Crop
Extracts a rectangular region from an image, either by trimming each edge or by cropping to an exact output size you position over the source.
Crop has two modes, chosen with Mode:
- Edges (the default) cuts an amount from each side, in pixels or as a percentage of the source (toggle with the px/% button on each slider).
- Size crops to an exact Width and Height that you position over the source, for when the output dimensions are the requirement. Switching to Size starts from your current crop, so nothing jumps, and a larger source arriving later gets the full size you asked for rather than staying clamped to the smaller one.
Both modes show a read-only Output Size, reported per frame in a batch whose frames differ in size.
While a Size Ref is wired, Mode offers two more choices, described under Cutting a window the reference’s shape: Same Shape and At Its Place. Without a reference the list is just Edges and Size.
Source and Output views
Section titled “Source and Output views”Crop has two view buttons at the head of its tool row in the Preview. Source, where every Crop opens, is the uncropped input with the crop drawn over it and its handles live. Output is the cooked crop, with no handles and no overlay, so you can judge the result at full size. Switching changes only what the Preview shows: nothing is recomputed and no undo step is added.
Positioning the crop
Section titled “Positioning the crop”In Size mode the Parameters panel gives exact Left and Top values in pixels, measured in the shown input frame, plus a Center Crop button.
The preview shows the complete source with the cut-away area darkened. Drag inside the crop (or its center handle) to move it, and resize from any edge or corner; hold Ctrl to snap, including to Preview guides. Arrow keys nudge the crop one image pixel per press, ten with Shift. A crop that is tiny on screen keeps a reachable Move handle and asks you to zoom in before resizing. The output recalculates once when a drag ends, so dragging over a large image stays responsive.
With the Size Ref input connected, the output dimensions come from the reference. The preview shows “Size Reference controls output” and the resize and aspect controls are disabled, but you can still move the crop over the full input.
Cutting a window the reference’s shape
Section titled “Cutting a window the reference’s shape”Same Shape is how you choose which part of a large material fills a small target, such as a 4K scan cut down to a trim on a trim sheet. The window is always the size reference’s shape: drag it over the source, scale it from a corner (the aspect stays locked), and nudge it one source pixel with the arrow keys. The cut is then resampled to the reference’s size, so every map of a texture set comes out in register. It starts on Sheet Density, the whole sheet laid over the source and centered, never a stretch. Same Shape works with any size reference, not only a trim: an image or a texture set wired there gives the window that picture’s shape.
- Density readout. Under the window,
1 px here = N source pxsays how much of the source each output pixel takes; it turns amber with Magnified Nx past 2x. 1:1 Pixels sets the window so each output pixel is one source pixel. - Window buttons. Each sets the window in one click, centered on the source. Fill Trim makes the window as large as the source allows: the source fills the trim on its tighter side and the rest of its longer side is cropped. Tile Strip fits the source across the trim’s short side and repeats it a whole number of times along its length, switching Edges from Inside to Wrap (Mirror stays Mirror) and storing the count. Sheet Density lays the whole sheet over the source, so every trim cut from it shows the source at one density; use it when trims cut from one material must match in scale.
- Edges: Inside, Wrap, Mirror. Inside keeps the window on the source. Wrap and Mirror let it run past the edge and repeat the source, for tileable materials; Mirror turns a Normal map with each flipped copy. Switching Edges never moves the window.
- Whole repeats. Tile Strip is the one-click way to tile a long thin trim. With Edges on Wrap or Mirror, you can also hold
Ctrlwhile scaling a corner to snap to a whole number of repeats of the source along the reference’s longer side. The count is stored, so a strip keeps tiling when the trim is resized later; Clear Repeats forgets it, and a note says when the window is no longer a whole number of repeats. - One position for every frame. A batch of trims under one Crop cuts each at the same spot, and a note says so with a Switch to At Its Place button. To give one trim a spot of its own, give it its own branch (see Trim Sheet).
At Its Place lays the whole sheet’s layout over one source and cuts each trim at its own place on the sheet, so one material covers every trim with no seams between neighbors. The window you move and scale is the whole sheet; the Preview outlines every trim on it, labeled, with the frame you are viewing highlighted. A source of a different shape than the sheet is covered uniformly, and a line says how much is cropped. Its buttons are Sheet Density and 1:1 Pixels, since one window moves every trim; Fill Trim and Tile Strip belong to Same Shape. Same Shape and At Its Place share one position and scale, so switching between them never moves the material. At Its Place also cuts a sheet-sized bake back into per-trim pieces: leave the window at Sheet Density, and at the sheet’s own size each trim comes back exactly as it was. It is grayed, with its reason, when the reference has no place on a sheet.
In Size mode with a reference larger than the source, a note says the source is smaller than the trim and suggests Same Shape.
Aspect ratio
Section titled “Aspect ratio”Both modes show the crop’s current aspect ratio next to a Set Aspect… button offering Original, 1:1, common landscape and portrait ratios, or a custom ratio. Picking one re-fits the crop to that shape.
With Lock Aspect on, panel edits and every edge or corner drag keep the chosen or current ratio, shrinking both Size dimensions together when the crop reaches the input boundary. With the lock off, hold Shift while dragging for the same constraint. Moving a crop never changes its dimensions or its stored ratio.
Texture sets
Section titled “Texture sets”Crop accepts a whole texture set: one rectangle is taken from every map and from the set’s Opacity. In Edges and Size the Normal is unchanged, since a crop moves the window rather than the surface; Same Shape and At Its Place resample, and the Normal keeps its strength under a uniform scale, as on Resize, tilting by the ratio only when the window’s shape changes. The panel measures the connected set’s own size, so Mode, the Position section, and arrow-key nudges work as they do over a picture. A texture set or a library can also be the Size Ref.
Parameters
Section titled “Parameters”Pins
Crop
Amount to remove from the left edge
Amount to remove from the right edge
Amount to remove from the top edge
Amount to remove from the bottom edge
Keep the authored crop ratio while editing
Exact output width in pixels (Size mode)
Exact output height in pixels (Size mode)
What the window shows past the source's border
How many source pixels each output pixel covers. Drag a window corner in the Preview to scale the window
Whole repeats of the source along the strip (across the sheet's width in At Its Place), kept when the trim is resized
Usage Tips
Section titled “Usage Tips”- Use percentages in Edges mode for cropping that scales with any input size.
- Use Size mode to cut every image in a batch to the same dimensions: place the crop once and it applies across the batch.
- Connect a reference image to Size Ref to crop to its dimensions.
- Use Same Shape to fill a trim from a large material, and At Its Place to cover a whole trim sheet with one material.