Speed Effect in Photoshop

For this tutorial, you will need the image of a car or any other subject you want to apply the effect to.

1 - In Photoshop, open the image you chose. Then, “Duplicate” your Layer (Command/Control + J).

2 - Use the “Quick Selection Tool” (W) and start selecting the car or the subject you want to keep. Use the “Add and Subtract from Selection” buttons to refine your selection.

3 - If it gets a bit complicated, switch to the “Polygonal Lasso Tool” (L) and use the “Add to Selection” option to fix the missing spots.

4 - Use the “Subtract from Selection” button to clean the portions where the selection went too far.

5 - Keep alternating between both until your vehicle is selected. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just as close as possible since we will fix some details later.

6 - Click on the “Add Layer Mask” button at the bottom of the “Layers Panel” to mask your selection. You can hide the “Background” Layer to check if everything looks fine by clicking on the small eye icon on the left side of its Thumbnail.

7 - If your car had no driver in it, you can add one. Open the image of your subject and select the head and part of the torso with the Tool of your choice. “Copy” it (Command/Control + C) and “Paste” it on your original document (Command/Control + V). Resize it using “Free Transform” (Command/Control + T) and place it in the proper position.

8 - Erase any unwanted portion of the driver and try to match the colors of the original image. In our case, we duplicated it (Command/Control + J) and changed the duplicate’s “Blending Mode” to “Multiply”. Then, we selected both Layers, right-clicked on top of them and chose “Merge layers”.

9 - To finish up the “Mask” details, select it and use the “Brush Tool” (B) with Black as “Foreground” color to delete the parts that require it, like the view of the street through the car windows. Use the “Size” and “Hardness” that suits your needs. Turn Off your “Background” Layer to get a better view.

10 - Finally, with your Mask still selected, head to the “Properties Panel” and increase the “Feather” a bit (we used 0.5 px) to smooth the edges slightly. Then, select the “Car” and “Driver” Layers (Shift key), right-click on top of them and choose “Convert to Smart Object”.

11 - Duplicate the “Background Layer”, hold the “Command/Control” key while clicking on the “Smart Object” to make a selection, then go back to the Background Duplicate Layer.

12 - Next, go to Select > Modify > Expand… and input a value of 25 Pixels. Turn Off the “Smart Object” Layer visibility for now.

13 -To get rid of the car in this image, go to Edit > Fill (Shift + F5), use the “Content Aware” option and click “OK”. It doesn’t matter if the results are not perfect since the will be covered almost entirely by the car.

14 - Convert this layer into a “Smart Object” too and Turn On the visibility of the other one.

15 - Go to Filter > Blur Gallery > Path Blur… and choose “Basic Blur”. Use a “Speed” value of 300 a “Tapper” value of 0% and check the “Centered Blur” box. Select the “End Point” of the “Arrow” on top of your image and use a 0 px value for “End Point Speed”. Select the “Starting Point” of the “Arrow” and use a 499 px “End Point Speed” value. You can modify the “Arrow” to your liking by selecting its points and changing their position. Your “Arrow” should be pointing to the front of the car.

16 - Click on the “Noise” Tab and try to match the noise of the “Car” to the one in the “Background” (we used an “Amount” of 20%). Once you are done, click “OK” on the upper Menu.

17 - Select the “Car Smart Object” Layer and apply a “Path Blur” Filter to it. This time use “Real Sync Flash”, uncheck the “Centered Blur” box and use a “Speed” value of 100 a “Tapper” value of 15%. Your “Arrow” should be pointing to the back of the car and the “End Point” should be 160 px for “End Point Speed” and 15 px for the “Starting Point”.

18 - In the “Noise” Tab, make sure the “Amount” is 0%. In “Motion Effects” use a “Strobe Strength” of 30% and 1 “Strobe Flashes”.

19 - Click on “Spin Blur”, pull the circle on top of one of the wheels, resize it by clicking on the edges and apply a “Blur Angle” of 20°.

20 - To duplicate the circle, hold the “Alt/Option” key while dragging it to the side and place it on top of the other wheel. Once you are done, click “OK” on the upper Menu.

21 - Your Artwork should look similar to this.

by @lornacane