The metal flow and the strain distribution is investigated for the steady state and non-steady state bulk deformation processes by using an improved visioplasticity method which includes the effective smoothing scheme. The comparison of various smoothing schemes leads to the selection of the five- point least square smoothing method which is employed to reduce the measurement errors. As a steady state forming process experiments are carried out for axisy- mmetric forward extrusion through conical and curved dies of various area reduc- tions using Aluminum and steel billets. Axisymmetric backward extrusion is chosen for a nonsteady state forming process. In axisymmetric forward extrusion the results from visioplasticity show that the curved die of a fourth-order polynomial renders more uniform distribution of strain rates and strains. Higher reduction leads to greater strain rates at the outer side of the billet. The visioplastic observation for axisymmetric backward extrusion as a non-steady state deformation process shows the concentration of higher strain at the inner wall of the extruded product. The visioplastic results in forward extrusion are in agreement with the computed results by the finite element method. It is thus shown that the visio- plasticity combined with a smoothing technique is an effective method to determine the pattern and the distribution of strain rates and strains.