Video editing: It’s not a game, but you can still apply your mad gamepad skills to make it much easier

 

 

As tinkerers ourselves, we're pretty partial to a good hardware hack around these parts. Few things are cooler than taking a piece of hardware, using it to do something its creators likely never even imagined, and best of all making it do so really well. So when a video by Eugene, Oregon-based video producer and color grader Casey Faris crossed our desk today, we knew straight away that we'd have to try it out for ourselves. And once you've watched it, you'll probably want to do the same!

Faris, whose YouTube channel is packed to the gills with video editing tutorials, tips and tricks, outdoes himself with one of his latest geek-friendly clips. Sure, it's not hacking in the purest sense of the word, but in the six-minute short he demonstrates how he's repurposed a video game controller as an extremely intuitive and quick-to-use interface for Adobe Premiere.

And best of all, the exact same techique -- which Faris runs you through after showing you how his own setup works -- isn't just suited to Premiere, video editing, or even to Adobe's apps. Using the same software Faris did, you should in fact be able to use an old game controller for any app which provides a reasonable degree of keyboard shortcut control -- and that's most of the big ones.

It's really only a matter of choosing which functions make sense to use on the controller, then configuring the relevant key presses to be triggered when the correct button or control is activated. And for bonus points, Faris also shows you how you can extend the controller's utility far beyond what you might expect given the limited number of buttons even on sophisticated gamepads. (Spoiler alert: It involves using some keys to remap the others differently.)

When you're done with the video, which you'll find embedded above, we highly recommend checking out Faris' YouTube channel for some more great ideas from a video editing pro!

(via FStoppers)