I did once get a fairly good spinning propeller by first isolating the prop on it’s own layer and duplicating that layer about 5 times. Then on each propeller layer I first applied a good twirl (from the Filter>Distort menu) then I applied a radial blur. I did this to all the layers and moved the layers offset a bit until I got just the right spin on the props. And then just adjust any color and transparency to finalize the look. Have you tried that?
Good God no–haven’t tried that nor thought of it. Sounds good but how did you do the offset thing? Yes, I’m pretty green with PS.
Also, a propeller Can be made "rotating", by first stretching it to a circle (Transform), then applying a Radial Blur (Spin), then transform it back to what it was.
Rob
Rob,
You could also do what Rob Keijzer suggested, which is what I had originally done, but it just wasn’t enough to make it look convincing. Which is why I did the "twirl" effect first, then did the radial blur. I did this to different degrees on each of the 5 layers and then moved each layer (offset) just a bit from the other layers and adjusted the transparency enough to give a nice effect. And the original layer of the propeller was faded behind all the other layers. You will have to experiment with the transparency and amount of twirl and radial blur to get what you want. It depends on your propeller image.
Look at some pics of spinning props.
usually all you see is a discoloration where the prop is. Depending the angle of the plane make ellipses and do a slight blur and make that layer transparent.
Just was I was thinking; if a propeller appears to be rotating fast enough to be in the air, you certainly won’t see the blades.
Unless it’s for a children’s comic!
You’d certainly see an semi-transparent ellipse. And if you were trying to mimic the look of a photo taken with a fast focal-plane shutter, some judicious Twirl would help.
