How to Use Stickers in PowerDirector
Place an animated sticker, size it, and decide what it does when the animation runs out.
Updated Aug. 27, 2026 · 5 min read
In a hurry? Use the stickers quick guide instead.
Getting a sticker onto the timeline takes a drag. Getting it to behave takes knowing two things that are not on the surface: what happens when its animation reaches the end, and how to make that animation match the length you gave it. Both live one click deeper than most people go.
- Open the Overlays tab, choose Stickers, and drag one onto the timeline.
- Double-click it to set size, position, opacity, border and shadow.
- Drag its edges for length, then use Advanced if you need the animation to fit that length.
Working with Stickers
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Add a Sticker
Open the Overlays tab and pick Stickers in the sidebar. The categories underneath run from Popular and Seasonal through Pointers, Special Effects, Highlight, Social Media, Promotion and Mood.
Drag one to the point on the timeline where you want it. Or select it first and click the add button above the timeline, which drops it onto the currently selected track at the playhead. The second way is the better habit when you care which track it lands on.
Size, Position and Blend
Double-click the sticker on the timeline. The panel that opens has three tabs, Sticker, Mask and Animation, and the left-hand list breaks the first one into Position / Size / Flip, Opacity / Fade / Blend and Border / Shadow.
If those sound familiar, they are: these are the same controls you use on any clip. Nothing here is sticker-specific, so whatever you already know about scaling and blending applies unchanged.
Border / Shadow is the one worth a deliberate visit. A sticker dropped on busy footage tends to disappear into it, and a border is the quickest way to lift it back out.
Set How Long It Stays
Drag the sticker's edges on the timeline, the same as you would a clip.
What happens next is the part that catches people out. By default the animation loops for as long as you made the sticker, so stretching it to eight seconds gives you the same short loop over and over rather than one slow performance.
Decide What Happens at the End
Click Advanced at the bottom right of the sticker panel to open Advanced Overlay Editing. In the timeline at the bottom right of that window, right-click the sticker and open After Image Sequence Ends.
The submenu holds Loop Playback, which is the default, plus Freeze on First Frame, Freeze on Last Frame and Stop Playback. Freeze on Last Frame is the useful one: the sticker plays its animation once and then stays put in its finished state until its time on the timeline runs out.
Make the Animation Fit the Duration
When you want the animation itself to stretch or compress rather than repeat, the order matters. Set the sticker's length on the timeline first, then open Advanced, right-click the sticker and choose Change Speed to Fit Current Duration. Click OK and the animation speeds up or slows down to land exactly on the length you set.
The order is what matters: the command re-times the animation to whatever duration it finds when you run it.
Haven't got PowerDirector yet? A sticker that follows a moving subject and still reads on busy footage takes two settings most people never find. Both are in the editor.
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