Improve Snapping in Effect Controls Window! (so it doesn't jump to next clip, etc.)

[Pierre Louis B.]

There are 2 ways the Effect Controls Window workflow could be greatly improved, simply by improving Snapping:

1. When moving the playhead to the end of a clip in the ECW, dragging a keyframe to the end, or jumping to the end with the 'Go to next edit point' shortcut, the playhead and/or keyframe should automatically snap to the beginning of the last frame rather than to the end of it. This way, the clip loaded in the ECW remains visible in the Program Monitor, rather than the ECW and Program Monitor jumping to the next clip!

2. When turning off 'Pin to Clip', it would be far more useful if the ECW automatically snapped to a zoom setting that allows all keyframes to be seen! This would save the user the trouble of using the scroll bar to go searching for keyframes that are outside the visible bounds of the clip.

See attached illustration for more info.

[Pierre Louis B.]

UPDATE:
I didn't properly word point 1 in my FR above! Here's is the corrected version, along with a corrected illustration:

When moving the playhead or a keyframe to the end of a clip in the ECW, it should automatically stop moving at the beginning of the last frame, unless 'Pin to Clip' is turned off. Since edits made to a keyframe past this point can't be seen in the Program Monitor (see Opacity keyframe in illustration), having a keyframe placed there is of little to no value to an editor. Locking keyframe/playhead positioning to the beginning of the last frame would also solve the problem of the ECW automatically jumping to the next clip when "Selection Follows Playhead" is enabled in the Selection menu.

Should an editor wish to jump to adjacent clips from within the ECW, they can always do so using the 'Go to Next/Previous Edit Point' shortcuts. Jumping to the next clip should always be a conscious decision made by an editor, and never happen by accident!

[williams60563650]

I deal with this problem constantly and it drives me insane. Working around it wastes so much time.

[Wes Howell]

Hi Pierre,
Thank you for this request. We appreciate the thoughtful request and all of the related details.
We will take this into consideration!
best,
Wes

[Pierre Louis B.]

Thank you for the reply Wes! Here's hoping progress can be made on the Effect Controls Panel since it's such an essential part of editing in Premiere Pro!

Even more essential than what I ask for in this FR is having a way to pin keyframes to a clip's in, out, or in&out points. Here's my FR for that: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/41391664-keyframe-pinning-o.... If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll be glad to elaborate.

All the best!

[Tom Fewchuk]

Ah wow, this is the most perfect suggestion. Point 1 especially is a daily frustration using keyframes since you are most often putting keyframes on the last frame of a clip.. but always getting pushed into the next clip. So my dumb workaround (as I'm sure most of you do) is to move the last keyframe in a bit, do all changes to it and then drag it to the end.. WHICH SUCKS

Please implement Pierre's suggestions!

[ilhanp14039373]

This is such a time waster : everytime we have to drag this keyframe to the end...and if we have to work on it later in the process we have to drag it AGAIN out of the last frame zone in order to not jump to next clip.

[Pierre Louis B.]

Glad to see more people commenting on this. I agree it's a major time waster. The ECP was not well thought out. It recently got updated with new options so users only see parameters that have been changed and/or keyframed. Does anyone find those new options helpful/necessary? I can easily think of at least a dozen ECP improvements that would be far more useful and help a much greater range of users than this! Adobe's list of priorities clearly isn't in sync with our needs. Lets keep making noise about this until they finally listen 🙂

[Jeff Drake]

How many times can I vote "Yes"?

[JRoni]

This has annoyed me for years and I can't believe it is still a thing.

[Wes Howell]

Hello everyone,

This is still an area where we’d like to make some improvements and we do realize this is a long standing request. Thanks for your patience.

As noted, it is currently possible in the Effects Control Panel to drag the playhead or a keyframe to the edit point and this shows the first frame of the next clip in the Program Monitor.

One of the core requests here is to not allow the user to scrub or drag a keyframe past the beginning of the last frame of a clip when using the Effects Control Panel. (Of course this is assuming that Pin to Clip is enabled or the clip is not trimmed)

I understand the desired workflow and fully understand the request.


Question:
If this behavior was changed as requested, can you think of cases where a user may want to set a keyframe or drag a keyframe to the actual edit point?

This has been a very common workflow and some might consider this to be standard practice in many applications? Do you disagree? Can you think of cases where some may prefer the current behavior and would be disrupted if they could not drag a keyframe to the edit point, for example?

I do understand that users could still access the edit point using a keyboard shortcut and disabling Pin to Clip is another way to work around this. However, I want to make sure that we don’t cause undesirable effects for the users that may prefer the existing behavior.


Thanks for the feedback.

[Pierre Louis B.]

Hi Wes,

Thank you for chiming in and looking into giving the ECP some much needed attention.

To answer your questions:
1) If this behavior was changed as requested, can you think of cases where a user may want to set a keyframe or drag a keyframe to the actual edit point?
No. BUT that doesn't mean that just because I can't imagine a need for this that no user would ever need it. The solution is simple: keyboard modifier override. Want to drag a keyframe past the automatic lock off point at the beginning of the last frame? Just Ctrl-drag the keyframe and the lock point is temporarily disregarded!

2) This has been a very common workflow and some might consider this to be standard practice in many applications? Do you disagree?
No matter how 'standard practice' something might be doesn't mean that it is right. It was 'standard practice' for women to not be allowed to vote for most of human history. That doesn't mean that it is right, and likewise, in the case of Pr, preserving an awful standard practice just for the sake of continuing historical precedent would to be detrimental to users.


3) Can you think of cases where some may prefer the current behavior and would be disrupted if they could not drag a keyframe to the edit point, for example?
This question is basically the same as your first question. No, I can't think of why fixing this would disrupt anyone's workflow, but in the unlikely chance it might, simply implement a keyboard modifier override as suggested. Even if there wasn't a way to please everyone by means of a simple solution like the one I suggest, I think it's important to always consider the needs of the many vs the needs of the very few. But of course, the ideal situation is to satisfy the needs of everyone, which my suggested solution would do.

Thanks again for giving this some much needed attention Wes! 🙂

[Pierre Louis B.]

Hi once again Wes,

While your team is looking at improving the ECP, I would really appreciate it if you could please consider these other much needed ECP improvements as well:

When editing in Effect Controls Panel, always show clip in Program Monitor
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/41957968-when-editing-in-ef...

Keyframe pinning options in Effect Controls Panel: pin to IN and/or OUT point(s)
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/41391664-keyframe-pinning-o...

Copy/Paste Speed Keyframes with Ctrl-C Ctrl-V (instead of just with 'Paste Attributes')
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/41680396-simple-copy-paste-...

Transition Visibility toggle in Effect Controls panel (so we can always see the result of keyframe adjustments in the Program Monitor!)
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/41382235-transition-visibil...

Slip Clip: Keyboard modifier that would make a HUGE difference!
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/38075233-slip-clip-keyboard...

Those FRs don't have nearly the number of votes that this one has, but they could greatly impact our workflows nonetheless! Unfortunately the voting system on User Voice is a poor indication of what would help users most, because people tend to vote for the most obvious, bite-sized gripes that are easy to grasp in a second or two, while dismissing any requests that require more than 10 seconds to comprehend. This is unfortunate since many of the more complex FRs could provide us with even more benefits that the simpler requests voters gravitate towards.

I cannot thank your team enough for giving the ECP the much needed attention it's been needing ever since Premiere became Premiere Pro! 🙂

[Nick Lear]

Agree with Pierre.

I think this is just one of those things that has been annoying in Premiere for ages, I don't think that's ever a reason to stick with it. Alt-drag if you did need to get past the edit point, which I've never needed to.

[Wes Howell]

Thanks for the detailed feedback. @pierre, I will check out all of your requests. @pierre, are you on the large Premiere Facebook group or have you been part of an Adobe prerelease program?

[Pierre Louis B.]

Hi Wes,
I'm part of the Adobe Premiere Pro Editors group (www.facebook.com/groups/adobepremierepro)
Since no such group existed yet, I also started my own FB group to encourage people to share FR ideas and vote on User Voice: www.facebook.com/groups/premiereprofeaturerequests/

Back in 2010, I was a beta tester in the 'Scully' program (Pr CS5) and recognized as one of the top contributors worldwide.

Currently, I'm helping with extensive feedback on the new captioning tools in the beta version of Pr 15.0.

If there's anything else you know of that I can do to help, please let me know! Beta testing and imagining effective software/UI solutions has become a passion of mine!

[Pierre Louis B.]

Hi Wes, there's another previous ECP-related FR I made that I forgot to link in my second-last post:

Allowing the Hand tool to be used in the ECP
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/41866903-hand-tool-in-effec...