How to Create Effect of Rapid Movement in Photoshop

In this Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how you can create the effect of rapid movement using as an example a fast moving car.

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How to Create Effect of Rapid Movement in Photoshop

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Step 1

Start by opening photo on Photoshop. Duplicate layer with Ctrl+J. With Polygonal Lasso Tool selected cut out the car from the copied layer.
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Step 2

When you have car selected go to Select > Inverse and press Del. If you turn off the visibility of the layer with the photo you should have something like this:
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Step 3

Turn back on the visibility of the background layer. We’ll work with the background layer. Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur:
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How to Create Effect of Rapid Movement in Photoshop 4

Step 4

Select the car layer and duplicate it with Ctrl+J. Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur for the copied layer:
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Select the Eraser Tool with a soft-edged brush and erase the blurred layer in the hood area.
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Merge layers with the car by selecting both layers and pressing Ctrl+E.

Step 5

Now select the wheel rim area with the Polygonal Lasso Tool.
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Copy selection to a new layer by pressing Ctrl+J.
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Go to Edit > Transformer > Scale to scale the wheel rim to get something similar to my screenshot below.
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Go to Edit > Transformer > Warp.
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Still with wheel rim selected to go to Select > Load Selection. After that apply Filter > Blur > Radial Blur with following settings:
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Move wheel rim back to his place and apply Edit > Transformer > Warp again.
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Step 6

Repeat step 5 all over for the other wheel rim in the back. In the end, merge all layers except the background layer and we will have only two layers.
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Step 7

Duplicate car layer by selecting car layer and using Ctrl+J. On the new layer (Car Copy) go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur:
How to Create Effect of Rapid Movement in Photoshop 1
How to Create Effect of Rapid Movement in Photoshop 2

Step 8

Apply Edit > Transform > Skew to this layer:
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Step 9

Change blending layer mode to Dissolve.
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Step 10

Finally set Opacity for this layer to 10%.
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Step 11

Select Eraser Tool with a soft-edged brush and erase dust in the hood area and side of the car.
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Step 12

Duplicate layer with the car once more (Car Copy 2) and merge this layer with layer we’ve just been working on (Car Copy). As a result we get three layers: background layer, layer with the car and the layer with the processed car (it’s situated above others).
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How to Create Effect of Rapid Movement in Photoshop 8

Step 13

Select the top layer and go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur.
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Step 14

Change blending layer mode to Lighten.
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Step 15

Select the Eraser Tool with the soft-edged brush again and erase the exposed part in the hood area.
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Step 16

Merge all layers with the car and we will have again only two layers: background layer and car layer. Duplicate car layer using Ctrl+J and go to Filter > Liquify for the copied layer.
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On the end you should have something similar to what I have:
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Step 17

Change blending layer mode to Linear Dodge (Add).
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Step 18

Select the Eraser Tool with a soft-edged brush one more time and erase everything from the front side of the car.
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Step 19

Create a new layer on top. Go to Gradient Tool, select Transparent Rainbow (standard Photoshop gradient) and make sure option Linear Gradient is selected. Fill the new layer with this gradient.
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Step 20

Go to Edit > Transformer > Warp with the layer selected.
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Step 21

Select Eraser Tool with a soft-edged brush one more time and erase the gradient from the front side of the car.
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Step 22

Change blending layer mode to Overlay.
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Final Image

Create a new layer, assign Soft Light blending mode for it. Pick up a soft-edged brush and using the Brush Tool lighten the nearest headlight and the hood around the headlight and darken the edges of the image. To lighten we use white color (#ffffff), to darken – the black one (#000000). In the end, set the layer opacity down to about 30%.
How to Create Effect of Rapid Movement in Photoshop