this is what i wouold like to learn how to do.

If I am not mistaken that is just the figure layer duplicated and then underlying one motion blurred.

You would want to duplicate the image (isolated from the background) and run the motion blur filter (adjusting the angle to the direction you want). Then create a layer mask to eliminate the blur that appeared in front of your figure. You could erase it too (which is a lot easier but not adjustable...)

If you want to get fancy and make it look like the motion you'd see in Flash (the comic book not the program!) then open blured layer in the Liquify filter window and play around there.

The best way is to experiment.

:)
retrocity

This is actually a rather decent example of the kinds of things you'd learn to do in the Photoshop WOW books.

Seems i'm always mentioning third party filters lol ... Eye Candy 4000 by Alien Skin Software has a Motion Trail filter. Make the selection of what you want the motion effect on then you can control the direction, length, taper, opacity plus it has some presets like comet trail, swoop, take off, zoom right. It won't help you learn how to do it manually but it does a decent job.

That's my one CURSE against 3rd party filters. I'm a control freak (well when it comes to software...) and i want to know how to replicate manually an effect a filter produces!

Yet i'm NOT stupid, when a filter can give me the results i'm looking for in the push of a button, i'm not going to spend two hours doing it by hand, just to say "no filters were used!" especially if it's on a "pay" project! TIME IS MONEY!!

:)
retrocity

Without being too picky, I don't think that the picture you've posted is a terribly good effect. Good "tracking" blurs exhibit a kind of "snap", where you have a trailing blur that essentially goes from zero opacity to %100 opacity at the point where the present image is. . .in other words, you "build up" intensity, giving the sense of something rushing towards the viewer. Try blurring, and multi-replicating your source image, and overlaying. . .experiment till you get it right. Andromeda had a filter called "Velociraptor" that did exactly this effect. ..but I agree with the above. . .there's really no reason to use a plug in for something like this; you'll learn more by fooling around with it until it suits you

thanks for the tip everyone here's what i've been able to do with a little practice, did I do your tips justice? let me know.