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And all the effects are highly configurable, so there’s a great deal of scope for fine-tuning the results.Įlsewhere, the other major editing change sees the introduction of redesigned tools for picture-in-picture motion, particle effects, titles and disc-based menus. “Active Camera”, for instance, does a great job of adding motion to a still camera, making it look like your footage was taken during an earthquake. But they can work well, in some situations. While the “Motion Effects” pack includes a nice “Motion Blur”, as well as “Ripple”, “Warp” and “Rolling Waves” effects. In terms of its core editing power, PowerDirector 11 extends the previous edition’s support for plugin-based effects by adding a couple of extra NewBlueFX effects packs (22 effects in total).Īnd so you get a Paint Effects pack, with options like “Water Colour”, “Oil”, “Charcoal” and “Coloured Pencil”. Still, for all this the content-aware dialog is a genuinely useful addition to the program which works very well with some source material, and could save you a great deal of import and processing time. Right now you have to click on each one you need, an issue if you’ve 40, 50 or more it should at least be possible to select them by drawing a bounding box with the mouse. It should be easier to select scenes, too. We found it didn’t always reliably detect content, and unfortunately there’s no way provided to tweak the detection results (no “sensitivity” setting as with scene detection, for instance).
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CYBERLINK 16 ULTIMATE REVIEW FULL
If they’re dark or particularly unstable then one click will use CyberLink’s TrueTheater technology to fix them, and when you’ve finished you can import all your selected scenes to the full timeline for further analysis.ĭoes it work? This isn’t a magic solution. The idea, then, is that you can use its choices to pick out key scenes right away.
CYBERLINK 16 ULTIMATE REVIEW MANUAL
Video editing projects traditionally begin with a great deal of tedious manual work, as you browse through your source footage, identifying the interesting scenes and eliminating everything else.īut what if your video editor could do some of that for you? That’s, in part, the aim of PowerDirector’s new content-aware editing.Ĭlick the “Content-aware editing” button and the program will scan your selected clip, attempting to identify important scenes: those with faces, motion, zooms or pans.Īnd it will also try to highlight those with problems, in particular shaky camerawork or poor lighting. But how would these features perform in real life? We put them to the test.
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New additions this time include content-aware editing, an easy way to analyse and import new files. A host of interface tweaks (more than 50, according to CyberLink) make the program more configurable, easier to adjust to suit your needs. TrueVelocity 3 - including multi-GPGPU support - and other performance optimisations ensure PowerDirector will render your projects at the maximum possible speed. And assorted other technical tweaks and added support for new standards (like 4K ultra HD) ensures that there’s plenty of scope for expanding your creativity.
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And CyberLink’s PowerDirector 11 Ultimate is the latest candidate for your attention, being packed with high-end features - a 100-track timeline, fine keyframe control, advanced video effects, disc authoring and online video sharing - yet also simple enough for beginners to use. Having a good video editor to hand, though, can give you the power to solve most problems. You might have a great video camera, and be very skilled at using it, but it won’t make any difference: your raw footage will generally still be rubbish.
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