Some Tutorials:

Interface changes for PD 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa1nysr-rGk

PowerDirector - Cropping & Keyframes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ictYM7rijRw

Old tutorial, Made in PD 8. PD 11 is a bit different, see Interface Changes in PD 11
Key Frames & PIP Motion Basics Power Director 8 Tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gPt7y6ipo0
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Hi chappellhealth -

Essentially, there are two approaches to doing what you want. Either way, when you crop, make sure you set the first and last keyframes the same so it's a static zoomed in clip (as opposed to transitional zoom). Shown in this tutorial - http://youtu.be/qLZUyFsNqEc



You can just split the clip at different points and apply the crop to desired sections...
- if you only have a few changes, this method is probably best.



OR

Apply crop to the whole clip - produce 0 then bring the cropped clip & the original into the timeline to mix like a regular two camera mix
- if you have many changes, this method is more efficient.



Cheers - Tony
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I guess you lose a bit of quality doing this zoom. Custom computer: 8 processors, 16G Ram, ,C: drive 250G solid state. F: (Scratch drive) 2x 500Gb raid (0). G: (Data drive) 2Tb raid (1)
Power director Ultimate 12.0.2230.0

Absolutely!

The more you zoom, the more you lose... because you're cropping it off then stretching out what's left to full screen.

Cheers - Tony
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Quote: I am new to PD11 and not having much luck with the User's Manual or tutorials. I want to do simple zoomed in shots of my video periodically to change up the "talking head" aspect of my informational videos. I don't need a transitional zoom in that incrementally takes place. I would like to just switch from zoomed out to zoomed in. I would greatly appreciate it if someone would walk me through the process of doing this? Thanks, Greg

Hi chappellhealth,
I'm pleased to read that members have answered this thread quickly. I left it last night (latish) and knew an "easy" topic would attract attention. Video Crop is a great tool to use and mastering the use of keyframes gets really simple after a bit of practice.

Words of caution:
1. Any imported still image (camera snapshot or stitched panorama) will be treated as if it were a maximum of 1920x1080.
2. Cropping a 1920x1080 frame size video will reduce the quality of the screened video. Think of the digital zoom one has on a video camera and you'll understand what I mean. I'd recommend a crop to around the equivalent 1280x720 would be ok and hardly noticeable when viewed from a distance over 5 feet.
3. Consider an option to focus attention on a scene by adding additional video. Example: 2 news reports being featured in a news broadcast from two locations, half (or less) the screen is given over to a reporter speaking and the rest is of an event.
4. There are no fixed rules and no tutorial will give you a defined route you must follow. Experiment and have fun developing your own style.
Dafydd

Clearly, it was not an "easy" question for the original poster, being new to PD.

Everyone's different.

Please don't allow a legitimate question/discussion to deteriorate into personal jibes & end up in the sin-bin.

Cheers - Tony
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ynotfish appears to have taken my contribution badly, I certainly did not mean any disrespect to chappellhealth as you can see I put "easy" in inverted commas which would indicate that it is not always as easy for an inexperienced user, although experienced users would find it easy. My answer clearly shows I was giving some additional information.
Dafydd
Forum Moderator

Thanks for all the suggestions. I got it figured out.