What Motion Commmands have you assigned to your Jog/Shuttle

Over the weekend it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't set up my Contour Jog Shuttle for use with Apple's Motion.
I guess I've been so busy learning about the program that I overlooked the timesaving that using would add to the program.

As I don't think we need to reinvent the wheel, possibly we could all share with other members of this forum what commands we have assigned to the controller to speed up our work with Motion. I start the ball rolling I'll list the rather uninspired 4 sets that I put together last night.


First off I set the upper 9 buttons on the controller to be able to switch quickly between the 9 main areas of Motion. It wasn't till I got to set 4 that it occurred to me set the 4 lower buttons (which Contour now refers to as buttons 10 to 13 on the newer shuttle theses would be 12 to 15) to open the 4 subsections of the inspector window properties, behaviors, filters & object.

I have decided to set the upper 9 buttons at the moment on each of my 4 sets navigate to these same 9 areas.This will probably change over time as more inspired uses for the buttons become apparent. So for the moment at least it is only the bottom 4 buttons that change between my current 4 sets of commands.

Having the upper 9 buttons always available to quickly get to any area of the program & having the ability to smoothly jog & shuttle in Motion's timeline is saving me time as well as making Motion more of a pleasure to use.

Briefly here is what i have currrrently set my other 3 sets of the lower 4 buttons to:

Set # 1 10- Play Range Start 11- Mark Play Range In 12- Play Range End 13- Mark Play Range Out

Set # 2 10- Select All 11 - Open Template 12 - Deselect All 13- New Layer

Set # 3 10 - Show the Colors Window 11 - Open Motion Help Manual 12- Show/Hide Grid 13- Show/Hide Safe Zones

For example I find it quite convient to press the #11 button which opens Motion's Online Manual in Acrobat, press the #7 button to do a search in the manual & when finished press the number 12 button to hide Acrobat & return to Motion's interface.

Hopefully my rather uninspired settings for the Jog Shuttle will inspire you to post some more usefull timesavers. If you would care to email me your settings I will attempt to compile a comprehensive list of settings & button assignments so that all motion users may benifit from our combined effort. You may also post how you are assigning the buttons for Livetype SoundTrack Compressor & Cinema Tools as well. I will be posting this notice on other Motion forums also in order to compile the experience of all users. I hope this does not prove to be an annnoyance.

All the Best

Dave Hardy
Vancouver B.C.
dhardy@mac.com

Hi Dave,

Thanks for you info. Maybe the Contour Jog Shuttle is also a good companion with my Wacom Tablet. Let me think about to get one too :-)

Many Thanks.
Antonio Hui

Could be Antonio. Just set it up on the side of the keyboard opposite from the hand that you use the tablets pen with. The shuttle in the other hand will speed your navigation around the the various windows & will do from a single button.

Peter Wiggins, who is one of the more experienced users of Motion has one of these units & I suspect when he sets his mind to setting Motion functions to his unit he will come up with some interesting combinations.

The unit ships with some default settings for using the unit in various Mac programs. These setting are just for demonstration purposes. There isn't a set of settings for Motion but the company provides an easy method so that you can set up your own. You can set up as many sets or banks of commands for any program on a Mac or PC. For example Apple's Mail program didn't have any settings, so I set up my own. Using Main became a much more pleasant experience. I suppose I could get used to using Safari without the Shuttle but I don't think I'd be a happy camper.

All the best.
Dave

Any thought about this product ? It's seem quit nice and the price is resonable.

[www.piengineering.com]

Antonio Hui

Thanks ever so much Antonio. That does indeed look to be a better mousetrap. I'm downloading the manual & I'm fairly certain that I'll be adding that baby to my must purchase list as it addresses the main reservation I've always had to the Contour unit , the insufficent number of buttons.

Yes you can switch sets with the Contour, but so much nicer to have a reasonable number on a single set.


Dave

Since you already have the Contour, you may consider the 58 key version for some cost saving...
[www.piengineering.com]
(I have it too :-)

...or wait for their 128 key version for more fun.
[www.piengineering.com]
(I just sign-in to their email list too.)

Antonio Hui

Thanks Antonio, looking furtherr at their web page I just arrived at the same conclusion.

Dave