How to Use Masks in PowerDirector

PowerDirector's Mask tab controls which part of a clip stays visible and which part is hidden. Another clip playing at the same time can show through the hidden part, so you can build split screens, letterbox bars, and shaped cut-outs.

A mask keeps one area visible while hiding the rest. Nothing is deleted. The hidden part is still there but isn't drawn, so a clip on another track can show through it. If no other clip is playing at that point, the hidden part is black.

For a split screen, put the two clips on separate tracks so they overlap in time. Put the clip you'll mask on track 2 and the clip that should show through it on track 1. PowerDirector draws track 2 over track 1 by default.

Select the clip you want to mask and click Edit in the toolbar above the timeline. Then open the Mask tab at the top of the panel that opens.

Click a mask in the grid at the top of the Mask tab to apply it to the clip, then adjust it for the type you picked.

Click the Horizontal mask, the third icon in the top row, to split the frame along a single line. Everything on one side of the line is kept.

Drag the green circle at the middle of the line in the preview to rotate it.

To move the line, hover over it until the cursor becomes a crosshair, then drag.

Or type values into the Position and Rotation fields below the grid when you want the same angle on several clips.

Position counts from 0,0 at the top left to 1,1 at the bottom right, so 0.5, 0.5 is the center.

Click the Parallel mask, the fourth icon in the top row, to keep a band between two lines.

To set how far apart the lines sit, hover the white dot on a line until the cursor becomes a double arrow, then drag. The pair rotates and moves together.

Two uses come up often. Horizontal bands give a clip a cinematic letterbox, with black bars when no other clip is playing. A rotated band is the basis of a three-way split screen.

The rest of the grid is ready-made shapes: circle, heart, brush strokes, and more. Pick one and it becomes the visible region. It's a quick way to make a sticker or a shaped cut-out.

Drag the white nodes on the shape's edge to resize it, drag inside it to move it, and drag the handle above it to rotate it. Or type values in the fields below the grid, as with the line masks.

When no preset shape fits, supply your own. Click Create a custom mask from an image, the second icon in the top row, and drop the file into the Image Mask Tool.

A PNG gives you a choice in the Create Mask dialog. Alpha channel of the image builds the mask from the transparent areas, and Gray level of the image builds it from the brighter areas. Other image formats skip the choice and use gray levels directly, since they carry no transparency to read.

A hard edge between two clips is easy to spot. Click Advanced at the lower right of the Mask tab to open Advanced Mask Editing.

Then raise Feather Radius at the lower left of the window to blend the join instead.

Under the preview, Fit sets the zoom, from 10% to 400%. The three icons beside it let you show the other tracks, toggle snapping and grid lines, and enter full screen. Hold Alt while dragging to ignore snapping. Click OK when you're done. Or click Save Mask at the bottom left first to keep the shape under Custom in the grid for other clips.

Below the playback controls, the Position and Scale rows hold the mask's keyframes.

Check Invert mask, just below Feather Radius, to swap which side is kept. It saves rebuilding a mask you have already placed correctly but backwards.

We tested these steps in PowerDirector 365 versions 24.0.7 and 25.0.10 on Windows.