Using Photoshop and a specific technique, it’s rather easy to create something that looks like smoke or fog—from scratch. It’s not as good as actual smoke photographed on a black background, but it’s much easier to come by. Here’s the trick…
Doodle
Draw a doodle. Preferrably keep the doodle in its own layer with a black background beneath.
Distort
Use the Liquify tool to distort the doodle. Liquify resides in the Filter > Liquify... menu. Using the various “forward warp”, “twirl” and “pucker” tools residing in the menu to the left, you distort the doodle as if you were fingerpainting.
Once you’ve applied the liquify transformation, select Edit > Fade Liquify.... In the dialog box that appears, set the opacity to 50% and apply.
Repeat
Now repeat the process until you’re satisfied:
- Liquify
- Fade Liquify to 50%
If you enjoyed this tutorial, you might also enjoy my Creating Microworlds in Photoshop tutorial.
Thanks, you made my day! Just what I was looking for.
This is without a doubt one of the best and most natural looking Smoke effects I’ve found in my searches.
The effect is just what I’ve been looking for.
This tutorial ROCKS
These is a very helpful tutorial indeed… Great work! Thanks for the resource.
brilliant (come on arsenal)
Great technique, will certainly be using this on my next website design. Stumbled it! -thumbs up!
SIMLPY BRILLIANT.Thanks a lot….this will be invaluable.
Got to tell you that this tutorial is the sh@t
Greats work
Thank you.
Doesn’t look like smoke to me. Looks like a cloudy photoshop scribble.
Nice try though. You could probably get it to look more like actual smoke with those techniques if you did more by hand rather than letting the program do it.
Great tutorial! Wish I would have found it two days ago for a project I was working on.
Nice tutorial to create smoke using Liquify technique in photoshop. Overall nice post Joen, keep it up….
Excellent, I used it to make “smell smokes” on a cartoon with food in it
Thanks!
Ahh what the heck, here’s one more, just because it’s so flippin’ cool and easy. http://noscope.com/journal/2007/05/photoshop-howto-smoke
A very simple way to make smoke in photoshop – http://tinyurl.com/yc3wqly – Awesome! /via @Eckstatic
A very simple way to make smoke in photoshop – http://tinyurl.com/yc3wqly via @Eckstatic, @MadysonDesigns
A very simple way to make smoke in photoshop – http://tinyurl.com/yc3wqly – Awesome! /via @Eckstatic /via @MadysonDesigns @myen
RT @madysondesigns: A very simple way to make smoke in photoshop – http://tinyurl.com/yc3wqly – Awesome! /via @Eckstatic
RT @madysondesigns: A very simple way to make smoke in photoshop – http://tinyurl.com/yc3wqly – Awesome! /via @Eckstatic
Cool: RT @MadysonDesigns: A very simple way to make smoke in photoshop – http://tinyurl.com/yc3wqly – Awesome! /via @Eckstatic
“Creating Smoke In Photoshop From Scratch” http://bit.ly/4uecri
RT @Richbugger: “Creating Smoke In Photoshop From Scratch” http://bit.ly/4uecri
Creating Smoke In Photoshop From Scratch. http://noscope.com/journal/2007/05/photoshop-howto-smoke
Creating Smoke In Photoshop From Scratch. http://noscope.com/journal/2007/05/photoshop-howto-smoke
how to create smoke in photoshop – http://noscope.com/journal/2007/05/photoshop-howto-smoke
Working on a movie poster to match my DVD cover for the book #InfiniteJest. Working with smoke; a nice tut: http://bit.ly/4uecri