Intro
Heyo, Hika here.
In the quest to free my followers from my tinkerer's madness, I've made a tinkering blog column. Some things I'll end up talking about a lot include the optimization of my art process using—among auto actions and hotkey scripts—my current creative controllers, my TourBox and Stream Deck.
(Nope. Those aren't affiliate links. I'm not cool enough for that.)
But before I gush about them endlessly, I want to introduce you to every creative controller I've used before I arrived at my TourBox/Stream-Deck combo.
Why?
I feel like the art community is very immersed in video content. And, both video content and the creatives behind it are very much kept alive via sponsored partnerships and affiliate links. So, it's common for expensive (good, but expensive) tools to frequently be pushed towards us.
Also, I think artists, while we can be creative with our work, are not as creative about our tools as we could be. Typically, tech tools have to be explicitly marketed to us as useful for art and the creative process in order for us to see their value.
But, nah! You can have shortcut controllers for your art and writing for cheap, and with stuff you may already have on your desk or lying around your home. Just think outside the box!
To help your imagination, I will now proceed to show you every creative controller I've used leading up to my TourBox and Stream Deck purchases. Also, I'll share the different software I've used to make them use different shortcuts for different creative software and stuff like that.
Numpad
The humble numpad. Your current keyboard might even have one on it right now! If not, an external one should only cost you $20-25 online. That's 1/7th of a StreamDeck, or 1/8th of a TourBox.
If, in a specific software, you find yourself not using your numpad for anything, you might consider making it a bed of hotkeys, lowkey. You can achieve this by using software like AutoHotkey (Win).
(Word on the street is Mac people have Karabiner Elements and Keyboard Maestro, while Linux people have Keyd and AutoKey. I honestly wouldn't know. Please ask a friend [that isn't me].)
The idea is that you tell your hotkey software, "when I'm using Clip Studio Paint, make the + key a Save button."
Such a script would look like this (in AutoHotKey, at least. Mac and Linux friends, please check the documentation of the software you end up choosing):
#Requires AutoHotkey v2.0
#SingleInstance Force
; ----------
; Photoshop
; ----------
#HotIf WinActive("ahk_exe Photoshop.exe")
NumpadAdd::Send("^s") ; Save
NumpadSub::Send("^z") ; Undo
#HotIf
; ------------------
; Clip Studio Paint
; ------------------
#HotIf WinActive("ahk_exe ClipStudioPaint.exe")
NumpadAdd::Send("^s") ; Save
NumpadSub::Send("^z") ; Undo
#HotIfWithin a #HotIf block that starts by telling the software which program to be specific about (WinActive("ahk_exe Photoshop.exe"), you make a lot of Numpad0::Send("p") ; Pen tool-type lines.
On the left side of the ::, you put the actual IRL key you're pressing. You can see all the AutoHotkey names for those keys here. On the right, you put Send(""), with the pretend key that you want sent to the software, within the quotation marks. After ; and a space, you can write a note to yourself about what that keypress means. ;-space lets you write a comment that does not get read by AutoHotKey.
Certain keys like Space need the {}s around them, so: {Space}. You add ^ before a key for Control, so ^s means Control+S. Similarly, you put ! before for Alt, + before for Shift, and # before for the Win/Flag key.
When you're done making the commands you want, you save them as a .ahk file, then place it in your system startup folder. (Typing %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup into Explorer will get you there.) This way, the shortcuts will be on when you start your PC.
Starting in 2020, I had a fully decked out setup for this, with hotkeys for Clip Studio Paint, Autodesk SketchBook, Adobe Illustrator, and Photoshop. I tried to have the keys all do generally the same thing across software lest I confuse myself, haha. Don't forget to make cheat sheets so you know which button does what. After a while, you won't need your cheat sheet much anymore.
iPad and AndroidTab people (my iPad is a glorified eBook reader at this point; I'm so sorry), I think you'll just connect your numpad to your tablet as if it were any other keyboard. Then, for each app, you'll directly tell it "1 is this tool, 2 is this tool, + is this tool, - is that tool".
Programmable Keypad
Quite the step up, and a bit more out of the way than the common numpad is a programmable keypad!
A common format of programmable keyboard is QMK. QMK just means that it's a keypad with a common shared language for programming it. You'll also see them referred to as VIA keypads. Instead of a program transforming the keys for us, the keys you choose are baked into the device itself. Other keyboards use proprietary programming formats (you need to have their driver installed and running), like this HUION keypad.
I like to make my programmable keys the function keys. Specifically, F13-F24. Yep! They're real. Because they don't exist on most physical keyboards, they tend to not already be reserved by anything in programs, making them great for shortcuts. Add the fact that you can use them with any combo of Ctrl, Alt, and Shift means you get… 96 hotkey options? From F13-24? If I did my numbers right.
To program QMK ones, you plug one in and go to Use VIA. Here, you'll be presented with an interface that allows you to change what each key or nob does.
Because QMK/VIA can't be software-specific out of the box, you then tell each art software what you want each F13-24 key to do. TabletOS users will do this also. Alternatively, (computer/laptop only), you can use the AHK method above and make each F13-24 key translate to shortcuts you already have for each specific software (F13::Send("^s") ; Save).
Programmable Keypads kinda vary in price. $20, to almost as much as a StreamDeck or Tourbox would have cost you anyway. I got mine with the knobs on it for like $25-30, at the time. It's called the CV18 keypad. Each knob can be pressed down as an additional button. That's still 1/5th of a TourBox and 1/4th of a StreamDeck.
Again, you'll want to make some sort of cheat sheet for this method!
Gaming Controllers
This was a fun one. At the time, I couldn't really justify purchasing a CELSYS/Clip Studio Tabmate (currently $70 for the V1, and $99 for the V2). I could, however, afford a $20 (at the time) PlayStation Move Navigation Controller, AKA the PS Move Wii Nunchuck. From there, I used custom software that's currently outdated to connect it to my PC. (The current equivalents to said software are DsHidMini for wired connection and BthPS3 for Bluetooth).
I've also used one of those little 8BitDo controllers as a shortcut remote. Specifically the 8BitDo Zero, but any of them that feels good in the hand will do. (Mine isn't pictured because the battery turned into a Spicy Pillow.) TabletOS people will want to make sure the gaming controller they consider is compatible with their device. A lot of the non-console specific ones either are outright, or some nerd on YouTube has already figured it out for you.
Similarly, if you have some sort of console-specific gaming peripheral that feels good in the hand that you don't use, like a Nintendo Switch Joy-Con, look up how to get your computer or mobile tablet to be able to listen to it. Xbox controllers tend to work with Windows PC out of the box, but people have gotten Switch Joy-Cons to work with PC/Mac/iPad/AndroidTab already. (YouTube is your friend!)
Once you've got your game controller talking with your device, we gotta make it pretend to be a keyboard (and sometimes, also a mouse)! For PC, I recommend JoyToKey. When I was using the PlayStation nunchuck, JoyToKey allowed me to do cool stuff with the joystick, like rotate or pan around the canvas. >:3 Mac people, maybe GameController Mapper or Enjoyable (if it still works?!). Linux people want AntiMicroX. iPad people, you can map controller buttons to keyboard keys in the iPad settings. Android people, you want Mantis Gamepad Pro, which I have actually used… for gaming, but same difference. It's freemium, though. A free alternative is KeyMapper, which actually seems like a better match for artsy purposes.
Alright, time for cheat sheets forreal.
Cheat Sheets
Once you've got your less-expensive art controller set up, you'll likely need cheat sheets. You'll need to remember the intended purpose of each key. Doubly so if you make them do slightly different things per software. What we save in money here, we lose in TourBox's floating cheat sheets and the StreamDeck's button-screens.
Step 1 is just drawing up your cheat sheet. If the keypad or controller you got came with a PDF instruction manual, that's even better. You can just zoom in until it's high-res, then draw or use the text tool over it.
Here's a similar cheat sheet I made for the buttons on the side of my current tablet, just to give you an idea of how you can design your own controller cheat sheets.
Once you have your cheat sheets ready, I'd use something like PureRef to keep them on screen. You can choose to have it pinned on top of other windows, if you'd like.
Another option, for the keypads and numpads specifically, is custom stickers. For my programmable keypad, I used these Digital Artist Transfer Stickers onto the keycaps. If you have a sticker cutter, or know a friend who has one, you can ask them to make some solid shortcut stickers for you.
Outro
And, yeah! That's all, really.
I love my TourBox and StreamDeck to death. If you follow me, I've probably littered your timeline yapping about them as of late. I will proceed to yap about them here in the future. It just wouldn't sit right with me to yap about them without first telling you how I did the same exact thing—use shortcut remotes—for cheap. It's entirely possible! You don't need the expensive thing specifically marketed as an art tool. I actually think cheaper and more DIY ones are a great way to actually train yourself to use an alternate-hand device in your workflow before you invest big money in one of the more premium ones.
But yeah, that's all for now. More on the intersections of art and technology in the future. See ya!