As a motion graphics designer and video creator, I find myself spending loads of my time watching Vimeo videos. Often times when I should be working. (Sorry Eri) There is one thing that drove me absolutely crazy about the Vimeo player playback. It seemed as though there was no way to view Vimeo videos frame by frame. I was used to this feature, as it’s available in all of my video editing software, as well as the Quicktime player I was brought up with. Going frame by frame has also been ingrained in me given the vast amount of “Frame F*ing” clients I’ve had in the past. You know who you are.
Simply loading a Vimeo video, pausing it, and using the left and right arrow keys jumps the video player forward and backward in one-second intervals, instead of the desired single frame. For years, I dealt with it thinking that this was just the way it was. But, a recent revelation has shed light and shown me the way to the Vimeo Holy Land!
A couple of weeks ago, I was perusing Vimeo. I had paused a video (probably because it wasn’t loading quick enough!) and for some reason, I thought to myself “Let’s see what happens when I hold keyboard keys down while using the arrow keys.” Boom! Just like that, I had stumbled onto the answer of how to view Vimeo videos frame by frame. Shift! The left and right arrow keys and shift!
Try it for yourself with the video below! To advance Vimeo videos frame by frame, press play on a video and let it start playing and loading. Next, pause the video, and with the Shift key held down use the left and right arrow keys to watch the video frame by frame. It’s that easy.
Do you know of any other Vimeo player tricks? or any video player tricks for that matter? Let us know in the comments!
