Crop/zoom using motion tracker or similar

Alec200

Newbie Joined: Oct 23, 2015 20:14 Messages: 17 Offline

Solved by

Nov 05, 2016 07:46

Hi to everyone on the forum. My first visit. I've owned the directors suite for over a year but so far used it little and I had a question about Powerdirector 15.

So the scenario is I have a lot of footage shot from a Phantom 4 in UHD. I have some scenes that I'd like to be able to track a moving subject such as a car or boat and have the software automatically zoom/crop on that subject as it moves. I tend to output in Full HD and the subject is generally originally fairly central in the frame but some distance away so there's plenty of scope to zoom in.

So im not even sure that this is a "thing" and my searches so far haven't helped. My inexperience with video editing means I'm possibly not using the right terms. I've used the motion tracker and that seems to work very well to track the subjects I have shot. I was just surprised that I couldn't find a simple was to use that motion tracker to apply a zoom/crop function.

Thanks for looking.

Alec200

Newbie Joined: Oct 23, 2015 20:14 Messages: 17 Offline

Nov 07, 2016 12:56

I'm still drawing a blank on this.

Am I missing something though my lack of experience in editing, but wouldn't being able to apply a crop that followed a defined Motion Track be a very useful feature that would be relatively easy to implement.

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Nov 07, 2016 14:44

Hi Alec200 -

It's probably the terminology that's leading you to think that way, & understandably.

Being a drone flyer, you're familiar with the "follow me" feature which tracks & follows the "transmitter". It sounds like that's the kind of thing you're trying to achieve in PDR... crop the video so a particular thing/person/subject is at the centre of the action.

Yes - that can be done by manipulating crop/zoom keyframes, BUT PDR's Motion Tracking is a distinctly different thing (even though they kinda sound alike).

Here's an example I posted for another member recently - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg_a5_dusbQ

Yes - Motion Tracking could have been applied to the same video clip, but that would not achieve the same thing (keeping the subject in the centre of the frame).

Cheers - Tony

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Nov 07. 2016 16:57

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Alec200

Newbie Joined: Oct 23, 2015 20:14 Messages: 17 Offline

Nov 07, 2016 16:03

Quote Hi Alec200 -

It's probably the terminology that's leading you to think that way, & understandably.

Being a drone flyer, you're familiar with the "follow me" feature which tracks & follows the "transmitter". It sounds like that's the kind of thing you're trying to achieve in PDR... crop the video so a particular thing/person/subject is at the centre of the action.

Yes - that can be done my manipulating crop/zoom keyframes, BUT PDR's Motion Tracking is a distintly different thing (even though they kinda sound alike).

Here's an example I posted for another member recently - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg_a5_dusbQ

Yes - Motion Tracking could have been applied to the same video clip, but that would not achieve the same thing (keeping the subject in the centre of the frame).

Cheers - Tony

Thank you for the reply and link to the tutorial. It shows how painfully new to I am editing that I haven't even used key frames yet!

In the video tutorial, once the key frames have been applied, you return to the main screen and play back the clip. During playback, there seems to be very significant "glitching" in the bottom 1/3rd of the frame. Would this be fixed once the clip had been rendered?

Thanks for your help.

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Nov 07, 2016 16:56

Glad it helped.

That "glitching" was the result of doing the screen capture on a not-fit-for-purpose laptop (I was on the road), so playback was anything but smooth. The poor little thing was trying to cope with cropping, playback AND running Camtasia.

I didn't produce that file but - you're right - the produced file would not have the same issues.

Cheers - Tony
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Alec200

Newbie Joined: Oct 23, 2015 20:14 Messages: 17 Offline

Nov 07, 2016 18:04

Quote Glad it helped.

That "glitching" was the result of doing the screen capture on a not-fit-for-purpose laptop (I was on the road), so playback was anything but smooth. The poor little thing was trying to cope with cropping, playback AND running Camtasia.

I didn't produce that file but - you're right - the produced file would not have the same issues.

Cheers - Tony

Thank you for your help - much appreciated.