his tutorial explains the manipulation of the fire to create suitable shapes. Also this article covers the addition of a particular shape to the fire so that it looks as if the fire itself has taken that shape.
Final Preview
Level : Advanced
Time Required : 2 to 3 hours
Resources :
Alright lets begin by creating a new file of 1400x1700px. And fill its background with black color.
Extract The Caster
Open the caster stock now and extract the subject very carefully from the image. The method employed here is to use quick selection tool along with channels.To learn this method of extraction refer to this post.
Once extracted resize the caster, and be sure to hide the lower portion of his legs.
Extract The Fire
Add the Fire 1 stock. To delete the black portion use the Magic Wand to select the black portion, then go to Select>Similar. After this go to select>modify>expand 6px. And finally applyselect>modify>feather of 2.2px. Finally hit delete and you will lose all the black portion. Use the same technique to extract the fire from the second stock as well.
Match The Color
Notice that Fire 1 is a more of an orange and Fire 2 is more of a yellow. To match the colors of the two stock so that they blend well together we will make Fire 2 more orange in color. To do this go toImage>Adjustments>Match Color. In the pop up that opens select your PSD file and select the layer that contains Fire 1 and press enter.
Mould Fire Into A Shape
In our design we would like the fire to form a tube kind of thing. To do this replicate the layers and assemble them as you see fit. Use the layer mask, free transform, eraser tool and move tool to assemble.To blend two overlapping layers of fire, set the blend mode of the upper layer to screen. In my case I used five fire images ,four from Fire1 and one from Fire2 and three layer is in screen mode.
As can be seen from the above image I tried to depict that the fire is being release from caster’s left hand. To achieve this I resized two layer and put them in screen blend mode above the caster’s hand.
Tip : When working with co dependent layers always make sure to link all the layers together and keep them in a group of their own.
Add The Skull
Extract the skull from its stock and bring it on Top of the Fire layers. Now go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal . Then press Ctrl+T and resize and rotate the skull on top of the fire. You might also need to use the distort feature to match the perspective.
Blend The Skull
This is the tricky and the most fun part of the whole tutorial. First desaturate the skull by pressingCtrl+Shift+U and set the blend mode of skull to lighten.You would now be able to see a part of Flame on top of the skull.
Check which of your layers are overlapping the skull and add a layer mask to each one of them.
Now take a soft small brush and black as your color and use the portion of eyes and teeth of the skull as reference to paint over the layer masks of the underlying fire layers.
Finally change the blend mode of skull to vivid light and reduce the opacity to 20%. Once done we will see that the skull portion of the fire image now has distinct eyes and teeth.
We just need to give one final touch up. Add a layer mask to the Skull layer and hide a little rear portion. This makes the blend in complete.
Light Adjustments
So far the image is looking good but the man is not showing any glow from such a close fire. Hence even though it may look okay, it will not be believable. Hence we will now try to match the illumination of man with the fire. To do so simply click on the man layer and go to layer>new adjustment layer> Channel Mixer. Check the “previous layer as clipping mask” option. Now punch in the following setting for Red, Green and Blue Channels.
Now our man looks in conjunction with the illumination.
Add The Background
This is the simplest of all the steps. First Delete the layer with black background.In its place add the texture as the bottom most layer and desaturate it. Don’t worry about the fire for now.
On top of this layer add a new layer and with foreground color as Black and background color as white, go to Filter>Render>Clouds.
Next go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and use the below settings.
Finally blend the cloud layer by switching it to difference mode.
Alternate Version
In this version I have added a cave background from this stock. Also i have taken care of the lightning of the place according to our heroes fireball!
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