Gauging interest in pen tool tutorial

Discussion and help related to Adobe video software goes here. e.x. Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, etc.

Postby Gepetto » Fri Sep 01, 2006 2:20 pm

I, for one, can hardly wait to see it ready. I have nightmares with the pen tool in AE, only to awaken sweating cold and screaming in the middle of the night, waking up my neighbors and family. A well-written tutorial can make all that pain and suffering go away as if it were magic.
And God spoke unto the Chicken, and He said: "Thou shalt crosseth the road", and the Chicken did cross the road, and there was much rejoicing.
My DeviantART profile
User avatar
Gepetto
Mr. Poopy Pants
 
Joined: 10 Jun 2004
Location: The Tokyo Settlement
Status: Bored to tears

Postby DriftRoot » Fri Sep 01, 2006 3:39 pm

Gepetto wrote:I, for one, can hardly wait to see it ready. I have nightmares with the pen tool in AE, only to awaken sweating cold and screaming in the middle of the night, waking up my neighbors and family. A well-written tutorial can make all that pain and suffering go away as if it were magic.


Nightmares? You poor thing! :shock: Drift will make it all better, promise!

Mind, my tutorial will be for Photoshop only, I haven't played around with AE's pen tool enough to confidently whip up a tutorial on that program - or even know whether one is needed. AE users - are there any weird functions the pen tool in AE has that it doesn't have in regular graphics programs?

I guess the positive feedback means a pen tool guide is needed and welcome at a-m-v.org. I'm swamped with other work right now, but my schedule will be clearing up towards the end of the month, so look for a tutorial around early October. It's pretty much already written, I just need to set up the documents and get the graphics together. I'll probably need a few beta testers to run through a text-only version and make sure it all makes sense, though. Watch for a thread on that in a few weeks. Thanks everybody!
User avatar
DriftRoot
 
Joined: 09 Jun 2003
Location: N.H.
Status: As important as any plug-in.

Postby Warpwind » Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:44 pm

I for one am rather attached to the pen tool in photoshop. I had always assumed it just wasn't available in premiere... but to hear it is present in after effects is interesting. I shall have to investigate further. To be honest I was a little afraid of AE I just assumed it was difficult to learn and something I didn't want to beat my head against the desk with. I might get hold of a trial version and... try it out.
User avatar
Warpwind
 
Joined: 07 Oct 2002
Location: middle of the desert

Postby Gepetto » Sat Sep 02, 2006 8:15 pm

Photoshop's pen tool and AE's are probably alike, no? They're both Adobe programs for image editing (after all, video is just a sequence of images). I wouldn't be surprised if they just ctrl+c'd and ctrl+v'd the command lines when writing the softwares. :lol:
And God spoke unto the Chicken, and He said: "Thou shalt crosseth the road", and the Chicken did cross the road, and there was much rejoicing.
My DeviantART profile
User avatar
Gepetto
Mr. Poopy Pants
 
Joined: 10 Jun 2004
Location: The Tokyo Settlement
Status: Bored to tears

Postby Zarxrax » Sun Sep 03, 2006 8:59 am

After Effects is the same, except is has an additional "rotobezier" mode where it defines the curves automatically.
User avatar
Zarxrax
 
Joined: 01 Apr 2001
Location: Concord, NC

Postby DriftRoot » Wed May 09, 2007 5:41 pm

*BUMP*

All right, here you go everyone It's Going to Be All Write: An AMVer's Guide to the Pen Tool is finally done and available for use. Many thanks to the guinea pigs who helped review/test the little bugger (or not so little) and to dokidoki for becoming one such rodent in the final hour.

For those unaware, last fall I asked if anyone 'round here would like to see a comprehensive guide to the Photoshop pen tool and why AMV editors should be using it to make their lives easier. The answer was yes, so instead of finishing an AMV, I've been doing this for the past seven months (with a huge break mid-year to complete some schooling, change careers and move 250 miles north).

Because the guide contains a good number of Flash videos, you must have the latest versions of both Adobe Reader and Macromedia Flash to access all of the tutorial's features. More details are found in the document itself. If problems arise with video playback, please contact me before you complain to the a-m-v.org admins about a broken guide being posted on this site. Chances are that your system is the problem, not the guide. I am happy to help with whatever I can before handing you off to the pros at Adobe.com.

Anyways, enjoy! :D
Image
ImageImageImage
User avatar
DriftRoot
 
Joined: 09 Jun 2003
Location: N.H.
Status: As important as any plug-in.

Previous

Return to Adobe Software

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests