Hello Tony,

I make it in the same way in the past. I also first tried Charles Forsyth's Mask Converter - it didn´t work.

So I make also two PNG-Files ....

... but I get the mask two times in the maskfolder.

I work with Vista! Viele Gruesse Georg

There is a problem with the PD8 Masks, they're 4:3 and Charles' are set for 16:9. R&D at CyberLink are working on a fix for PD8 and the next patch release.

Dafydd

Thank you for this info! Viele Gruesse Georg

Not that this will help much, due to the bugs in PowerDirector 8, but I created a new version of the Mask tool.

It simplifies the process of creating a mask a little bit. Espencially for those who don't know much about graphics and alpha transparency channels in PNG image formats.

Download it at the link below.

Note: This is beta, I'm waiting for them to release a bug fix before I release it officially.

http://www.charlesforsyth.com/downloads/

The software supports both versions now. So when you save your mask, make sure to select the correct version of Power Director from the drop-down list.

Charles -

The cavalry has arrived! (I tried to insert a bugley fanfare, but it didn't work) What a star!

Your mask converter was well and truly employed by this little black duck in PD7 & I look forward to applying it in PD8.

Cheers - Tony
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Quote: Charles -

The cavalry has arrived! (I tried to insert a bugley fanfare, but it didn't work) What a star!

Your mask converter was well and truly employed by this little black duck in PD7 & I look forward to applying it in PD8.

Cheers - Tony

Thanks Tony.

I should take this opportunity to elaborate about the two bugs in PD8, just so people know.

The first bug has to do with how custom 16:9 widescreen masks (864 pixels by 486 pixels) behave in the PiP designer.

First, it appears that the aspect ratio of the PiP window is determined by the format of the movie, not the dimensions of the PiP mask that you select. (unfortunately)

The developer apparently did not anticipate any of us ever needing a widescreen PiP mask, despite the ever growing popularity of HD and widescreen cameras.

So the PiP designer interface is designed with the assumption that all masks will be 4:3 full screen (720x540) masks. And, in fact, they only provide us with full screen masks to begin with.

To overcome the problem of using a default full-screen mask in a widescreen movie, the developer wrote code to allow you to move the full-screen mask within the area of your widescreen PiP window. The developer also added a feature to allow you to stretch out a full-screen mask to make it fit into a widescreen area. (If you un-check the “Maintain Mask Aspect Ratio” checkbox)

Of course, if you stretch a full screen mask to fit into a widescreen window, the mask becomes distorted. This is most noticeable if your mask contains diagonals like with triangles or star shapes. Try it with the Star full screen mask that they provide, you’ll see what I mean.

But that’s not the problem. When you select a custom mask that has been created with widescreen dimensions (864 x 486), PowerDirector automatically converts it (distorting it) into 4:3 aspect ratio. This means you must un-check the “Maintain Mask Aspect Ratio” checkbox, and then manually widen the mask back to 16:9 aspect ratio.

But be aware that because you’re manually resizing the mask BACK to widescreen (because PD8 resized it to full screen) your mask may still be slightly distorted. This distortion is most apparent with shapes that have diagonal lines or curves like triangles, circles or star shapes. A little practice and tweaking and you should be able to remove the distortion.


The second bug has to do with the PiP Designer’s mask selector interface that shows the thumbnails of the masks available. For some reason, the last custom mask that you add to the Masks folder gets duplicated. In other words, you see two icons in the pick list for the same mask. If you add more than one, then it only happens to the last one (so far as I can tell). There’s nothing serious about this bug, you can ignore it. If you pick either of the duplicates in the pick list, they will work the same.

Well, hope this helps someone.

Happy movie making!

Thank you Charles!

There are two points important for me:

1 if you make the mask as an png-file, you have two areas - tranparency and white. If you make the mask as an bmp-file for converting - the areas must be black (for the picture) and white for the transparency

right?

2. If I make more than one mask with the converting-tool from Charles, I must switch the folder for a second mask to the first source-folder. To load a new bitmap the converting-tools shows me in the second time the mask-folder. Viele Gruesse Georg

You're welcome Georg.

Quote:
1 if you make the mask as an png-file, you have two areas - tranparency and white. If you make the mask as an bmp-file for converting - the areas must be black (for the picture) and white for the transparency

right?

When I originally created the mask converter utility, I chose to use white to define transparent areas. So to avoid confusion I kept it that way. In other words, the mask converter will convert any white pixel into a transparent area in either PD7 or PD8 (whichever you choose as output when you go to save your mask files).

PowerDirector's new ability to use transparent PNG files means any pixel with a color that is not transparent (black, white, yellow, whatever) will be the part that blocks out video and the transparent areas become what shows thru. (which makes sense)

So, yes, in essense your statement is correct.

Just remember that the mask converter utility converts white pixels into transparent pixels (whether the output is the old .msk format of PD7 or the new .png format in PD. So when you build a bitmap image, use white to define areas that should show thru in the finished mask.

If you build your own PNG files, I suggest using an other color (not white) to define areas that should be masked out (non transparent). That way you avoid confusion.

Quote: 2. If I make more than one mask with the converting-tool from Charles, I must switch the folder for a second mask to the first source-folder. To load a new bitmap the converting-tools shows me in the second time the mask-folder.

Can you please clarify this for me? I don't understand what you're trying to communicate.

Can you please clarify this for me? I don't understand what you're trying to communicate.

Sorry, my english is very bad and old.

I mean:

If I make one mask with your converter I go to my temp-folder with my bmp-pictures, convert it and save it auomaticly in the mask-folder. When I will try to make the next mask I click on th ebutton "Load bitmap" and I see the mask-folder and not my old temp-folder. Is it possible to get the first selctetd folder, if I will make more than one mask with the greeat converter-tool? Viele Gruesse Georg

Quote:

Can you please clarify this for me? I don't understand what you're trying to communicate.

Sorry, my english is very bad and old.

I mean:

If I make one mask with your converter I go to my temp-folder with my bmp-pictures, convert it and save it auomaticly in the mask-folder. When I will try to make the next mask I click on th ebutton "Load bitmap" and I see the mask-folder and not my old temp-folder. Is it possible to get the first selctetd folder, if I will make more than one mask with the greeat converter-tool?

I believe I understand now.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll check into it. Right now I'm at work, so I have to wait until I'm off duty before I work on this.

Stay tuned.

Charles,
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/8173.page#34054
The first issue - fixed on patch release.
The second one will have to wait for later patch.

Before anyone asks, no, there isn't a patch quite yet.

Dafydd
[Moderator]