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Is there a way to do "precision dragging" a la FCP?

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
August 14, 2012
4 replies
32371 views

In FCP, when I drag a clip or edge on Timeline, I can press the Command key to enter a mode where it moves frame by frame. This is very useful when the Timeline is dense and the default drag can only move many frames at a time.

Is there an equivalent in Premiere Pro? The only other way would be to zoom out the Timeline first, do the drag, and probably zoom back in to resume work. That's too much trouble. And yes there are keyboard shortcuts that move a clip or edge frame by frame, but if I want to move a clip for exactly 2 seconds (60 frames), that's a loooooot of keystrokes AND I need to keep count. Dragging is so much easier.

Thanks!

J

jl72726281

Participant

Its been 10 years but I felt like Final Cut Pro let me offset clips by less than a single frame. Is that not something I can do in Premier?

M

Meg The Dog

Inspiring

You can move audio clips in sub frame intervals, but you cannot move video clips in anything less than frame intervals. The frame is the smallest distinct unit of video there is.

MtD

J

jl72726281

Participant

good to know. I'm having a nightmare of a time syncing up stereoscopic video clips that are less than frame out of sync.

roryGO

Participant

I'm not sure if this will answer your question--and I realize this thread is four years old--but I found a YouTube clip explaining how to move clips by less than one frame. Hope this helps: Moving Audio Freely [Adobe Premiere Quick Tip] - YouTube

B

B_Kaufman

Participant

You can double click on the clip in the timeline and it will open it in the Source window. From there you can go the the in or out points (Q or W), move frame by frame, and then set the in/out point (I or O). If I need to clarify or explain anything further, please let me know!

Hope this helps!

-Barrett

E

ExactImage

Participating Frequently

To move by left by 2 seconds is as simple as -2:00 on the keyboard. to move right by 2 seconds just type 2:00.

How many fewer strokes would you like?

You can move left or right by as many hours/minutes/seconds/frames as you like just by typing a number.

If you know how many frames are in a second, you can even just type the frames and PP will work it out..... so if you're on a 25p timeline then typing -50 will move 2 seconds also.

Zooropa75Author

Known Participant

ExactImage: I want one keystroke. The Command key. In general I prefer using the mouse to using keystrokes. Pressing "+" on the Numeric keypad (first assuming there is one), then the number, then Return - That to me is a lot more hassle than just dragging, because it interrupts my editing workflow which is mostly based on mouse clicking and dragging.

Besides, there are many situations where I don't know exactly how many frames I want to move. I just want to be able to fine-tune to one frame. For example, I want to expand the end of a clip to the frame just before the actor turns his head. I do a Ripple-Edit and drag the end point on Timeline. In both Premiere Pro and FCP, this brings up the trim window where you see the two sides of the editing point. Great, I can drag until I find the frame I want. The problem is, if the Timeline is dense, I can only drag multiple frames at a time. In FCP, by pressing the Command key, I can zero in on the precise frame. In Premiere Pro, there doens't seem to be an equivalent.

I am a "precision editor" in that I often adjust the editing point to an exact frame (either audio or video). There are many, many uses for the "precision dragging" feature and it's really easy to use. While there may be workarounds for each specific scenario, I would love a general solution that works everywhere. FCP does so much better in terms of precision editing, mainly because of the powerful Viewer (the Source Monitor in Premiere Pro does not begin to compare). For example, in FCP you can do Ripple/Roll editing in the Viewer, either by mouse drag or by keyboard. No such luck in Premiere Pro! Adjusting a clip after it's already in a Timeline is a pain. But that's probably for a separate discussion thread.

Another thing I want to bring up is that, by design, there are many ways to do the same thing in a NLE software like Premiere Pro or FCP. Mouse drag vs. keyboard control, menu vs. buttons vs. keyboard shortcuts, etc. Each editor probably has his/her own set of habits and preferences. So, one person's pain point may be another person's "don't care", and one person's workaround may be another person's "don't want". That probably contributed to the huge variance in people's experiences of migrating from FCP to Premiere Pro. (I belong to be "very frustrated" camp.) How much should Adobe care about all these different editing habits? That's up to them. One reason I post functionality questions in this forum, aside from looking for answers or workarounds, is to see if other people share the same pain or if I am the only one that cares. Maybe I'm just the weird one, I don't know.

E

ExactImage

Participating Frequently

Zooropa75 wrote:
I am a "precision editor" in that I often adjust the editing point to an exact frame (either audio or video).

As are we.... we do this a lot!

We use the backslash key a LOT to zoom in and outof the timeline as needed, so when we need to get to frame precision we hit the backslash to zoom in to the "precision levels" the backslash to zoom backout again. It's one key hit and gets us what we need.

If you need something different then by all means reuqest it.

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