Smoke Type in Photoshop in 10 Steps

Last week I decided to upgrade to the new Adobe CS4 apps, as usual I did my backups and of course I forgot very important things, such as my Photoshop Brushes and Patterns. I hate when that happens, but it does happen all the time. So I had to look for my brushes and I found some really cool new ones and decided to play a bit with them and with the new Adobe Photoshop CS4.

In this tutorial I will show you how to create a smoke typography effect playing with some brushes and adjustment layers. It's a very easy tutorial and you will be able to do the whole process in 5-10 minutes.

Step 1

Open Photoshop and create a new document, I used 1920x1200 pixels. Then apply a gradient, you could fill it with a gradient or apply a Layer Style. I used the layer style, Gradient Overlay. Use Radial for the Style and #07090a - #202b35 for the colors.

Step 2

dd some text in white then go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Use 90º for the Angle, and 40 pixels for the Distance.

Step 3

Now go to Filter>Distort>Wave. use 3 for the Number of Generators, 10 and 346 for the Wavelength, and 5 and 35 for the Amplitude.

Step 4

Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 10 pixels for the Radius. Then group the layer and rename the folder's Blend Mode to Color Dodge. You will get a nice light effect.

Step 5

Create a new layer on top of the others and go to Filter>Render>Clouds, make sure you had black and white for the background and foreground colors, then change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge and go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All. With a very soft brush, 0% hardness and black color, hide some areas of the clouds layer. Use the image below for reference.

Step 6

Create a new Folder on the Layers' Palette. Change the folder's Blend Mode to Color Dodge and add a new layer in it. Then use the Smoke Brushes from Qbrushes . Select white for the color and paint over some letters. If you think the brush is not very bright, just click twice.

Step 7

Paint a few more smokes like the image below.

Step 8

Create a new layer beneath the other layers but in front of the Background layer. Fill this layer with black and go to Filter>Texture>Texturizer. Use 100% for the Scaling and 4 for the Relief. For the Texture use Canvas and Light use Top. That will add a nice texture to the image but you will need to change the opacity to 10%.

Step 9

This is a nice new feature in the new Photoshop CS4, actually there's nothing new just the Adjustments palette, but it's very useful because you can edit all the image adjustments like Levels, Hue & Saturation, Curves in that palette. However it just adds a Adjustment Layer, that could be done in the previous versions too.
Anyway, on top of the other layers just add the Invert adjustment. You can go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Invert. It will be the same. You will get a very nice effect, like burning paper.

Conclusion

One of the best things in Photoshop is the Brushes Engine and all the things we can create with brushes. With so many excellent sites with Brushes like Brusheezy, Tutorial9, QBrushes, DeviantArt, and PSDTUTS we can find practically all sorts of effects and elements ready to be used in our designs. That means we can focus on ideas rather than figure out ways to recreate things. Also we have 2 very different effects with just one adjustment layer, the Invert. Once again, it's all about playing. I hope you enjoyed this quick tutorial, and let me know if you have any questions.

Click here for full preview of the Dark version and here for the Light version

 

Download the Photoshop File

Click here to download the Photoshop File used in this tutorial.

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Creating Smoke

Some time ago I had posted an article showing how to create a smoke effect in photoshop, and to achieve that I used a photo of smoke and some photoshop filters. However, some people had said at the time that I should have done the smoke as well and it´s exactly what I will show on this post right now.

I had previously thought about what would be the best way to create smoke in photoshop, and I’ve read some tutorials online and watched some episodes of the amazing pixelPerfect podcast, to find a good and easy solution for the matter at hand.
Actually it was easier than I had expected.

1 - Create some Shapes: I created some random shapes. 

2 - Apply a Gaussian blur on each shape

3 - Using the liquify filter

4 - Positioning the shapes

5 - Adding some colors

 

Add a background color on the layer of the shape, otherwise the Hue/Saturation won't work

6 - Creating a cloud behind the smoke

 

Set a feather with a high value, like 40 to 80, and after that apply the hue/saturation on the cloud too

7 - Adding a gradient to create an atmosphere

 

The gradient will give a atmosphere and more depth to the image

Final Result

The whole process took me about 30 to 40 minutes tops, it’s pretty simple, although it can be quite hard to create a natural smoke with the liquify filter, the best thing to do is to play with the brushes and with the tools to achieve the desired effect.

The PSD file can be downloaded.

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Collection of High Quality Photoshop Smoke Brushes

In this collection of Photoshop brushes, we are showcasing 14 of the best sets of smoke brushes to enhance your design projects.

 

Particle Smoke Brushes

Particle Smoke adds a whole new effect and explosion to our most popular Real Smoke Photoshop brushes. From a distance it looks like smoke. Up close, a swarm of atoms are blasting and bouncing off each other. Download this huge set of 148 high resolution Photoshop Brushes. These brushes may be used for commercial or non-commercial work.

 

Smoke Brushes

 Vol 1 . Works with photoshop 7.  Smoke brushes from stock photos.

 

Real Smoke Brushes

Create abstract art with this set of 108 Photoshop brushes of real smoke. These naturally shaped smoke brushes can be used individually or stacked on top of another. Feel free to use these brushes for commercial artwork.

 

Revnart Smoke

Revnart Smoke Brushes for Photoshop CS3 This brushes pack contains 30 high resolution brushes from 800 to 1500 pixels. There are different versions of smoke, pack is completely free for both free and commercial use.

Vocanic Brush Set 1

 

Volcanic – Brush Set #1.   Includes: 5 Defined Brushes for your use of creativity Made in Photoshop CS3.

Smoke and Fire Brushes

 

Great collection of smoke brushes that can also be used as fire.

Smoke Brushes

 

Smoke Brushes Set 2

 

Smoke Brushes Set 3

 

Smoke Brushes

 

Smoke Brushes Collection

 

There are nearly 40 brushes in this set. Most of them are in max. size ( 2500 ) and the rest are really big as well.

High Resolution Photoshop Smoke Brush Set

 

A high resolution smoke Photoshop brush pack. The brush pack enables any one with knowledge within Photoshop to be capable to create a great design using cool smoke affects. The brush is available for free and has been released under the creative commons license.

Smoke Brushes

 

Awesome set of 21 High quality Smoke Brushes in High resolution (2000px) for Photoshop

Smoke Brushes

 

Made with Photoshop CS3 and CS4 should also work with Elements.

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Advanced PSD Repair 1.4

Advanced PSD Repair 1.4

DataNumen, Inc. in Multimedia \ Misc. Multimedia Tools

Download (684.2Kb)

Dialup (56k):	01 m 36 s
ISDN (128k):	42 s
DSL (512k):	11 s
Cable (1024k):	06 s
T1 (1484k):	04 s

License: Freeware

Advanced PSD Repair(APSR) is a powerful tool to recover corrupt Photoshop image(PSD, PDD) files. It uses advanced technologies to scan the corrupt or damaged Photoshop image files and recover your data in them as much as possible, so to minimize the loss in file corruption. Main Features: 1. Support to recover PSD and PDD files produced by all versions of Adobe Photoshop. 2. Support to recover the image as well as the separate layers....

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Wallpaper Effect

This tutorial walks you through steps in creating a warped effect that you can use to create artistic and profressional background and wallpapers..

	The first step is to define a new pattern. - Start a new document: 60px wide, and 10px high, and for contents, select "Transparent".
	Use the zoom tool to zoom your canvas so we can see it a little better. Now use the rectangular marquee tool to draw a 30px by 10px selection on your canvas. Then fill it with black. Then Press CTRL+D to deselect. Now, go to Edit » Define Pattern, a screen will popup asking for a name, name your pattern "Stripe" then click OK. Now you can close this document.
	Now, start a new document. Width: 600px Height: 600px, Content: White - Create a NEW LAYER - Then go to Edit » Fill in the Fill box, Use: select Pattern, and in the Custom Pattern options, select the pattern you just created in the previous step. Leave the blending options alone. Your canvas should now be filled like the screenshot on the left.
	Now, apply the polar coordinate filter. Filter » Distort » Polar Coordinates - Options: Rectangular to Polar
	- Now apply this gradient overlay layer style to the layer. Gradient Overlay - Create a NEW LAYER, link the new layer and this layer together, then go to Layer » Merge linked.
	- Now duplicate this layer. (right click on the layer in the layers pallette and select "Duplicate Layer"). Change the Blending Mode to "Multiply" - Now go to Edit » Transform » Rotate Then just rotate this layer by just a few degrees to offset it from the original.. - Repeat the above 2 steps, several times but change the Blending mode to "Overlay" and "Screen" and "Normal".
Click to view full size	Now link all the layers together (except the background) and go to Layer » Merge Linked. Now just fill your background layer with a color and experiment. You can move the top layer around to create the crystal spikes look or just leave it in the center for a warped effect type background. In the image to the left, I simply applied Filter » Blur » Radial Blur, method: Zoom , and amount by about 40.
Here's more images I made using the associated filters: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PSD FILE Filter » Distort » Spherize (3 times) Filter » Distort » Twirl (2 times) Filter-Distort » Polar Coordinates (Rect to Polar)

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Picture Package with Smart Objects

When is a copy not a copy? When it is a copy of a Smart Object! In Photoshop, there are two very different ways to create copies of Smart Objects, and each of these has unique and special qualities and behaviors, which we’ll review right here.
In Photoshop CS4, Adobe “retired” the Picture Package script from the released Photoshop product, although they have, and still do make it available as a download. Many people have worried, fretted and fumed over this omission. But, with Smart Objects, we can create our own Picture Package in Photoshop – better, stronger and faster. Let me show you how.
Before we get started, however, a note for anyone using Photoshop CS5. Adobe has added a new option in preferences that controls how raster images are placed into images. If you’re following along with Photoshop CS5, you’ll want to select Edit > Preferences and make sure you have checked the option for “Place or Drag Raster Images as Smart Objects.”



Users of Photoshop CS4 or CS3 won’t need to do this.

Now, let’s create our Picture Package template. Open a new document, 11 inches wide by 8.5 inches tall (US standard paper size, you can adjust to your local taste). Then, show rulers (Control-R/Command-R) and drag out guides to define the locations where you want your pictures to go. In this case, I’ve created a document that will hold one 5×7 image, and four 2.5×3.5 images. For best results, you should keep the aspect ration the same for all images in the document:



Now, with CS5 I’ll open the Mini Bridge, and drag an image file onto my document. This will have the same effect as File > Place…, and you can use that command in older versions of Photoshop to get the same results:



When the document appears on the workspace, it will have the large “X” through it, indicating that you are placing the file. At this point you can move and resize it. I’ll move it into position on the left side and resize it to fill the 5×7 frame. It helps to have “snap” enabled (View > Snap To > Guides). Then, in order to commit the placement, I’ll click the checkmark icon:



Notice that the image has been placed as a Smart Object, as evidenced by the package icon in the Layers panel. I’ve changed the name of the layer to “Photo:”



Now, to make the copies. Make sure that the Photo layer is selected, and press Control-J (Command-J), or choose Layer > New > Layer via Copy. This creates a second smart object which is linked to the first smart object. This is a key concept when copying Smart Objects in this way.



Now, I’ll use Edit > Free Transform (Control-T/Command-T) to move and resize the copy of the image into position in one of the smaller cells:



Now, I’ll repeat that three more times to fill the remaining cells. Control-J, Control-T, Drag, Checkmark:



There you have it! Your finished Picture Package… for a 5×7 and four 2.5×3.5 images, ready to be printed.
Not so easy, you say? Lots of work? Here’s the kicker: You never have to do this, ever again! You can reuse this over and over. This is due to the way we copied the Smart Objects, using “New Layer via Copy,” and the fact that in doing so we created four copies that are linked to the first object. Here’s how we put this principle to use in a reusable template:
Start with the image we just created, with the five Smart Objects placed into the Picture Package template. Now, right-click (command click) on any of the Smart Object Layers, and choose “Replace Contents.”



Then navigate to another image (for best results, it should be the same size and aspect ratio). Select it and choose “Place.”



That’s all there is to it. Your Picture Package is updated with the new image, thanks to the capabilities of Smart Objects. Since all the copies are linked together, replacing the contents of one, replaces the contents of all of them, simultaneously!



As long as your new images have the same dimension, you can swap them out endlessly, making this a useful part of a photographer’s workflow. You can create as many of these Picture Package templates as you like, with different combinations of sizes to suit your needs, but remember: you only have to create them once – then you can use them over, and over, and over…
I hope this gives you some ideas for using the power of Smart Objects. Join me next week, as we look at another way to copy and use Smart Objects, with completely different results.

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