Fire Tutorial

Ok, we've all seen those gorgeous fire mage-type dolls, and wanted to make one, but fire isn't exactly easy to make, now is it? However, I have discovered a pain-free, quick and easy method of creating fire.

Note: This tutorial is specifically for Adobe Photoshop. I imagine you could do it in Paint Shop Pro or another fancy program, but because of the tools used, you'll need to be able to understand your program quite well. If you use Paint, sorry, I can't help you there.

Note 2: I didn't figure this out on my own. Yes, that's right, I had help.

Here's what we're making.

First things first: open a NEW document. Do not, under any circumstances, try this on a document with anything else on it! Ok, so open a document, about twice the area of the fireball we'll be making and fill it in with black.

Now, select the paintbrush tool, and go to the top right-hand of your screen, and open "Brushes". See the brush I chose? Choose it. (It's called 'Fuzzball'.)

Choose whatever size you like (it's near the top right- drag the thingy along the bar), and make sure you're drawing in white. Now make a fuzzball. (I clicked about twenty times to get it so full-looking. You'll see what I mean when you try it.)

Now Distort it with Filters -> Distort -> Ocean Ripple. The Ripple Size and Magnitude will change depending on the size of your fuzzball, but it should look something like my fuzzball.

Now go to Image -> Mode -> Greyscale (1). Then go to Image -> Mode -> Indexed Color (2). (It'll ask you some stuff, and just say yes. One of these things is 'Flatten Layers' - see why we didn't want to make this in the same file as the doll?) Ok, now go to Image -> Mode -> Color Table (3).

Choose the Black Body option in the Color Table box. We now have fire!

Ok, now select the entire canvas (Ctrl+A), and copy it into your doll file. Then go to Select -> Color Range... -> and choose the colour black. Say ok. Then press the 'Delete' button on your keyboard.

Now you have a happy little fireball. :)

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