Creating Smoke Effect in Photoshop

by Admin on Aug.12, 2010, under Tutorials

Creating Smoke Effect in Photoshop

Some time ago I had posted an article showing how to create a smoke effect in Adobe photoshop, and to achieve that I used a photo of smoke and some photoshop filters. However, some people had said at the time that I should have done the smoke as well and it´s exactly what I will show on this post right now.

I had previously thought about what would be the best way to create smoke in photoshop, and I’ve read some tutorials online and watched some episodes of the amazing pixelPerfect podcast, to find a good and easy solution for the matter at hand.

Actually it was easier than I had expected.

1 – Create some Shapes: I created some random shapes.

2 – Apply a Gaussian blur on each shape

Create some random shapes

3 – Using the liquify filter

Create some random shapes

4 – Positioning the shapes

Create some random shapes

5 – Adding some colors

Use the Hue/Saturation with the colorize selected=
Add a background color on the layer of the shape, otherwise the Hue/Saturation won’t work

6 – Creating a cloud behind the smoke

Creating the cloud
Set a feather with a high value, like 40 to 80, and after that apply the hue/saturation on the cloud too

7 – Adding a gradient to create an atmosphere

Create some random shapes
The gradient will give a atmosphere and more depth to the image

The whole process took me about 30 to 40 minutes tops, it’s pretty simple, although it can be quite hard to create a natural smoke with the liquify filter, the best thing to do is to play with the brushes and with the tools to achieve the desired effect.

:adobe, Creating, Effect, layers, Natural, Photoshop, Smoke, tutorial

5 Comments for this entry

Eilene Droze
August 18th, 2010 on 6:40 pm
This blog is great I learned a lot thanks!
Admin
August 18th, 2010 on 10:21 pm
you are very welcome, come back and keep checking as I add new tutorials almost daily
party supplies
August 18th, 2010 on 11:09 pm
Excellent blog! I truly love how it is easy on my eyes and the info are well written. I am wondering how I might be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which should do the trick! Have a nice day!
Admin
August 19th, 2010 on 6:54 am
The rss feed should do the trick.
Thanks for the nice comment
Ben
October 10th, 2010 on 10:28 am
Sick! Just got a brand-new Pearl and I can now read your blog on my phone’s browser, it didn’t work on my old one.