We complete our look at automation in creative apps with the Adobe Creative Suite. This is not meant to be a comprehensive or complete list, only a helpful reference guide to common automated processes.

PREMIERE PRO (version CS 5.5 and earlier)
Auto Color
FUNCTION: adjusts contrast and color by neutralizing the midtones and clipping the white and black pixels
LOCATION: Effects > Adjust

Auto Contrast
FUNCTION: adjusts the overall contrast and mixture of colors, without introducing or removing color casts.
LOCATION: Effects > Adjust

Auto Level
FUNCTION: automatically corrects the highlights and shadows. (NOTE: Because Auto Levels adjusts each color channel individually, it may remove or introduce color casts).

LOCATION: Effects > Adjust
Auto Save
FUNCTION: automatically saves backup copies of your opened projects at regular intervals while you work.
LOCATION:
(Windows) Edit > Preferences > Auto Save
(Mac OS) Premiere Pro > Preferences > Auto Save

Automation Keyframe Optimization
FUNCTION: automatically removes redundant audio keyframes.
LOCATION: (Windows) Edit > Preferences > Audio   (Mac OS) Premiere Pro > Preferences > Audio

Auto-Scrolling
FUNCTION: automatically scroll a sequence when it is wider than the visible area in its Timeline panel.
LOCATION: (Windows) Edit > Preferences > General (Mac OS) Premiere Pro > Preferences > General

PHOTOSHOP (version CS 5.5 and earlier)

Auto Color Correction
FUNCTION: these options control the automatic tone and color corrections available in both Levels and Curves. It also controls the settings for the Auto Tone, Auto Contrast, and Auto Color commands.
LOCATION: Alt-click (Windows) Adjustments panel > Auto button Option-click (Mac OS) Adjustments panel > Auto button

Auto Blend Layers
FUNCTION: applies layer masks as needed to each layer to mask out over ‑ or underexposed areas or content differences.
LOCATION: Edit > Auto-Blend Layers

Auto-Align Layers
FUNCTION: automatically align layers based on similar content in different layers, such as corners and edges.
LOCATION: Edit > Auto-Align Layers

AFTER EFFECTS (version CS 5.5 and earlier)
Auto-Orientation
FUNCTION: this command (which can be used for each layer) specifies how its orientation depends on motion paths, points of interest, and cameras.
LOCATION: Layer > Transform > Auto-Orient (CTRL + ALT + O)

Auto-trace
FUNCTION: convert the alpha, red, green, blue, or luminance channel of a layer to one or more masks
LOCATION: Layer > Auto-trace

Auto-keyframe
FUNCTION: a property automatically activates its stopwatch and adds a keyframe at the current time.
LOCATION: Animation > Add [x] Keyframe, where [x] is the name of the property you are animating.

Auto Level
FUNCTION: this effect maps the lightest and darkest values in each color
channel in the image to white and black, and then redistributes the intermediate.
LOCATION: Edit > Preferences > Auto-Save (Windows)  After Effects > Preferences > Auto-Save (Mac OS)

Auto Color
FUNCTION: this effect adjusts the contrast and color of an image after analyzing
the shadows, midtones, and highlights of the image.
LOCATION:Effects > Color Correction > Auto Color

Auto Contrast
FUNCTION: this effect adjusts the overall contrast and mixture of colors
LOCATION:Effects > Color Correction > Auto Color

Auto Save
FUNCTION: automatically saves backup copies of your opened projects at regular intervals while you work.
LOCATION: (Windows) Edit > Preferences > Auto Save (Mac OS) After Effects > Preferences > Auto Save

Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of Eric’s series.

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Eric Wise

Eric Wise is an industry veteran with over 20 years of experience and extensive knowledge of all aspects of video post-production. He twice received a Regional Emmy Nomination for editing two well regarded television shows. He currently lives in San Francisco and freelances for some of the biggest and most innovative companies in the Bay Area. He is also the founder and CEO of Splice Vine - "The Unconventional Video Editing Resource Blog."

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