Articles and Tutorials

Photoshop Tutorial: Fire Blast

Experience level: Intermediate

Step 1

Create a new document. Press "D" to reset your colours to black and white. Select the "Gradient" tool.

Ensure you have these settings below

On your canvas click and drag to make a small line across the screen. When you release a gradient will appear.

Step 2

Repeat Step 1 about 25-40 times until you have something like the below image.

Step 3

Duplicate the blast layer 3 times by pressing "Ctrl-J".

Highest blast layer: Set blend mode from "Normal" to "Overlay"

Third highest blast layer: Edit->Transform->Flip Vertical. Set blend mode to "Linear dodge" and "Opacity" to "50%".

Second highest blast layer: Edit->Transform->Flip Horizontal and set blend mode to "Overlay".

Bottom blast layer: Filter->Stylize->Find Edges and set "Opacity" to "15%"

Step 4

Change the colour of all the layers by pressing "Ctrl-U". Check the "Colourized" box and move the sliders left and right. Add a colour to every layer.

Step 5

Select your smudge tool and use a "20px" brush.

Smudge the edges of each layer to create a "blast" effect.

Try reordering the layers, duplicating layers or changing blend modes to achieve a more realistic effect. Here is what I came up with...

 

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