What’s the most efficient way to get this effect?

[akitsukino]

I’ve realized I really like this effect I’ve seen seen artists use where they’ll BLUR the foreground and background elements to give focus to the midground. It makes everything look really cinematic.

The main way I’ve figured it out is to

1) Duplicate the main layers
2) Merge duplicates
3) Blur merged duplicate layer
4) Use gradient erase or airbrush erase to remove section you want to stay clear.

This seems like a pretty common tactic but it’s a bit tedious. I’m thinking I could maybe try to turn it into an auto action, but if anyone has any suggestions that might be a bit more efficient I’d appreciate it.

[BoomerZ]

Pretty sure you can just put a gauze blur on it.

[Llyrel]

An easier way to do it would be if characters, backgrounds and foreground elements are all kept on separate layers! That's what I did in my latest chapter, at least:

Since the characters were in a car, I made sure to keep the landscape (in this case, sky and bushes) separate from everything else, so I could easily add some motion blur effect in Photoshop to give the idea that the car was moving.

[VibrantFox]

definitely second keeping all of if not most of your main elements in seperate layers or layer groups but if you've already merged things then i think clipping masks may be the second best option because you can simply paint over in another layer the things you want blurred, select that layer then duplicate the original and blur it however you want

i think even color masks could work in the same way it would just be a matter or working out how to set the lighting or shading so that you can bring that level of focus you want on a certain thing

[rajillustration]

Instead of merging and duplicating the merged layer in several steps, that is already a quick key built into both Photoshop and CSP. Photoshop the action is Ctrl-shift-alt-E (It's called Stamp Visible) , CSP I don't know the quick key off hand, but you can set it up, it's in layer menu -> Merge visible to new layer .

So you can make an action that goes

-Stamp visible
-gaussian blur current layer

And then you can delete from there. If you want to make it so you can adjust it later you can add a mask and invert it so you can paint in with a soft brush where you want that blur to be (I do this all the time, it's great, highly recommend)

so then the action would go

-stamp visible
-gaussian blur current layer
-mask current layer
-invert mask

and then it won't look blurry except where you fill in the mask.

[LostKelp]

usually you can find a blur brush in brush stores if not already in default brushes, if you want to add the effect in quickly. It's a default in Fire Alpaca but I'm not sure for other ones.

[system]

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