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Superfast Running Effect in Adobe After Effects 5.5 - A Tutorial
Other tutorials: Cloning | Blasters using the Beam Effect
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Page 4 - Motion Blur
The final step is the Motion blur. This is also the most difficult part.
The first of the duplicated clips doesn't need any motion blur, because what came off the camera was plenty. But, the other frames are supposed appear as if the actor is moving VERY fast. What makes this difficult is that you can't blur the entire image, only the actor needs the blur. So, you have to mask the actor to remove the background.
Bring the playhead on the timeline back to the frame for the second duped clip (channel 7). Double click on this clip to open it. Make sure that the playhead is sitting on 19;19. If it's not, move it there. Then click on the Pen tool.
Use the pen tool to trace around your actor point by point. It doesn't need to be exact, but the closer the better. Make sure that the last place you click is the same place you started so you close the mask. When it's finished the mask should look like this:
Now that the mask is in place, we need to apply the motion blur. Right click on the clip in the timeline, go to "Effect/Blur & Sharpen/Directional Blur". You will then see a dialog box like this:
This dialog shows the settings needed for this clip. Set yours up accordingly.
Now your actor will look like this:
No you'll need to do the same thing with the clip in channel 5. You also need to do the exact same thing to the clips used for the 'run back' (channels 4 and 3), except that the actor is moving the other direction so the blur needs to be set to +90 instead of -90. (well, duh)
The only thing left to do now is make use of the extra background layer you made on the 2nd page. The reason for this is that the actor runs behind that wall, and the blur looks weird if that wall gets mixed in with it. So, you had create a layer of that wall in front of the actor clips. Now you have to draw a mask around the wall to knock out everything except what you need. Since, I've already covered masking and stuff here, you should already know how to do that. But, this is what the clip should look like:
When the whole thing is done, your timeline should look like this:
Use the pen tool to trace around your actor point by point. It doesn't need to be exact, but the closer the better. Make sure that the last place you click is the same place you started so you close the mask. When it's finished the mask should look like this:
Now that the mask is in place, we need to apply the motion blur. Right click on the clip in the timeline, go to "Effect/Blur & Sharpen/Directional Blur". You will then see a dialog box like this:
This dialog shows the settings needed for this clip. Set yours up accordingly.
Now your actor will look like this:
No you'll need to do the same thing with the clip in channel 5. You also need to do the exact same thing to the clips used for the 'run back' (channels 4 and 3), except that the actor is moving the other direction so the blur needs to be set to +90 instead of -90. (well, duh)
The only thing left to do now is make use of the extra background layer you made on the 2nd page. The reason for this is that the actor runs behind that wall, and the blur looks weird if that wall gets mixed in with it. So, you had create a layer of that wall in front of the actor clips. Now you have to draw a mask around the wall to knock out everything except what you need. Since, I've already covered masking and stuff here, you should already know how to do that. But, this is what the clip should look like:
When the whole thing is done, your timeline should look like this:
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