Tutorial 18 – Fire Wall

Found, tested and submitted by Rudi Smith (2013)

In this tutorial, you will create something like this:

STEP 01

Create a new canvas of size 1000 x 500. (File > New)

STEP 02

Draw a gradient as shown below. Note that if you keep SHIFT press, you can maintain a straight gradient.

STEP 03

Make a new layer. (Layers > Add New Layer)

STEP 04

Double-click Layer 2 (the layer you just created) to edit its properties.

STEP 05
Set the Blending Mode to 'Overlay', then hit OK.

STEP 06
Go to the 'Effects' menu and choose 'Clouds'. Change the blending mode on the Clouds window to 'Difference' (see image), then hit OK.

STEP 07
Repeat the Clouds effect about a dozen times. You can do this by hitting CTRL-F or by using Effects > Repeat Clouds.

Your image should look like the image below. Note that Mr. Campeau tried this several times and one of the times, the results did not resemble flames, so it had to be redone.

STEP 08
Flatten the image. This will reduce the image down to one layer. (Image > Flatten)

STEP 09

Choose Adjustments > Curves

STEP 10
In the drop down menu near the top, choose 'RGB'. See image below.

STEP 11

Uncheck the 'Red' and 'Green' checkboxes so you're only modifying the blue channel, add a control point as shown below.

Do the same for the green channel so you have the curves shown below.

Your final result should look like this:

POSSIBLE TWEAKS

Try using a different shape of gradiant such as a Round Gradient.

Tweak the Curves. The general shape of them should probably be preserved to keep good saturation, but the channels don't need to go in the above order. Try Green, Red, Blue (instead of Red, Green, Blue) for a copper flame (copper burns green).

Play with the 'scale' setting of Clouds for finer or Coarser clouds.

Play with the Roughness setting for clouds for softer or sharper fire

EXAMPLE PRODUCTS

By Mr. Campeau (2013)