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[00:00] Are you a DIY filmmaker? Are you on the lookout for ways to maximize your productivity when planning and executing a short film? The Algala Stream Deck is here to help you out. At first you might think, isn't a stream deck only for live streamers? The answer,

[00:14] my dear filmmaker, is no. The stream deck family of customizable controllers can be tailored to fit your specific needs within a vast array of different programs. It's essentially a panel of

[00:26] programmable buttons which allows you to control any aspect of your computer at the touch of a button. So let's explore how the Stream Deck can become your new best friend. We'll break it down into two separate areas. Let's call them pre-production and post-production and discover

[00:40] how the Elgato Stream Deck can help you with each. Pre-production. Okay, this is where we'll go into how it can help you with everyday tasks like hopping on a production meeting Zoom call or crafting the perfect budget sheet. With the Stream Deck by your side, or rather in front of you,

[00:55] The often dreaded pre-production process can be streamlined so that you can get to the more enjoyable parts of production quicker and more efficiently. For my day-to-day workflow, I have set up a way that allows me to control Spotify, Zoom, Outlook, Word,

[01:08] and pretty much every other application I use on the daily with just the touch of a button. The Stream Deck helps me to quickly write up work emails and eagerly launch team communication apps such as Slack and Microsoft Teams. If, like me, you feel that your attention span characteristics are similar to that of a goldfish,

[01:25] Believe it or not, the Stream Deck can help with that too. Set up a focus breakout so that when you need to sit down without any distractions and hash out that script you've been putting off, the Stream Deck has you back. Quickly access things like YouTube channel analytics, Discord, Gmail, or quite literally any kind of organizational application you'd like to have at the touch of a button.

[01:44] Once your post-production tasks are all situated and you've gone out and the film dug is in, it's time for my favorite part of filmmaking, post-production. Before we dive into posts let dig a little deeper into the various options of productivity helpers that the Stream Deck family has to offer Elgato features many shapes and sizes to suit your desktop space and general preferences

[02:03] with accessories like Stream Deck MK2, Stream Deck XL, Stream Deck Plus, and the Stream Deck Mini. But can I only work with one Stream Deck accessory at a time? Once again, my friend, the answer is an enthusiastic no.

[02:17] We may utilize and map out as many Stream Deck accessories as you see fit for your workflow. To kick off my post-production demonstration, I've chosen to work with the Stream Deck Plus in Premiere because of these handy knobs on the lower part of the deck, which I will configure to my audio controls and mix sounds with ease.

[02:33] In tandem with the Stream Deck Plus, I'm also utilizing the Stream Deck XL, because why not? Now, let me give you a quick hotkey configuration tutorial to show you just how easy it is to customize the Stream Deck. First thing we're going to do is install the Stream Deck software on your computer.

[02:48] Hook up the Stream Deck Plus easily with the included USB-C to USB-C cable. When you launch the Stream Deck software, you will see your Stream Deck layout replicated within the application. Here's where you can really run wild with whatever custom shortcuts you desire.

[03:01] I'm going to make a Premiere-specific key profile in the Stream Deck app. There are, however, some convenient, downloadable, book-paid plugins available for the Stream Deck, but I'm going to show you how to effectively replicate what those plugins do for free.

[03:14] To do this, click on the drop-down menu underneath your accessory title. click on New Profile. A blank canvas of buttons will show up once again, only this time it has created a separate profile of keys. To rename this profile for our specific use case, click on that profile drop down menu once again and click Edit Profiles.

[03:32] A new window will appear displaying all of your profiles and attached stream drive accessories. Go to your freshly created profile, right click and select Rename. After you've renamed your profile, you can select which application you'd like this profile to correspond with in the right hand side of the window.

[03:47] In our case we want this profile to correspond with Adobe Premiere Pro Now go ahead and close that pop window Now we can get creative with our keys To begin mapping your go hotkeys with your Stream Deck click on the drop menu under System to the right of your digital Stream Deck keys layout

[04:02] Click and drag the hotkey option over whichever key you'd like to map. Every video editor has their own funky twist on personalized keyboard shortcuts, and I am no exception. One of my go-to hotkeys is the Enable slash Disable shortcut,

[04:14] which I have mapped to the keys of 4. To mirror this keyboard shortcut from from your screen to our stream deck hotkeys, click inside of the hotkey box while that hotkey we're working with is selected. The box will then say, observing keystrokes.

[04:26] So we're just going to type out a hotkey, which in this case is 4. The keystroke 4 is now assigned to that button on our stream deck, but it's ugly. There are many ways to change the appearance of your keys. One way to do it is by clicking on the little plus in the top left corner of the button

[04:41] preview. When we click this, the handy Stream Deck icon library pops up and gives you hundreds of custom icons to use on this button. Want more customization? No problem. Alternatively, click on the down one facing arrow on the top right corner of the button preview.

[04:56] Click Create New Icon and the Stream Deck will launch Elgato's online user-friendly key creator tool, which gives you the option to create different layers, select and edit pre-made key faces, and customize your buttons to whatever color you'd like.

[05:09] There is, however, one more way to customize your buttons if you are extra finicky about your creative customization like me. To create custom Stream Deck icons in familiar interface, launch Photoshop and create a canvas that is 288 pixels by 288 pixels.

[05:24] Absolutely go to town with whatever creative visual assets you'd like to use on the button you're customizing, and export that as a .cmp file. Return to the Stream Deck app, click on that top right downward facing arrow in the corner of the selected button preview and select set from file.

[05:40] Not forgetting about our Stream Deck Plus advantage, I'll also quickly show you how you can easily jump from configuring one Stream Deck key setup to another In your Stream Deck desktop app click on the drop down arrow to the right of the Stream Deck Excel title atop your Stream Deck keyboard map Here we can go from customizing our Stream Deck Excel to creating our Stream Deck Plus shortcuts

[05:59] using the same process as your Floproom. The Stream Deck Plus's configuration is only slightly different than the Excel's as it has these super cool LED screens and knobs at the bottom. Now that you have all the tools to build out your custom keyboard interface,

[06:12] your Prominer Pro editing workflow efficiency will skyrocket. The last post-production program I'll show you will be Blender. Now, we can easily configure separate custom key profiles for this in the same way we did for Premiere,

[06:25] but there is one more handy trick I'd like to show you. Have you ever been designing something in Blender, perhaps on your laptop computer, and realized that the default keyboard shortcuts can't correspond with your smaller built-in laptop keys?

[06:37] Do you ever find that the many default Blender keyboard shortcuts are simply not human-hand friendly, Particularly the move object along a specific axis shortcut which is Z plus Z plus control if you want to snap it.

[06:50] However, when you try to configure this hotkey with your Stream Deck, it only records the C command, leaving behind the subsequent X, Y, or Z commands. Here's a Stream Deck solution for this nerdy quandary. Open up your Stream Deck app and create a new profile the same way we did for our Premiere keys.

[07:05] We'll mouse this profile to launch with our Blender app. Right click on an empty key and select Create Multi-Action. multi-action. Drag and drop the hotkey option into the multi-action edit window and map it to the

[07:17] G command. After this, we can add another hotkey option for X, Y, or Z so that by hitting just one button on our stream deck, we can easily navigate moving our blender object on any axis we'd like

[07:29] with just the touch of one button. Okay, our stream deck deep dive is over. So what are your thoughts on integrating stream deck family into your workflow? What custom buttons and faces will you make with this digital mobile speed? Let us know in the comments below. I'm Lylee with B&H,

[07:44] be excellent to each other.