The Crop tool lets you change the size of an image. When you perform a crop, adjacent rows or columns of pixels next to the edges of the input image are removed. You can crop an image relative to its input size or perform an absolute crop if you want to retain certain portions of the image. To assist in cropping, you can keep a fixed image size regardless of input dimensions.

You can also animate the Crop tool's parameters by setting keyframes or using expressions—see Setting Keys Manually and Validating and Applying the Expression String.

To crop an image:

1. Drag the Crop tool from the Tools tab to the dependency graph in the Schematic view.

   

2. Select a crop type: Relative, Window, or Absolute.

   Use:	To:
   Relative Crop	Crop an image relative to the size of the input image. The default value for all parameters (left, bottom, right, top) is zero. All parameters have a range of zero to the respective size (width and height) of the image being cropped. Cropping more pixels than an image has results in an invalid image size of zero.
   Window Crop	Crop an image using absolute values. You can set values for Center X, Center Y, Width, and Height.
   Absolute Crop	Crop an image using absolute values. You can set values for Left, Right, Bottom, and Top.
   Tiling	Specify how the input image should be extended outside its region of definition (ROD).The supported tiling modes are Transparent (default), Edge, Repeat, and Mirror.

3. Crop the image by doing any of the following:
   • Enter values in the Crop fields.
   • Manipulate the crop box in the Player by dragging it.
   • Adjust the red crop lines or crop handles in the Player.
   • Resize the image symmetrically by using the Ctrl key and dragging until you get the desired image size.
4. Reset the values, if needed, to that of the input image by clicking the Fit Source button.

Tools that can change the resolution of an image (Garbage Mask, Lens Distort and 2D Transform) have extra controls to manage the crop.

The Auto Crop feature computes a fit-all region where the entire distorted image fits into the output without losing any part of the image. When you set the crop mode to Auto Crop, the output region at each frame will automatically be computed. The region is automatically resized and all crop fields except the mode are disabled.