If you're both a busy video editor and a big time gamer, and you're looking for a new way to edit, you might want to check this out.
In this tutorial, Editor Casey Faris shows us how he programmed his PC game controller to be used with Adobe Premiere Pro. Check it out below:
The first thing you have to do is get yourself a PC controller — the one Casey uses in his video is a Logitech Gamepad F310, which you can pick up pretty much anywhere; Amazon has them for $20 — not too bad. The next thing you have to do is map the buttons to do keyboard shortcuts. The important thing to keep in mind when doing this is to program them in such a way that it makes editing fast and efficient — otherwise they're not really shortcuts anymore. Luckily Casey shows you how he mapped his.
Full disclosure here — I'm not a big gamer. I mean, I've tried bonding with my daughter by giving her a broken controller to "play" NBA 2K16 with me, and I even let her run around Skyrim for a while to (until she hacked some random lady to death — and laughed maniacally), but I'm not someone who dedicates much time to playing video games. So, chances are I wouldn't utilize something like this when I edit.
However, if you are a gamer and you do want to shake things up, this is probably the most fun way of going about it. Casey says editing with a PC game controller is pretty fast; it may not be for you (especially at first), but again, it looks super fun!
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Your Comment
12 Comments
This is awesome! I wonder if it would work with my ps4 controller?
May 14, 2016 at 7:00AM
I've used a gaming mouse for editing the past few years and I love it, I feel like I lost a hand when I don't have it. Editing develops really strong personal habits, so I'd have a really hard time making the giant leap to a game pad even if it was provably faster. But it's a cool idea!
May 14, 2016 at 3:26PM
Nice, clever use of the myriad keyboard shortcuts available! I use a ShuttlePRO v2 and Palette in combination; Gives me instant tactile use of many functions.
Great to see people being creative with the various input devices out there. Whatever works for you as an editor to be more creative and productive, go for it!
May 14, 2016 at 5:11PM
Would this work on a Mac? I went to the Logitech website and the drivers are for Windows only. There are lots of controllers out there, many of which are compatible with a Mac. But is there a way to map the buttons on a Mac?
I am super interested. Seems way more ergonomic. Please help if you can.
May 15, 2016 at 6:36AM, Edited May 15, 6:36AM
I haven't used it, but this might do the trick:
http://joystickmapper.com
May 16, 2016 at 9:04AM
I tried to do this with my midi controller that I use to make beats. However, I couldn't find a way to map the controls and assign shortcuts to my keyboard. Anyone have any idea how I can do this in premiere? Thanks!
May 15, 2016 at 3:29PM, Edited May 15, 3:29PM
Bome's midi translator lets you take any midi input and translate it to control other types of input like keystrokes or game cotrollers. You can use it to hack together some pretty cool stuff using midi devices to control any type of software and it's pretty easy to use: https://www.bome.com/products/miditranslator
May 18, 2016 at 8:10AM, Edited May 18, 8:12AM
That was painful to watch. If you're looking for faster editing solutions and haven't tried FCPX yet, please do that before this. It's got a bad wrap online but being an editor of 10 years now having used FCP 5 through 7, AVID, and Premier there's no NLE like it.
May 16, 2016 at 4:43PM
Hah. What about VEGAS? There is NO NLE as fast and powerful.
January 16, 2017 at 9:56AM, Edited January 16, 9:56AM
Omg, never suspected it is possible . Used to edit videos thanks to https://www.viosk.com/ and Movavi, I am always satisfied with the result . I want to try your method now :)
May 17, 2016 at 2:19AM
Welp my work/play balance was just forever upset by this. Am i gaming? Am I editing? More like both ALL THE TIME. Amirite?
May 17, 2016 at 3:05PM
I want to share my experience with this.
I spent 3 days working on this method, completely studying the short-keys and how to lay them out on the controller(I used a playstation 3 style controller). I worked on the combination of the short-keys so you have the similar buttons on the same layout.
Then I started editing and here are my results:
-If you isolate the editing process only on the timeline, then yes you can do some really fast editing.
-The problem is that a lot of times you need to use the mouse, for importing clips for fine tuning some really small stuff that poped out of nowhere etc.
-Effects are out of the way because you have to use the mouse precisely.
In the end I'm saying a big No for this method (Even though I wanted it so bad to succeed)!
May 22, 2016 at 12:56AM