CyberLink Power Director is a good alternative to notorious professional video editing tools.
Before purchasing it, consider the system requirements: CyberLink Power Director works fine with Microsoft Windows 10, 8/8.1, 7 (64 bit OS recommended).
Upon purchasing it, take some time to get used to the workspace where you’ll edit your videos.
Workspace for CyberLink Power Director
Workspace in CyberLink Power Director is quite complex.
Workspace in CyberLink Power Editor
In the workflow, you’ll have to:
– import the raw video or use the screen recorder to provide the raw video you’ll work with
– edit the video, until it gets the representation you want
– export the video in a variety of forms, or post it online (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)
– create disc to burn the video product in 2D or 3D.
From these steps, the editing video one is the one you’ll spend most time working for. That will be possible using the workspace presented above, so take the time to get acquainted to it and its multiple features.
Important to note: the workspace includes an audio mixing section (room) and even a voice-over recording section (room). The latter is especially useful for creating online tutorials, where explanations of using a tool or solving a technical issue are essential for users to get a better understanding of what they’re watching.
Creating projects in the workspace
It’s worthwhile to mention that all projects you create in CyberLink Power Director can be saved independently of the original files. So, if you get too creative and changes are too drastical, you can always revert to the original raw file and start over again.
Latest additions to the tool include 360° Video Projects. That means you can create virtual reality videos and play with infinite possibilities to get users immersed into the video narrative.
For projects to be saved, you’ll have to use the .pds format, which is exclusive to CyberLink Power Director.
Editing Media
The editing media modules give you a wide range of possibilities to turn a raw video into an excellent video presentation. It’s suitable for intermediate to professional users, and if you’re a beginner in using a video editing tool, take some time to understand what each function modifies and allows you to do with your videos.
Some modules included in the editing media section:
- splitting clips
- linking/unlinking clips (both video and audio)
- trimming clips (both video and audio)
- setting a clip’s duration
- stretching and cropping images
- rotating images and videos
- changing the shape of media
- muting or editing audio that’ll accompany the video in a project
- editing 360° video projects, etc.
A special editing feature: Content Aware Editing.
This feature is particularly useful for those who want a high quality video, not yet having the whole set of skills for video editing at a professional level. Content ware Editing uses partial automation of the process (it automatically generates the best outputted video content for production).
It analyzes the content of the video and identifies the most interesting parts that you should make use of and underline in the presentation.
Adding Effects to the Video File and Using Transitions
CyberLink Power Director is great for adding effects to the videos you edit. They can turn your raw video into a exquisite piece to watch and engage users, to the point they’ll always gladly return to your channel for more videos.
Effects of this tool fall into several categories, ranging from simple to complex:
- basic effects (blending clips on the timeline, video effects, adding pans and zooms on images, using freeze frame effects)
- pip effects
- particle effects (adding objects, images and backgrounds, modifying their position on the timeline, adding motion to particle objects, using particle keyframes, etc.)
- title effects (here, you can play with customization features for the title of the video). Given that the title is the first element that entices people into watching the video, you should pay special attention to it. Use title effects to make the title trigger people into watching the whole video, and draw their attention towards your content. These effects include: standard 2D effects, 3D title effects, 360° title effects.
Just as important and specific sequences in the video, transitions have to be carefully addressed. CyberLink Power Director gives you the opportunity to play with transitions and choose the best variants for your videos:
- you can add transitions to a single clip
- you can use transitions between two clips
- you can go more sophisticated in your editing, and start using audio transitions
- you can modify the transitions settings, so the final product shows what you wanted it to convey
- you can explore alpha transitions, a complex feature of CyberLink Power Director.
Bonus features
Besides effects and transitions, you can use some bonus features exclusive of CyberLink Power Director:
- Mixing audio and video recording voice-overs (this is useful for creating online tutorials)
- Adding chapters (this is useful for creating online pieces that have a longer duration and need being organized in a well-structure and clearly articulated manner)
- Adding subtitles (this is useful for videos that’ll be presented in professional environments and need to be carefully tweaked and refined to the minutest detail).
- using CyberLink Power Director plugins (these are modules that extend functionalities of the tool and help you apply extra features to your video editing). The plugins are: MultiCam Designer, Theme Designer, Action Camera Center, AI Style, to name just a few.
As a whole, CyberLink Power Director is a good choice if you plan to start editing videos professionally. Although the learning curve needs to be taken into account, the tool is user-friendly and it comes with much support, to get you started.
Once you become familiar with the tool interface and its options, editing videos will turn into a smooth process and a pleasant work to do.
Cyberlink PowerDirector Pricing & Discounts
Cyberlink Sale – Great Value for the Power Director 365
Great value offer: You can purchase Cyberlink PowerDirector 17, for a special price of $4.08 /mo ( AUD 4.08 / £4.08) for the annual subscription -Cyerlink PowerDirector 365. Apart from all the PowerDirector 17 features you will also gain access to regular free software updates along with unlimited use of premium effects and plugins.
For just $5/month more, you can also get Cyberlink Director Suite 365: the comprehensive 4-in-1 solution for media creators. In addition to PowerDirector 365, you’ll also receive a powerful software suite for photo editing, video color grading & precision audio editing.
