Hello people, welcome to this video! Let's see quickly all the most
important features inside CyberLink PowerDirector 15, in order to start
straight! We are also offering, for the first time, a super giveaway of
three free copies of this amazing software! Watch this video to know how
how to win your free copy!
PowerDirector is one of the best and easiest video editing software
available on the market. It is used to catch videos, edit your own media,
and extract professional rendered videos and Disc Menus.
When you open it, a dialog box opens, showing you several main features
inside this software. On top, choose the correct aspect ratio for your
video project, including the new 9:16, used to create and render videos
by using for the vertical orientation of smartphones.
Another new feature is the 360° Editor, used to realize complete
spherical videos! Check out our related video to discover more about it!
The Full Feature Editor is the main and most complete interface of
PowerDirector, where you can create your customized video by manually
placing clips, effects and transitions. The other workspaces you see are
used to create professional projects in no time, by using ready-made
templates. For example, the Easy Editor creates a video by putting videos
and photos automatically, following a chosen template.
You can also use the Theme Designer or the Express Project to create
videos manually, by following a ready template. To create great
slideshows with your photos, you can use the Slideshow Creator.
Let's see in this video how to create your own videos with the Full
Feature Editor!
Here, you have the timeline below, composed by several rows called Tracks.
This is the region you will work inside your project and create your
custom video.
We are now giving away three copies of this new software for free! To win your
own copy, leave a comment here below, and tell us why PowerDirector would
be great and helpful for your future videos! You will receive the free
copy within mid of November 2016.
Before starting with your project, you have to import all the media files
you will create your project with. The Media Room, in the top left corner,
collects several files available, such as media, old projects,
backgrounds and ready templates. You can import any by clicking and
dragging them on the timeline.
You can also import external files from your computer, by dragging them
on the timeline. Whereas, if you need to capture media files, you can
use the Capture tab to record from webcams, microphones, or your own
screen by using CyberLink Screen Recorder.
All files imported on the timeline are represented through blocks called
clips. You can select a clip by clicking on it. Photos, videos and audio
files are in blue color, with their own thumbnails and sound waveforms,
that you can check better by enlarging the track that contains them.
Other special clips, such as particles, effects and text are always in
green color.
Use the Preview on the right, and its player below to check what your
project looks like! This has two different modes. When you are in Clip
mode, you will use the Preview to edit the clip appearance, by moving,
scaling and rotating it. When you are in Movie mode, you will play all
the content inside your timeline. In particular, the Preview always
shows what is under the red playhead. So, by moving the playhead, you can
check your project frame by frame.
Click on the timeline to fix the playhead to check a particular frame.
If you click and drag the playhead, you will check your project carefully,
forwards or backwards.
Also, below the Preview, you can take direct snapshots, and adjust the
Preview quality settings to use. Double-click inside the Preview to check
it in Fullscreen mode. Use the Escape key to exit!
Let's see how to work with your clips inside the timeline!
If you click and hold on the timeline, you zoom in and out around the
playhead.
To move any clip in time, just click and drag it, through the same track
or in another track. If you move a video clip, both video frames and
audio will be moved together. To make these independent, right-click on
the clip and go to Link/Unlink Video and Audio.
To select multiple clips together, click and drag on your timeline to
create a selection area. All clips within it will be selected.
The timeline is composed of different kinds of tracks: Video tracks,
recognized by a frame icon on the left, contains anything visible, such as
video frames, text and pictures; Audio tracks, with a loudspeaker icon,
containing anything regarding sound, music and speech; and the Effect
tracks, used to place effects that are applied on all the clips placed on
the upper tracks. More below, you have other tracks dedicated to text,
speech and music.
The tracks order is very important, since it sets the order at which
clips are shown on your project. All clips that are placed on a downer
video track are always shown above all clips on the upper video tracks.
On the left, there are several options to manage your tracks. Use the
third icon right above to add a new pair of Video and Audio tracks.
Use the checkmark to enable/disable a track, in order to show or
completely hide its content. The next icon is used to lock the track, in
order not to change anything inside the track and its content.
It is also very important to regulate the duration of each clip. You can
do so in two ways.
If you select a clip, and click and drag from one of its edges, you will
stretch or shorten its duration in time. You won't have problems with
pictures and text, but, for other clips that have a fixed duration, such
as audio and video clips, you can't stretch over their original duration.
If you do so, you won't change the playback speed of the clip, you will
just edit the clip content.
Another way is the trimming. If you click and drag from the clip edges
while holding CTRL down, you will always shorten or stretch the clip,
but not acting on the clip content, but on its playback speed only.
So, if you shorten the clip, this will be simply played faster, otherwise
it will be played slower. An i icon appears on a corner, indicating that
the Video Speed effect has been applied.
Remember, if you make any mistake, you can undo your latest actions by
using CTRL+Z, or using the Undo button at the very top.
Also, right-click on a clip to cut, copy, paste or delete it. To split a
clip in two instead, just fix the red playhead, right-click, and go
to Split.
Fast corrections can be made on both audio and video clips. For example,
you can correct the volume of any audio or video clip by using the
envelope line on the sound waveform. You can pull up one of its two
endpoints to increase or decrease the volume in time, as you can see
from the waveform itself. Or, you can click on the envelope line to add
your own points, and customize the volume envelope.
Also video and picture clips have a green envelope line, indicating their
level of opacity. If you pull it down, the clip will become more
transparent.
Check out our video guide to know how to professionally edit your own
clips!
Another useful tool is the Crop tool, used to remove unwanted parts from
a picture, or simply adapt it to the project aspect ratio.
Each of the visible clips can be easily edited through the Clip mode of
the Preview. Directly on the Preview, click and drag to move the clip with
respect to the focus of your project. Use the white nodes on to scale the
clip, and the blue nodes to skew and distort it. You can also rotate the
clip by hovering the blue circle on the centre, and clicking and dragging
from it.
PowerDirector also has lots of powerful transitions and effects, all
listed in the Effect Room and in the Transition Room. To apply any
effect, just click and drag one on your clip. To apply a transition,
just click and drag it on one of the edges of a clip. This applies a
nice effect while your clip appears and when it disappears.
You can also apply transitions between two clips. Just approach two clips
close enough and choose Crossfade to apply a standard fade transition
between them. Then, just drop the transition you prefer from the
Transition Room.
To learn more about effects and transitions, check out our dedicated
video in this guide!
Let's see how to save and export your project!
To save all your work inside your timeline, such as clips and effects
applied, go to File, and then to Save Project As.... Your project will be
saved in a .pds file format, used to open your project later to edit it
If you want to extract the final video from your project, in order to
watch it, or upload it online, you have to render it first. Just go to
the Produce workspace on top, and choose between several options
PowerDirector offers. Choose Standard 2D to render your video inside your
computer, choosing the file format you prefer, and its aspect ratio.
More on the right, check out the estimated file size, and fix the Export
Folder to save the video into.
Use 3D to render any 3D video.
Choose Device to render your video with the correct file format for
several devices, such as smart phones and consoles.
Go to the Online tab to render and directly upload your video to social
websites, such as Facebook, YouTube, Dailymotion and Vimeo, choosing the
video quality more below. When you are ready, click on the Start button
to start rendering! The video will be rendered from the beginning of
your timeline (even if vacant) till the end of the last clip.
Check out our video to know how to apply the best render settings to
your video to upload in YouTube with an Ultra HD quality!
Thanks for watching this video! Check out our complete guide to learn
more about CyberLink PowerDirector 15! And don't forget to leave a
comment below to win a free copy of this software!