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Which tool are you trying to draw your lines with.
Usually a Bezier point allows you to create a curved line using most tools.
I think I have managed to answer my own question here, for anyone else seeking answers to this:
It doesn’t look like PowerDirector currently has the functionality to draw customer curved/Bezier lines/arrows. It does have straight lines and ‘S’ lines, but nothing beyond that. If anyone from Cyberlink is reading this, please, please please put in a change request for this functionality to be added! Pretty much every other video editing program, MS Office and any other type of equivalent software has this! How are we supposed to add a curved arrow pointing at an object, a curved line on a graph or anything else like this? It seems like shockingly basic functionality to be missing, especially in light of so many excellent advanced features in PowerDirector. And the ‘engine’ for this functionality seems to already be within the coding of the program elsewhere, so it would seem like a small step to add it.
The result of this lack of functionality causes bizarre situations like this video here, where a really convoluted sequence of steps is required just to draw a basic line across a page:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij3iNCLTcD0
I have a workaround for this. It is not ideal but I think it is better than the above:
1. Open up MS Word, PowerPoint (or equivalent that you are familiar with). Draw the curved Bezier line that you want
(you can add a background image to get the scaling/position of the line correct as you draw it)
2. Right click on the Bezier line and select “Save as Picture” It should default to a .png file (which allows for a transparent background)
3. In PowerDirector, import the file you have just saved. …it can now be added as a picture in the timeline, and because it has a transparent background, it fits nicely on top of you video – just adjust scale and position for the desired finish. If you want the line to look like it is being drawn in the video, just add a Wipe transition to the beginning of it and change the direction of the Wipe to make it look right.
It seems very odd that we have to go through steps like this just to draw a curved line, but hopefully the above will help someone else out until Cyberlink are able to get this sorted.
Regards,
Rob
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Which tool are you trying to draw your lines with.
Usually a Bezier point allows you to create a curved line using most tools.
Thanks for your reply.
Any method really. I notice in the Video Overlays there are a couple of lines (Shape 021 and Sketch animation 14 for example), but I can't find any way of modifying them into curved lines (or if you can there are only predetermined shapes with limitied ability to modify).
The Custom option at the top of display where you can create objects seems to also only allow pre-determined shapes that have limited abilities to modify them, or a hand drawn line that looks like it is hand drawn.
In MS Word for example there is an option to add a curved line where you can "Edit Points". This allows to create sweeping curves in any direction, for example if you want an arrow to to point to an object in one natural looking curve. Or if you wanted to create a line with multiple curves in it, such as recreating a fluctuating line on a graph for example.
I'm guessing PD has this somewhere but I'm struggling to find it!
Thanks,
Rob
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Hi All,
Is it possible to draw a curved line in PowerDirector (Ultimate) at all? I can't see them as an option (other than the 'S' shape ones), and there seems to be no way to edit existing lines.
Thanks
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