My Nostromo/Photoshop/Manga Studio Wrap-Up

I've been babbling for the last month about my Razer Nostromo and the new setup. If you missed it, the Nostromo Razer is a gaming pad with lots of keys on it.I've mapped these keys to functions in Manga Studio and Photoshop so that I don't have to look away from my Cintiq screen and reach for a keyboard, I can use they keypad. The idea is to make my workflow faster and easier. (Thanks to George Coghill for the tip on getting it, and my brother David for buying it for me for Christmas.)

What I wound up doing was having the Razer window open as I used each program and assigned keys as I needed them, rather than try to guess which commands I would use frequently. And I tried to make my commands the same across both programs, though I have separate templates for each. That way, if the zoom commands are different keys in both programs, I can make the same key on the Razer activate the same function.

I also used the D-pad by my left thumb to be key commands, too. I've tried to reserve this for less-used commands and some file commands (save, open) rather than actions.

If you're a super-geek, here's what I wound up with:

Photoshop

01 - Magic Wand
02 - Shift (so it's easy to select multiple areas)
03 - Deselect
04 - Invert Selection Area
05 - Expanded Fill (a Photshop action that takes the selected area, expands it my two pixels and fills that area)
06 - Pencil/Brush tool
07 - Eyedropper
08 - Switch Foreground and Background color
09 - Regular Fill
10 - Contracted Fill (like 05 above, but it reduces the area by two pixels)
11 - Undo
12 - Select All
13 - Cut
14 - Paste

Scroll Pad - Zooms in and out of the screen

Space - Command
Left Alt - Hides Selection (Command-H)

The D-Pad controls Save, Open. amd Delete.

Manga Studio

01 - Magic Wand
02 - Shift (so it's easy to select multiple areas)
03 - Deselect
04 - Contracted Fill
05 - Expanded Fill (a Photshop action that takes the selected area, expands it my two pixels and fills that area)
06 - Pencil/Brush tool
07 - Marquee Tool
08 - Marquee Tool
09 - Rotate Canvas Cunter-Clockwise
10 - Rotate Canvas Clockwise
11 - Undo
12 - Select All
13 - Cut
14 - Paste

Scroll Pad - Zooms in and out of the screen

Space - Command
Left Alt - Hides Selection (Command-H)

The D-Pad controls Save, Open. amd Delete.

I'm a fan of this set-up. If you're looking to become a power user on the graphics side, I'd recommend checking it out.