How To Make a Fire Effect in Photoshop

This is a simple way of making a smokey-fire effect using Adobe Photo shop. It's easy to do and ideal for learners.

Basic Method

1. Open Adobe Photoshop and change the background colour to black, and the foreground colour to orange. 
2. Open a new file and click the "Preset Sizes" drop down arrow and select "Default Photo shop Size". Under "Contents" select "Background color" and click "OK"
3. Select the paintbrush tool and draw random lines on the canvas.
4. Go to "Filters" on the top toolbar and go down to "Render" and select Clouds.
5. Save as "Fire"

Method from Scratch

1. Create a new Photoshop picture with a black background.
2. Create a 'Rounded Rectangle' by clicking on the shape tool in the task bar on the left hand side.  
3. Ensure the 'shape' layer is selected, and click on 'Filter', then 'Stylize', then 'Wind'. Do not be alarmed when an error message appears, asking if you want to 'Rasterize' the shape. Simply click OK.
4. Another Box will appear. Make sure the selected settings areas follows: 'Wind' and 'From the Right', then click OK.
5. Press 'Ctrl'+'F' twice. This redoes the 'Wind' effect.  
6. Click on 'Edit', then 'Transform', then 'Rotate 90 Degrees CW'.  
7. Click on 'Filter', then 'Liquify'. A window will open and, after making sure that the brush size is 25, click and drag on the lines made by the wind to distort them into what a flame may bear resemblance to. Once you have done this, click OK. It might not look much like fire right now, but don't give up.
8. Click on 'Filter' 'Blur', then 'Gaussian Blur' and set the radius to 1 pixel.
9. Duplicate the layer twice.  
10. Make the top 2 layers invisible by clicking on the eye next to them, then click on 'Image', then 'Adjustments', then 'Hue/Saturation'. Tick the 'Colorize' box, then set the variables as following: Hue: 360, Saturation: 100, Lightness: -50. This will turn it a deep red hue.
11. Do the same on the top layer, except change the variables to: Hue: 50, Saturation: 100, Lightness: -50. This will make it a yellow color.  
12. Select the remaining white shape. Click on 'Filter', then 'Blur', then 'Gaussian Blur'. Set the radius to 7 pixels.
13. Select the top Layer and change the layer type by clicking in the drop-down menu that usually reads 'Normal' and select 'Overlay'.
14. Congratulate yourself! The work is done, and your masterpiece is completed!  

Tips

• On the easy method, try to make all of your random lines curvy.
• On the "from scratch method"
  
  • A good size for the background is 14cm X 14cm. Or 400px by 400px is good too.
  • This method can be used for text as well.
  • After rotating it in step 6, you may need to reposition it to make it entirely visible.