Optimizing X-Keys For A Colorist Control Surface

Well-done, Patrick. I couldn’t live without my X-Keys panel. I figure I save about an hour a day with this thing, and you add that up over months, it’s a lot of time. I still think BMD could offer far more keyboard shortcuts for commonly-used operations. Previous Node/Next Node is high on my list.

Awesome! You probably know Patrick how the functions can be buried in submenus in the Tangent Wave. Now I know what to ask my wife for Xmas. 😉

Marc – You’re using the larger XKeys panel, yes? And are you using it with a control surface?

I agree, the shortcut opportunities added in R12 are nice but don’t go far enough. Basically, we need the ability to add shortcuts to everything a control surface can interact with – plus every single sub-panel in the UI. I should be able to program pulling up the Sat vs Sat curve with a button push.

It’s a terrific present to give yourself! If XKeys did endorsement deals, I’d endorse them 🙂

HUGE thanks for sharing. Gotta convert it to PC (Macroworks)

Yes, using an X-Keys 80 with an MC Color panel, though I don’t use all 80 keys. I agree, pulling up each of the Curves panels is something I use all the time — Hue vs. Sat in particular. Just bought a new 27″ monitor and now have to reprogram about 75 keys since all the coordinates have changed… 🙁

Great followup to Jason’s excellent Insight. I have the XKeys 24 which I use with my MC Color panel. I find X-Keys to be a great time saver as well, and in addition to Resolve I have functions for Avid and FCP X. Like Marc I have all the Curves mapped, although I’m going to load up your settings and explore using the double-punch function. I have taken the XKeys 24 on freelance jobs, but because of having to remap mouse clicks on different size screens, I’m now only using it on multiday gigs.

Very good of you to share. Thanks.

If you’ve downloaded my mappings for X-Keys prior to Dec 15, you *definitely* want to redownload them! There were a few quirks with my mappings (such as, switching from the Gallery to the Timeline would always advance you to the next still before making the switch). I figured out what was going on and solved them.

and I’ve hijacked your post! I added my initial mappings – while not as sophisticated as yours for variety people can try them out. Each button is labeled. I’ve also done some need toggling on a few. Thanks to Josh Petok for the help!

I ordered my own X-Keys 24 after reading this. And I’ve started playing around with Patrick’s mappings. Lots of good stuff in there
already. I love how the LED turns on when activating Loop mode or Highlight Mode. I’ll probably be keeping most of these mappings and add a few of my own.

I’ve been experimenting with a cycle action (so instead of a simple toggle that goes ON-OFF, I can have STATE1-STATE2-STATE3…with the sequential press of a single button).

For instance, I could use one button to cycle through the Media, Edit, Color and Deliver pages (though I like having a dedicated button for each page, so probably not the best example). I’ve done this for Patrick’s Reference Wipe Mode toggle, which toggled between GALLERY and TIMELINE. I now have the same button combination cycle through GALLERY-TIMELINE-OFFLINE. It’s nothing fancy really, just using a Counter Building Block (Calculation) and comparing the output to Constant Blocks. If anybody wants a detailed explanation I can do that.

Can you please explain how to show playback on second monitor.

Thx Greg

I’d be interested in details. andrew@seriousretouching.com

JRob (and anyone else who wants to share their mappings),

If you want, you can email me your mappings and I’ll place them at the end of this post as ‘Members Helping Members’. Just be sure to include a Read Me .txt so when people open your mappings they know how your mappings differ from what I show.

I’m still improving my mapping as I work with it. Maybe I’ll send it in a few days when I’m satisfied with it.

The first row is : Media – Edit – Color – Deliver
But I find I don’t switch pages that often so I might save those buttons for something else

The second row is for filters:
All Clips – Graded/Ungraded – Any Flag/No Flag – Common Media Pool Source.
The last two buttons pressed together cycle through the filters for each Flag color. I tend to use filters and flags a lot, so that’s my favorite row.

Row three is:
Cycle through Primary Tabs – Color Wheels page 1/2 – Cycle through Curves subpages – Cycle through other Secondary tabs
Another winner for me, though I might tweak it a bit.

The next two rows have two functions on each button. I use the bottom left button as a mode switcher (turns red or blue depending on which set of functions is activated):

Blue mode:
Disable Node – Disable all nodes – Bypass grades – Enhanced Viewer
Add Version – Prev Version – Next Version – Full Screen Viewer (not cinema)

Red mode:
Add node after – Add node before – Add Parallel – Add Outside
Add CPW – Add LPW – Add PPW – Add PCW

Having two functions per button isn’t as great as I thought. I tend to mix up the modes and call up the wrong function. Anyway, I’m so used to the keyboard shortcuts for these functions that I don’t find it that useful to move them to the X-Keys. I feel the X-Keys shines when doing things I can’t do with shortcuts or when programming multiple steps into one button.

Last Row is:
Red/Blue Mode (see above) – Cycle High Soft value to 0/25/50/75/100 – Highlight Mode – Custom Sat vs. Sat

The Cycle High Soft Value was a test of inputting numerical values into UI fields. I’ll probably use the same logic for other favorite functions.

The last button (Custom Sat vs. Sat) is very specific to one of the shows I’m grading. It’s shot partly in a sports arena and the saturation on the big LED screens and jumbotron always goes through the roof. That custom Sat vs. Sat curve lowers the saturation on those LED screens without affecting the rest of the image.