Textures!
You can create lots of interesting textures with Motion Blur. Here are a couple of ideas:
Start with a gray color gradient, and Add Noise (about 15, Gaussian on this 300 x 150 pixel example).
Add some Motion Blur with a Distance of about 65, and you get a nice brushed metal effect!
(Note that it gets a bit wonky around the edges, so you just want to use the part more towards the center for your texture).
Now try adding some more noise and Motion Blur at about 600 Distance. This produces a much more pronounced streaking effect:
Now bring up the Distort > Wave filter, and set the Horizontal and Vertical scale sliders very low, around 10%. Then play with number of generators and wavelength until you have an interesting gnarled look. Colorize it and there you are – instant wood! I wouldn’t use it for close-ups, but at a distance it really does the trick.
Motion Blur’s dizzy cousin – Radial Blur
A very similar effect can be found in the Radial Blur filter, which sometimes comes in handy for effects. In this picture I needed an interesting background for a candlelit room, but since the picture both on a tight deadline and also didn’t pay much I needed something that was quick yet dramatic. Radial Blur got the job done! First, I put in a gradient (lightest where the candle was), added Noise, then used the Pixelate > Crystallize filter. Crystallize is fun on top of Noise to increase the size of the streaks.
Then I brought up Radial Blur, and set it to the “Zoom” option (which makes it basically Motion Blur from the center). You can move the center (or starting point) of the effect to have it radiate out from where you need it. I set the Amount (which is equal to Motion Blur’s “Distance”) to 50.
Then I added in a layer of Clouds (Render > Clouds) to give it a sort of smoky look, and put my characters on top. What a bonanza!
There are probably a thousand other uses for this one effect type, but if this tutorial does nothing else, I hope it illustrates how any filter can do interesting things when combined with other filters. Just keep away from the obvious and you might be surprised!
Article by Patrick McEvoy.
