen, the top and left edges of the photo should stay on the top and left edges of the screen during the P&Z. As you can see in the movie this holds true for the Pinnacle Studio segment. What happens in the PowerDirector segment is that at the beginning of the P&Z that the top and left edges of the photo grow beyond the edges of the screen (watch the helmet). This to me is clear evidence that the "speed" of zoom and the speed of the pan are independent with the linear speed of the zoom "out racing" the eased in speed of the pan at the beginning. The same thing occures at the end of the P&Z resulting in an undesirable "wobble." It appears that the ease in/out feature in Pinnacle is applied to the speed of both the zoom AND the pan such that they are in sync resulting in consistent and gentle P&Z start and stops.

I'm starting to think I can't get the P&Z results I'm looking for with version 14. Unfortunately almost all my projects include P&Z's. For now I think I just need to minimize any P&Z movements such that the zoom start and stops, as well as any wobbles, are less noticable. Sounds like a nice feature to add in version 15 ...

Tony - thanks again for all your help.

Rick

Tony - Thanks for the reply

I see that you selected the ease-in check box for the position setting. You indicated before that the ease-in feature for position does not apply to scale (zoom) so I would not expect having the ease-in checked helps the zoom (and looking at the result it does not appear to help). For this particular photo the center of the picture does not change position during the zoom therefore the ease-in appears not to have any effect on any motion. Yes, extending the length of the zoom does help with the abruptness but I really would rather not do that.

Another tangential tidbit of info - In my quest to figure out how to do smooth p&z's with ease in & out I discovered if I used the PiP Designer to pan AND zoom AND had the ease in/out checkboxes selected, the motion of the picture at the keyframes that had the ease in/out cheched was very wonky (the motion of the picture bounced around slightly in an upredictable fashion). Seems like the same ease in/out parameters would need to be applied to the zoom to keep both in sync and result in smooth and predictable overall motion. Just my thoughts and observations.

Rick

Hey Tony - nice to hear back from you.

I pulled one of the 4 photos in question and made a 5 second project with the pan & zoom. I packed the project material (I'm in uncharted waters here) and have attached the 2 files that were written to the folder.

FYI - I used the Magic Motion Designer rather than the PiP Designer to do the zoom. I found that the keyframe locations generated in the Magic Motion Designer are relative to the length of the segment - that is, the locations scale proportionally to the length of the segment. So when I am making final tweeks to segment lengths to be in sync with a voice over or music the keyframe locations change proportionally. The keyframes generated using PiP Designer are absolute and do not change location when the segment length is changed. I found that I was constantly having to go back into the PiP Designer to change the location of the keyframes once I had tweeked the length of the photo segment so I quickly abandoned the PiP Designer for pan and zooms (but I'll try anything to get the eased in zoom).

Thanks again - Rick

I'm really stuck. In a previous forum discussion, ynotfish explained that ease in & out is only available in the PiP designer for changing position - not for zoom. I showed my first cut of a slide show to some "critics" in preparation of showing it at a retirement party next week. Their first comments were regarding the abrupt stopping of zooms of about 4 photos (these 4 photos I zoom in considerably, stop the zoom at a keyframe in mid-segment, and allow the zoomed picture to stay on the screen for a couple of seconds while text is overwritten on the zoom photo). I've worked around the lack of the ease in & out for zoom on all the other photos I pan and zoom on (using Magic Motion Designer) by letting a fade transition cover the zoom starts and stops at each end of the photo segment. Is there some method, no matter how convoluted, that I can apply to these 4 photos to give me an eased in zoom at the keyframe where the zoom stops in the middle of the photo segment?

I realize that if I don't zoom in as much or if duration of the zoom is longer that stopping the zoom appears less abrupt. Unfortunately making those changes aren't really viable options for these 4 photos and achieve the effect I'm looking for.

Thanks -Rick

Tony -

Wow - Talk about a response!!! Your example video you put together is exactly what I am trying to do. Not only that, the How-To video was excellent. I have asked questions in several forums on various software topics but I have never received such a comprehensive answer which included videos to explain. Thanks again.

Seems to me that if Cyberlink would include an ease in & out checkbox in the "User Defined" option of the Magic Motion Designer that ease in & out could easily be applied at each inserted keyframe for BOTH position AND zoom of the photo. The same could be done for video in the Power Tools "Crop & Zoom" (both the Magic Motion User Defined tool and the Power Tools Crop & Zoom tool appear identical - one for photos, one for video). This would make "our" lives so much easier

.

I am going to make the above suggestion (along with providing ease in & out for rotation) in the PowerDirector 15 suggestion forum. Maybe as a senior contributer to the forum and apparent PD guru you can help influence Cyberlink in improving PD!

Thanks again for your help - Rick

Tony - Thanks for the reply.

Given that Magic Motion does not have the ease-in/ease-out feature, is there a way to use the PiP designer to accomplish item #2 in my original post (P&Z with ease-in/ease-out on a photo that is a PiP)?

Is there a way to apply ease-in/ease-out on the zoom as well as the position?

Thanks - Rick

I’m new to PowerDirector so I trying to figure how to pan and zoom with ease-in and ease out. There are 2 things I am trying to accomplish:

1) Pan and zoom on a single photo. The only option that I found to do this with the ease-in/ease out feature was using the PiP Designer window (the other option of using the Magic Motion appears not to have ease-in/ease out capability). The issue that I have with the PiP Designer option is that the ease-in/ease-out is only applied to the position. Any changes in scale (zooming) and/or rotation result in abrupt changes that I find unacceptable. Is there any way to apply ease-in/ease-out to these other two object settings (in particular zoom)? Should I be using something other than the PiP Designer?

2) Pan and zoom on a photo that is a PiP. I have a photo that is a PiP (covers the top right quadrant of the screen). I want the location and size of the PiP photo to not change (stays in the right quadrant) and but I want to pan and zoom within the PiP photo. Using the PiP Designer seems to only manipulate the position and size of the PiP window – not the PiP photo. The only way that I found to do this was to use the Magic Motion feature but as stated above does not appear to have the ease-in/ease-out feature for any of the object settings (including the predefined and user defined motion options).

The last video software that I used was Pinnacle Studio 9 (about 10 years ago). It included P&Z and applied ease-in/ease-out to both the pan and the zoom … so I’m sure that I’m just missing something here. Thanks for the help in advance!