Getting To Know The El Gato Stream Deck Part 2

Day 3: 24 Insights in 24 Days 2018 New Year Marathon

Taking the Stream Deck to the next level

I’ve made no secret of my love for the Elgato Stream Deck. When I first discovered the product, I immediately saw its potential to help colorists work faster and smarter. Since then, I’ve been using it myself and recommending it to other colorists.

After convincing Robbie to buy one for himself, he published a fantastic insight giving a broad overview of the Stream Deck. Unfortunately, there was one big disadvantage: The Stream Deck is designed for gamers, not colorists. A lot of its built-in functionality isn’t things colorists will use. Our main focus is on its ability to hit hotkeys, and to launch external programs – and it’s that ability to launch an external program that can really open up the Stream Deck’s potential..

Autohotkey and Stream Deck

In Part 1, we introduced autohotkey, an open source scripting language designed to build keyboard and mouse macros. In this Insight, I’m going to show you ways to use autohotkey to take that functionality to the next level. Each autohotkey script can be instantly launched from the Stream Deck, and can not only can you take control of your mouse and keyboard, but you can actually do logic and file I/O for saving settings or values.

Weather you use a Stream Deck, or any other macro controller capable of launching external programs – I’ll give you an overview on how to use autohotkey to unleash the full potential of advanced macros for color grading work.

About Stream Deck 2.0 Public Beta

While originally designed as a gaming peripheral – Elgato has recognized the potential of the Stream Deck for professional workflows, and has recently released a public beta of Stream Deck 2.0. This release includes new features squarely aimed at professionals like colorists. Specifically, they’ve added smart profiles to use the Stream Deck with multiple applications, and the ability to combine multiple Stream Decks to expand the number of buttons available.

Links & Bonuses

• Download 3 Scripts – For Premium members, I’ve made the 3 scripts explained in this Insight available as examples for you to download. Just keep in mind – these scripts are tuned to my specific machine, and my specific display resolution (I’ve tested against 1920×1080 and 2560×1600); they may not work on all systems right out of the box but if you have Resolve set to fullscreen, in my testing the menus don’t change much from resolution to resolution. Still, you might need to adjust some mouse coordinates and delay times to optimize them for your system. Consider these as examples to help you get started more quickly.For Premium members, the download link for the scripts is below the video.
• Stream Deck 2.0 Public Beta – As with all beta software, back up your profiles before upgrading, and upgrade at your own risk. If you are in the middle of crucial projects, I would hold off on upgrading until you have time to troubleshoot any issues that may come up.
• Visual Studio Code – Microsoft Visual Studio code is my preferred editor for Autohotkey scripts.

Enjoy and leave comments or examples of your scripts in the comments below!

-joey