Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Add steam rising from beverages or vents. Add cigarette or chimney smoke. Need to prove that it was cold in your last holiday destination? This is the effect for you.
Exercise files
There are no related exercise files for this lesson, or we cannot provide them due to copyright issues.
Quick reference
Topic
Add a wisp of smoke or steam to an image with a simple shape and a few filters.
When to use
Add steam rising from beverages or vents. Add cigarette or chimney smoke. Need to prove that it was cold in your last holiday destination? This is the effect for you.
Instructions
Create the initial shape
- Use the pen shape to create a basic white smoke shape in a new layer over your image – it does not need to be too detailed
- With that layer selected, choose from Dropdown, Filter: Convert to Smart Filters
Distort the shape
- Go to Dropdown, Filter, Distort and then Wave
- Number of generators: 625, Min: 113, Max: 287, Amplitude: 1, and 2, Scale: 100%
Distort the shape once more
- Go to Dropdown, Filter, Distort and then ZigZag
- Amount: 30, Ridges: 4, Style: Around Centre.
Add a surface blur
- Go to Dropdown, Filter, Blur and then Surface Blur.
- Set value at 62 and 214
Add a texture layer
- Create new layer
- Create selection from smoke layer by holding on Command or Control and clicking on the layers thumbnail.
- Dropdown, Filter, Render, then Clouds.
- Set to overlay
Final adjustments to the smoke
- Double click on the smoke layer to bring upper layer styles
- Satin: Blend Mode: Multiply, Color: Black, Opacity: 30%, Size: 15
- Blending options: opacity 50%
Tip
Duplicate the smoke layer to add extra volume to the smoke.
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- 00:04 Let's get started and make something hot! In this photo here, we have a cup of
- 00:08 coffee,
- 00:08 but there's really no indication whether it's hot or not. Let me show you how to
- 00:12 create smoke or steam to give the illusion of heat.
- 00:14 The first thing we have to do is create a shape.
- 00:17 To do this, I'll use the pen tool, but you can use any method you prefer.
- 00:21 As I'm drawing out the shape, you might notice that looks nothing like smoke -
- 00:25 don't worry too much about the wispiness or the direction of the smoke,
- 00:28 that will all be defined with a few filters later on. Once your shape is created, we
- 00:32 want to make sure to convert the shape to smart filters.
- 00:35 This will ensure that if you want to edit the filters later on,
- 00:38 that option will be available to you. Let's start adding our filters.
- 00:41 The first filter we're going to add will be a gaussian blur.
- 00:46 This will help eliminate the sharp edges of our shape.
- 00:49 Head up to filter, blur and then ‘gaussian blur’.
- 00:53 And I'll use the value of 14. You are free to play around with the value to
- 00:57 achieve different results.
- 00:58 Now that the blur is added we need to add some wispiness .
- 01:01 We're going to do this with the wave filter.
- 01:04 Again, head up to filter, distort and then ‘wave’.
- 01:08 Now, if you're working with a white shape, it might be difficult to see
- 01:11 exactly what your shape will look like,
- 01:13 so you may have to undo and try again a few times to get a nice result.
- 01:16 I'm going to use the following values:
- 01:19 625,113, 287, 1, 2,
- 01:23 and 100% for the scales.
- 01:27 Now a quick reminder, while these settings work for me, they may need to be tweaked
- 01:31 for your project.
- 01:32 Now that the wave is added, it's still not looking wispy enough.
- 01:35 Let's add one more filter to really give it some flow.
- 01:38 Again, head up to filter, distort and then this time let's try a ‘zigzag’.
- 01:43 For these settings, the amount will be 30 ridges,
- 01:46 and make sure the style is set to ‘around center’.
- 01:49 When you press OK, you should see a much more believable shape.
- 01:53 We're far from complete. We're going to add one more blur to separate the
- 01:57 edges a little bit.
- 01:58 Instead of a gaussian blur, we're going to add a surface blur.
- 02:02 Because this filter gives you a live preview on your document, it may take a
- 02:06 bit longer to load the results.
- 02:08 I'm going to pop in 62 and 214 for the values.
- 02:12 Good. We're almost there. The shape itself is looking nice but it
- 02:17 could use some texture.
- 02:18 To do this, we're going to first create a new layer and then create a selection
- 02:22 from our smoke layer.
- 02:23 This can be done by holding on Command or Control and clicking on the layers
- 02:27 thumbnail.
- 02:27 Once a selection is made, head up to filter, render, and then ‘clouds’.
- 02:31 When the clouds are added, the effect is way overdone, so I'm going to
- 02:35 simply set the blending mode
- 02:37 to overlay to get a nice blend. And now that the texture is added, there are a few tweaks
- 02:42 I want to make to move away from pure white smoke.
- 02:44 Double click on the smoke layer to bring the upper layer styles
- 02:48 and go ahead and add a satin layer style. For the values, keep blend mode at Multiply and
- 02:53 the color at black.
- 02:54 Change the opacity to 30, the distance to 30 and the size to 15.
- 02:58 This will give a bit of darkness to the smoke.
- 03:01 Now head up to the blending options at the top left and reduce the overall
- 03:05 opacity of the layer to 50%.
- 03:07 That's much better. Now we could stop here,
- 03:11 but just to add something extra small, I can duplicate this layer and easily edit the
- 03:15 filters by double clicking on the one that I want to change.
- 03:17 This is why it's so important to convert your layer for smart filters.
- 03:21 I'll go ahead and edit the wave filter and simply increase the maximum altitude to 14.
- 03:25 When you accept the changes, it will take a few seconds the show up on your
- 03:29 screen, as Photoshop
- 03:30 has to put together all the filters all over again
- 03:34 Once a new result is live,
- 03:35 decrease the opacity to 20% and we're done. I don't know about you, but
- 03:39 this is looking much hotter.
- 03:40 Try it yourself, but remember you're going to have to play around with the settings to
- 03:43 get the results you're looking for.
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