The Pen tool can be found in many Adobe applications and they way it works can sometimes be a little different. Colin Smith will take you through the similarities and differences with the Pen tool in Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop and After Effects. Colin also talks about AICB, what it means and why you should use it.

The measurement tool in Photoshop CS5 Extended can accurately measure distance, area and angels in your image but did you know that you can customize the scale that you measure? Colin will show you have to use these tools and accurately measure the height of our stand-in criminal Karl Miller. Also covered will be out to print our 1:1 so that measurements can be taken from printed outputs.

Go beyond the default settings for importing audio in Premiere Pro and control if all audio is imported as mono, stereo or 5.1. Colin will show you how do take control of all your imported audio and how to change and remap the output setting for each clip in your project. He’ll also show you the difference between Track keyframes and Clip keyframes and hot to use fader automation to create them.

Time Remapping, or “Speed Ramps” in some programs, is a visually dynamic editing technique that we can’t seem to get enough of these days. Premiere Pro has a unique and powerful way to control not only the speed changes, but also the transition from one speed to another. See how easy it is to create and edit time changes directly in the timeline and how to copy and paste this same keyframes right into After Effects. As an added bonus we’ve included Timewarp in After Effects which allows you to create new intermediate frames with the ultra smooth Pixel Motion effect.

No need for expensive contact lenses, we’ll show you how to use the incredible planar tracker in mocha AE to track your eyes, export them as a Mocha shape layer and apply effects in After Effects to create that “white iris of the zombie” look. Another added feature in this episode is how to use Refine Matte to control the feather, spread and choke of the mocha shape layer. This effect gives you control of how much of the original iris shows around the edge stopping the new white iris from blending into the rest of the eye.

In working with a large multi project, it can be time consuming to try to keep all the dialog the same volume. This episode will show you the power of Match Volume which allows you to designate one track as the perfect volume and have all the others match it including a report that tells you how many dB’s (plus or minus) each track was changed.

If you’ve ever had to edit numerous audio files one by one, then this episode is going to make you happy. We’re going to show you how to Batch Process as many files as you want out to different formats including sample type, format settings and and the same time, apply any process that you’ve saved as a favorite! In our example we’ll Stretch and Pitch so each file will end up with the exact same length regardless how long the original recording was.

This episode is for all the After Effects users who want to easily get their audio from the timeline into Audition for editing and multitrack composition. We’ll start with some on location sound and show you now to create a new multitrack version that includes free sound effects from Resource Central which is built in to Audition.

Audition has been the king of noise reduction ever since its introduction from Adobe but sometimes cleaning up noise can be difficult when the background noise overwhelms the foreground audio. If you’ve ever experienced one of these problematic files where removing the noise introduces other artifacts like a “burbly background”, then this episode will help you understand powerful settings like Spectral Decay Rate and Smoothing that help control those artifacts and just remove the noise.

One of the easiest ways to increase the quality of your videos is to have good audio. In this episode of No Stupid Questions, Colin Smith gives you an introduction to noise reduction using Adobe Audition CS5.5

Part two on how to hide someone’s face in a video, this time we’re using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5. If you need to obscure an element in a video, like a face or unlicensed product, this episode will demonstrate how it’s done using a track matte key and Premiere Pro’s built-in effects.

Part three on how to hide someone’s face in a video, this time we’re using Adobe After Effects CS5. If you need to obscure an element in a video, like a face or unlicensed product, this episode will demonstrate how it’s done using an adjustment layer and After Effect’s built-in effects.

Colin’s back showing off how fantastic his Z800 workstation performs with the new Adobe 5.5 software. In this episode he shows you how to send a complete Premiere Pro sequence to a multitrack project in the new Adobe Audition 5.5. From there he shows how you can add effects to individual clips, or complete tracks with lots of built-in effects or support for VST and AU plug-ins. Once complete, this project can be send back to Premiere Pro CS5.5 or exported to OMF or Final Cut Pro XML.

There are times when you need to publish a video but hide a portion from view. Many times it’s someone’s face that gets blocked out by pixelating the area around it. This demonstration shows you how you can use the Extended version of Photoshop to import a video and add a non-destructive blur layer that follows someone’s face anywhere in the frame. The final result can be output to any video format or individual still images so you can guarantee no will ever know who was under that blur.

Photoshop is the perfect place to create and import complex 3D models, light them, animate them and output mind blowing creations. This demonstration will show you how easy it is to create a texture that uses animated layers that play back directly on 3D models and react to lights, environments and more.

Trying to remember where all your files are by filename alone is a losing battle with hard drives that hold hundreds of thousands of files. Metadata can help narrow your searches by allowing you to embed unique information about each file. Adobe Bridge will allow you to apply Metadata templates to thousands of files automatically so you can get started organizing your files today.

Adobe Bridge includes a powerful feature that allows you to output PDF’s using the built-in Output module. This often overlooked feature makes create contact sheets, full-page outputs, and other layouts a breeze using ready made templates or even customized design. You’ll also see how to overlay transparent watermarks for image protection and branding.

Watch how Illustrator and After Effects can be used together to create organic animations using simple masks copied and pasted between the two applications. Also see how the Twirl tool in Illustrator can be used to distort paths and make it look as if “tendrils” are growing outward. This all comes together in After Effects by setting the first vertex and ensuring your blended masks don’t flip inside out.

Adobe InDesign CS5 is the perfect tool to use when authoring books and this demonstration will introduce you to a simple technique that ensures the cover of your ePub will look exactly like the original artwork including rich typesetting, drawn objects and images. By placing and InDesign document into an existing InDesign document, you bypass the inherent restrictions of the ePub format and your book cover looks fantastic no matter what device you use. Special thanks for Colin Fleming for creating this fantastic technique.

Live Trace is one of Illustrator's most unique features but sometimes the vector result contains small unwanted artifacts. This tutorial shows you how to use Photoshop layers in combination with Illustrator Live Trace to fine tune the final vector result to give you gorgeous, transparent results with very little effort and still maintain complete control.

We've all heard the term ""Ken Burns Effect"", but do you know that this random effect will sometimes zoom into areas you don't want to zoom into? This tutorial will show you how to easily import images and give you complete control to pan, zoom, and travel across images to create customized dynamic slideshows that you can output to Blu-ray, DVD or any device. The ease and power of this tutorial comes from using custom presets for motion and effects in Premiere Pro CS5; a feature that many users tend to miss.

Have you ever tried to create a complex motion path in After Effects? This tip will show you just how well Illustrator and After Effects communicate using a simple copy and paste to the clipboard and transfer illustrations to motion paths in After Effects! Now you can make Illustrator's powerful drawing tools work as motion path creation tools in After Effects.

Getting the most out of Photoshop performance means understanding what settings are the best for you. This tutorial will show you what settings to use for different workflows, from large high resolution images to smaller multi-layered Photoshop compositions. Photoshop is doing a lot of work behind the scenes to manage memory and disk space and this presentation will shine a light on that process and illustrate best practices for all users. Special thanks to Russell Williams, Principal Scientist at Adobe, for technical guidance.

This tutorial will show you how to create great looking type by applying Illustrator art brushes to your text. Learn how to keep your newly decorated text editable and how to prevent the art brushes from distorting along the text path.

Learn how to use Photoshop CS5 Extended to remove wide angle lens distortion from high definition video footage shot with a DSLR camera.

Have you ever tried to import a graphic into Microsoft Powerpoint, only to discover the areas of the image you expected to be transparent have been replaced by a solid white background? In this episode, Colin shows how to export Adobe Illustrator graphics with transparency using the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format.

Learn how speed the process of photo restoration using the Spot Healing brush and Content-aware Fill.

Make your DVDs and Blu-ray discs more dynamic by using After Effects to create live, dynamic menu transitions. An added benefit is this technique uses Adobe’s Dynamic Link technology so any changes you make in After Effects is instantly updated in Encore - no need to render!