Is TourBox Worth it for Concept Artists?
What is a TourBox?
Here's my public thank you to Tourbox for gifting me their newest Tourbox Elite model. For the past four weeks, I was testing and reviewing a device that empowers creators like myself with an ergonomic way to paint without a keyboard or mouse.
It's a tool that is reminiscent of a 80s-90s gaming joystick, and what I like right off the bat about it is the very fact that makes work feel like a video-game, not just a video-game or a console, but the very golden age of games, the knobs and buttons remind of the old Japanese or Chinese made cheap consoles I was getting when I was a kid, where I would play so much and for so long, I would literally forget to eat or go to the bathroom. (That story is for another time, though.)
It feels like their marketing knows their stuff and it doesn't feel like an accident because their newest model has see-thru tech, another thing I really love about the aesthetics, as it reminds me of the old purple Gameboy Color by Nintendo, which I absolutely loved so much, for absolutely no reason other than it just gets a nice pleasing sensory feel to your eyes to be able to look at an item and see through them, and real-time understand how it's made, and how it's functioning without trying.
Is TourBox Worth It?
Anyway, after working with it for a bit, on and off, I found uses for it. I'm a big believer of technology not being shoved into anyone's business, as Silicon Valley's motto for the last decade seems to have been "The problem with the world is that I'm not making money off it, so here's an app that fixes that." But I digress - this, TourBox, is not that.
I did like how TourBox is superior to a keyboard, to change brush sizes on the go compared to the native Adobe Photoshop shortcuts, which are awkwardly assigned to [] by default, making it very awkward to access, specially, if you like myself, are a digital painter and a sculptor who benefits of having access to increasing and decreasing brush size as I work with the least effort possible, to mimic the feel of hands to clay and brush to fingers.
Changing brush size with the TourBox is as simple as turning a knob. I had assigned this to the Q and W keys for the past decade as a walkaround to Photoshop's clunky default shortcuts. You may think it's not very different, instead of a knob wound, you press a key, but if you're sitting and working on a piece for the whole day, the second you spend on using keys instead of a knob adds an extra and compounds, and by the end of the day, that has turned into minutes, or perhaps hours.
What To Expect From Your TourBox?
Because I was working on client work when reviewing it, and wanted to make it straightforward and efficient, there were times I did not use TourBox and relied on the workflow I was most efficient and comfortable with, which was keyboard and mouse, except for the brush size knob. Gradually, I was also assigning other shortcuts to it, such as the color picker.
I had the same problem with TourBox as I had with Photoshop; the shortcuts were made for the general public, not for me. Therefore, if someone finds the best brush size shortcuts (for some reason) to be [], I don't, and just as someone finds the Eraser tool to be assigned to the up arrow key on TourBox, I didn't.
There's something about the arrow up that signals to me that the tool you should access is something else, since, gamely speaking, the arrow up could be a zoom, or move the canvas upwards, or something else akin to an analogy you'd find in a game from the 80s-90s console, if anything would be easier to memorize. Arrow up = something is up; rather than something is erased.
This is, of course, opinionated and nitpicking, because, like I set custom keys in Photoshop, I would set custom keys in TourBox.
It may take you a few tries to really get the most out of TourBox, but it also took me a few tries to adjust to a digital pen from paper and pencil. This friction is normal and not the product fault. When I was starting with digital painting, I remember I was drawing better on paper than on digital.
The Vibe You Get from TourBox
The feeling I get out of Tourbox is that it is in fact productive, but what I was disappointed about it was also what I think makes sense they wouldn't have, is that you have to find a use for it, it won't tell you what to use it for; which may be hard to market, regardless if its useful or not.
One thing I'd enjoy was if it came with rechargeable battery, instead of needing external batteries, but I don't know how hard it would be to get that in the design, since a lot of mouses and keyboards also do not have this, nevertheless, could be a selling point, BUT they do get you a cable, which you can plug to your monitor and not have to use any batteries.
Overall, it's a beautiful wireless device. I feel like I'm more productive with a keyboard and mouse for some things and TourBox for other things, but that's already a sign that it's worth delving more into to find more uses for it and adjust it to work for me.
I had a friend who had the previous model, and they had some sound feedback on the knob and sliders. This one is silent, which I actually appreciate, because after a while, the last thing I want to hear is mechanical mouse clicks and keyboard feedback.
Who is TourBox For?
Overall, I believe that if you are starting, you'd benefit the most out of this, because you can set your workflow right away, but students and beginners often want to start lean, and with no extra tools so it could be hard to justify, the reason I say this is because if you get a workflow right for you early on, you make your transition from analogue to digital faster.
Overall, it took me less time to learn TourBox than it did to learn how to use a digital tablet, as the learning curve of the digital tablet felt clunky, and I felt like my best drawings were on paper rather than digital, for a while.
The settings can be customized through their own HUD, and if you work with video, design, and other software, they have their own settings to preload for those.
The only real issue I found with TourBox was that it wasn't faster than my process, but I could feel it was because I wasn't used to TourBox, and because I was working on a client project, I wanted to be efficient with deadlines.
It'll be easier to zoom, change brush size, brush pressure, and anything that requires an incremental adjustment of a setting, be it in Photoshop or other software, on TourBox than anything else, as it'll be easy to fine-tune details and have a clinical workflow.
The Pros and Cons of TourBox
I could see Tourbox be more useful for fine details as well, rather early visual development, as early mood paintings often benefit from rough, chaotic brushstrokes and linework to find a clear idea out of the mess, and TourBox seems to be less of a hammer and more of a scissor or syringe, but I have yet to confirm that with more experience.
When starting TourBox, I recommend patience and that you go with only what you need and feel most helpful to you, assign shortcuts as you work, and be ready to change them again; design your workflow to fit you.
When i started with photoshop digital painting, I assigned the increase/decrease brush keys from [] to Q and W because I was used to gaming and my fingers would rest on those parts of the keyboard most often, so it didn't take much meditating on what keys to assign to this, but rather, i knew it was the obvious choice without thinking. The same goes for TourBox.
I feel it's a wonderful piece of technology, it just could find the sweet spot of selling something useful to you, which you can mold to yourself and your needs, rather than tell you that it is useful for everything.
If I had a recommendation for them, I'd recommend picking one specific thing to market to that TourBox does better than any other tool, and then incrementally go from there.
Do I Recommend TourBox as a Concept Artist?
All these settings can feel overwhelming, but so does Photoshop or any other tool at first.
Beyond Photoshop, I heard it is very, very good for video editing, but that is something I haven't done since college.
Drum roll! Do I recommend it?
For office work, where I have my Wacom Cintiq, a keyboard, a mouse, and two monitors, it does feel like an extra productivity asset, but not wholly necessary, where do I see it really shine, would be for whenever I travel and work, and digital nomad, where you don't always have the space to have multiple keys beyond your laptop, this would definitely be a must have. So if you work with laptops and want to scale your productivity, or just want to augment your capabilities during travel, I'd definitely see it as useful.
I cannot wait for the contract that allows me the room to book a surf trip and work from the tropics, and to take TourBox with me!
TourBox stressed that they’d like constructive criticism, and this has been my constructive feedback for them.
You can find TourBoxes for sale on their website.
About the Author
Miguel Nogueira is a senior concept artist specializing in games and film. With extensive experience in concept art, design strategy, and marketing, he blends creativity and strategy to deliver compelling visual experiences. His work goes beyond art and design to create meaningful artistic discourses.
Find more of Miguel’s work here.