Hi there -

You're on the right track. Using Crop is the way to go! If it's a still image, Magic Motion would be the right choice. Whether it's video or stills, the same key frame principles & procedures apply.

That little blue diamond is a key frame marker. It is used to position the crop area. If you "click around", PD will think you're trying to tell it something!!!

These tutorials might help:

Video Cropping (video): http://www.youtube.com/user/PDtoots#p/u/17/7Lsn369hlk8

Zoom Control (stills): http://www.youtube.com/user/ynotfish77#p/u/14/exuj2dhRZjY

Cheers - Tony
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I dont want it to do any of those special affect panning or w/e. I want it to *instantly * be zoomed in on a particular object in the video. How do I bypass this panning effect or w/e?

You need to explore the use of keyframes. *Instantly* is not a quantitive measure. However, depending on circumstance, the minimum distance between keyframes is 1 frame, which is as near instant as PD allows - 0.33 secs @ 29.97 fps or 0.04 secs @25fps.

Keyframes are an essential tool and it is worth exploring their use properly. They are introduced on p72 of the user manual and there are a number of tutorials that explain their use in more detail. The official PD tutorials are here :
http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/tutorial/#
and other 3rd party tutorials are available.

Forum members are just editors who try to help on a voluntary basis, asking for advice or help is fine, just stating "wants" or "don't wants" may not be the best way to get what you "want".

Cheers
Adrian


Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
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AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

The diamonds on the timeline in the crop window indicate keyframes. Keyframes are reference points between which motion is created. If you want an entire clip to to be zoomed in, you have to set a keyframe at the begining of the clip and one at the end of the clip to be cropped exactly the same - that way there's no motion created between the two points. I usually find it's easier to set my zoom based on some point in the middle of the clip, then copy that to each end. Here's what I do:

Select your video on the timeline, go to Power Tools, and select crop.

Click the scroller in the crop window somewhere in the middle to jump to a point in time in middle of the clip. Click on the 'Add Keyframe' button to add a red diamond (keyframe indicator) to that point in the timeline. Grab the frame marker in the video and resize it to the area you want to zoom into.

Then click the 'Previous Keyframe' button to jump to the begining of the clip. Click the 'Duplicate Keyframe' button to copy the crop settings to the first keyframe (you want to copy the 'next' keyframe - the one you adjusted the crop on). Then click the 'Next Keyframe' button until the end keyframe is highlighed. Click the 'Duplicate Keyframe' button again to copy the previous keyframe. Click 'OK' to save your cropped video back to the project timeline.
PowerDirector 10 Ultra
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The images below might help illustrate the steps SkullyHB is describing...

In the clip, I wanted to zoom in on the cat (boat). I select Power Tools > Video Crop & set the keyframes.

Keyframe 1, by default, is zoomed out...



The last keyframe, by default, is zoomed in. The blue diamond is used to reposition the crop area & the handles are for resizing.



I add a central keyframe & select "Duplicate Next" to make it the same as the last keyframe...



The result? A quickish zoom in followed by a static view (no pan or zoom). Nothing fancy but, as Adrian said, it does take a bit of simple keyframe control.

Cheers - Tony
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is there any way to adjust that frame box? The item I want to zoom in doesnt have that shape, and if I fit the whole item I need zoomed, the frame bleeds off the screen.

The blue diamond is used to reposition the crop area & the handles are for resizing.

In Video Crop, the size of the "frame box" is adjusted by dragging the handles in or out.

The proportions of the box cannot be changed. If your project is 16:9, the box has to be 16:9.

Anything on the screen can be masked in PiP Designer, to "change the shape" but that may not be what you need.

Cheers - Tony
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it cannot be changed? as the item I want to zoom in on is on the far southeast part of the screen. and If I use that horizontally rectangular frame box, it will bleed off the screen and look unprofessional :/

Can you please post a screen shot showing what you're trying to do? or what you've got so far?

There shouldn't be any need for anything to "bleed off the screen".

Cheers - Tony
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Quote: it cannot be changed? as the item I want to zoom in on is on the far southeast part of the screen. and If I use that horizontally rectangular frame box, it will bleed off the screen and look unprofessional :/

I'm running into the same problem. It seems that it does not zoom in quick enough (like the zoom timing is not synced with the path timing) and this leads to the bleeding he is talking about.
I found if you keyframe it over a long duration it does not do this. seems like a bug or just a limitation with PD.