[Zach Gold]

I abolutely need to tweak the curves visually. I submitted an enhancement request, but let’s face it- this is a UI issue and Apple doesn’t really listen to anyone in that department.

I’m a developer myself and have spent a great deal of time coding custom retiming tools, albeit lacking the superb interpolation of Twixter. My recommendation on how to make Twixter graphically useful in FCP is to add two other parameters for speed and frame range respecitively. Let’s face it, very few users will want to go anywhere near plus or minus 10,000%, but I understand wanting to make your application as robust as possible.

If adding range parameters seems too inelegant, I would suggest adding a built in logarithmic scale to the visual display of the speed curve that doesn’t affect the actual functioning. This way one would see a noticeable curve from both 0-100% and 100-10,000%, but not 9,900%-10,000%, which I think is safe to abandon support for.

The frame parameter is a little more complicated. It seems the best solution would be to automatically detect the length of the clip and make that the maximum. That’s what I do in my own software, which uses frame based retiming.

Please keep in mind that I’ve never used FXPlug (although I’m planning on jumping in once I finish some other projects) so these are all just suggestions based on ignorance of what Apple will let you do behind the scenes!

Best,
Zach

[Zach Gold]

I abolutely need to tweak the curves visually. I submitted an enhancement request, but let’s face it- this is a UI issue and Apple doesn’t really listen to anyone in that department.

I’m a developer myself and have spent a great deal of time coding custom retiming tools, albeit lacking the superb interpolation of Twixter. My recommendation on how to make Twixter graphically useful in FCP is to add two other parameters for speed and frame range respecitively. Let’s face it, very few users will want to go anywhere near plus or minus 10,000%, but I understand wanting to make your application as robust as possible.

If adding range parameters seems too inelegant, I would suggest adding a built in logarithmic scale to the visual display of the speed curve that doesn’t affect the actual functioning. This way one would see a noticeable curve from both 0-100% and 100-10,000%, but not 9,900%-10,000%, which I think is safe to abandon support for.

The frame parameter is a little more complicated. It seems the best solution would be to automatically detect the length of the clip and make that the maximum. That’s what I do in my own software, which uses frame based retiming.

Please keep in mind that I’ve never used FXPlug (although I’m planning on jumping in once I finish some other projects) so these are all just suggestions based on ignorance of what Apple will let you do behind the scenes!

Best,
Zach

[Zach Gold]

One last thought: can anyone speak to the performance of the 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator when used as a jog/shuttle knob for video? If it is pretty much equal to the Contour stuff, I might get that so I could also use it for 3d applications, but wouldn’t want to sacrifice performance for video.

[Zach Gold]

Thanks, Scott. Sounds like the Contour Xpress is the right tool for me.

[Zach Gold]

So, the tablet is really for scrubbing on the most macro level? I don’t think it would be good for me then. Do most jog/shuttle knobs all you to accurately move between individual frames as well as going faster than playback speed? Ideally, I’d like one tactile control that would work on both levels. The MC Transport is out of my price range, since I’m not a pro editor.

[Zach Gold]

Thanks, Walter. So the use of a stylus on the Wacom tablet gives it a big advantage over the Apple multitouch trackpads?

I should mention that my specific problem is that I need be able to quickly scrub through lengthy video, while having precision down to the frame. Not sure if this differs significantly from traditional editing tasks. Imagine you have a 20 minute slow motion clip of someone repeatedly shooting a basketball, the same each time and maybe lasting only 10 seconds each, and I need to pick out the exact shot (of the ball) that I need. The differences between them would not be so apparent when watching the footage as a whole, but it’s the frame by frame difference that would make it work with my edit or not.

[Zach Gold]

So you think it’d definitely be better for my purposes to get a standalone jog/shuttle knob rather than something like the Bella keyboard?

Is Contour pretty much the standard for those? Any advantage in getting the Shuttle Pro over ShuttleExpress? And what about the 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator- overkill for just video?