Action Effects in Photostories

Well, I can help with the darkening circles. If you right click the paint bucket tool you can set it to gradient.
Then you can choose the colour you want (I think by default it's what the two colours you have in your colour picker bit are. Set them to black and white) then, on the top tool bar there are options like side way gradient, circle gradient etc.
You want the circle one. Now check the Inverse box on the same tool bar, make a new layer, and click and hold in the center of the pic. You'll need to play about too see how far you need to pull the line for the effect you want. It's all personal preference. Now change the layer to multiply and your done!

 

Motion blur can be created in several ways:

• One way is simulating it in Photoshop — others than I can better tell you how to do it.

• Another way is moving the doll part in question when shooting the picture. With a sufficiently long shutter time, this creates real, actual motion blur.

• In some cases, one blur can be pretty much like another blur. You can therefore use DOF to create the illusion of motion blur, like I did in this image:

Mitsuki's pose enhances an illusion of the kensen moving rapidly due to just having been drawn out of the saya.​

Combinations of the above ought to be effective, as well. For instance, using DOF to throw the moving body out of focus might enable you to impart only a small amount of actual motion on it to create an illusion of very rapid, directional movement.

I am sure there are many other ways.

 

And another way to create blur is to move the camera, using a slow shutter speed so that you have the aperture open for as much of the movement as you want. However, this wil blur all of the image, rather than just a hand or foot. But it can give a good impression of movement.

Example (sorry, I don't have a BJD example of this). I put the camera on a tripod and set the shutter speed for about 1 second, I think. I started out with the subject at the left hand side of the frame, then released the shutter and smoothly panned the camera to the left as it stayed open. Et viola! It would probably have been a lot easier to do in Photoshop, but I do liike experimenting. Vroom vroom!

 

I've got some effects along those lines in one of my photostories (warning - there is partially censored profanity after the link).

In this case, I used the smudge tool in Photoshop to make it look like only his hand and the dice were moving. Not very skilled, but I'm pleased with the effect.

 

I am so glad someone asked this question! I've been wondering about how to do this as well. The smudge tool is a good idea. I'm still getting used to my new camera, and I'm not incredibly up on all photography and camera lingo, but I'm working on it. Any more advice would be greatly appreciated!

I'd also be interested in tips for magical action effects, too. Or magic effects in general. I've figured out a few on my own.

As for my own advice, I suggest checking up on YouTube, oddly enough. There are plenty of video tutorials for lots of effects and stuff. I use Gimp ('cause I'm cheap) and I learned quite a few things from tutorials on YouTube.

The only motion effect (or magic motion effect) I've ever done was done by accident. I had set up my camera on a tripod and did a long time exposure for the longest time I could (8 sec) to get as much light as I could. Half way through, I accidentally bumped the camera slightly. This is the result.



I doubt I'll ever be able to make such a cool mistake again.