How to apply the Photoshop CS3 Radial-Blur-Effect to 3D objects (or objects that are not “flat”).

Its well established that if you want to make a car’s wheels seem as if they are in motion, you apply the Radial Blur effect. However this does not work as well if the wheels are in perspective because the car was shot in an angle. Here is what to do to work your magic on wheels that are at an angle:

Step 1
using the Elliptical Marquee Tool select the area you want to work on.
You can further edit that area by using Select menu->Transform Selection.

Step 2
Create a new layer using: Layer menu->New->Layer Via Copy, call that layer “wheel”.

Step 3

Using free transform: Edit->Free Transform make the wheel round again, so it appear “flat”.
You might need to do that several times in order to achieve the full effect.

Step 4
Load the wheel as a selection by Ctrl/Cmd + clicking on the icon of the Wheel layer.

Step 5
Apply the Radial Blur effect by using: Filter->Blur->Radial Blur, make sure to check the “Spin” and “Best Options.


Step 6
Deselect the selection using: Select->Deselect
Step 7
Use Free Transform (the same one from step 3) to bring the wheel back to its original form.

Presto, now your “wheels are in motion”.

If the result seems “flat” you can use the Edit Menu>Transform>Wrap to duplicate some of the inner parts of the wheel to make it seem less flat. In the images below you can see that using several layers you can make the final product even more life-like.



One Responseto “How to apply the Photoshop CS3 Radial-Blur-Effect to 3D objects (or objects that are not “flat”).”

1. Free Mov says:

   April 4, 2010 at 8:02 pm

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