Navigate Your Keyframes Within a Clip

If you have laid out several keyframes (maybe for audio levels, opacity, a motion parameter or some filter parameters) on a clip and want to move from keyframe to keyframe in order to make some tweaks, use OPT K (to go to the previous keyframe) or SHIFT K (to go to the next keyframe)

Now before you get too excited about the possibilities here, there is a pretty serious caveat:  when using these shortcuts on the timeline, you can only do this within a clip that has been selected–that is to say, you can’t just surf keyframes, on all tracks and clips, up and down the timeline (though I think it would be nice if you could). Note that these also work in the Viewer and Canvas and that’s acutally pretty handy and where they wil really come in handy.

The ideal use for this shortcut is a scenario where you have keyframed some motion or filter parameters and are trying to tweak them to perfection without changing the timing. You are likely to be working in the Viewer or Canvas, so being able to quickly and cleanly snap from keyframe to keyframe in a nice timesaver.

The fact that this shortcut uses K (for Keyframes) makes it easy to remember, but I find the OPT/SHIFT thing to be a bit harder to remember. Since I use my right hand for the K keystroke and left hand for the OPT or SHIFT, the fact that the modifier used for moving to the left is the rightmost of these two on the keyboard (and vice versa) is a bit counter-intuitive, so I tend to remember this by thinking of “downshifting” in a car:  the SHIFT modifier takes you down the timeline.

Anther related tool that is very useful in dealing with keyframes is the ability to “Toggle Clip Keyframes” via OPT T.  If you want to reposition various keyframes easily without having to open clips in the viewer, this one’s a winner.