Creating a Stunning Digital Smoke Effect

Nov 1st in Effects by Fabio
Some time ago I came up with a technique to create digital smoke using the Liquify filter in Photoshop. Although it was a simple and efficient way to achieve that sort of effect, people sent me emails asking how to customize it or that it wasn’t so easy to follow.

Author: Fabio

I am a Brazilian designer living in Porto Alegre (south of Brazil). In 2003, I founded a web design studio called ZEE, with Fabiano Meneghetti, an architect and friend of mine. It's a small studio now, with 4 people working basically with web.

In this tutorial we are going to show you how to easily create digital abstract smoke using both Illustrator and Photoshop. One of the best things about this technique is that it’s very customizable and you can do it pretty quickly.

As I said before, we will use Illustrator a bit, but actually you can use whatever vector software you have. The only requirement is that it have a similar tool to the Blend Tool in Illustrator.

Step 1

Open Illustrator, and using the Pen Tool (shortcut: P), draw two different curved lines, try to make them cross each other like the ones below. Those will be the shape of our smoke. After that, do the same thing again and draw two more lines. From those two pairs of lines, select one pair, and set the stroke color of the first line white and the other with dark gray(70%). Repeat the same thing on the other pair of lines but invert the colors. The reason we do this is because when we import those shapes in Photoshop we will be able to tweak the colors with a lot more ease.

Step 2

Using the Blend Tool, click on the edge of the white line and then click on the edge of the gray line. It will create a line between the two lines. With the Blend Tool selected, go to Object>Blend>Blend Options. There, change the Spacing to Specified Steps and put 200 steps. Repeat the same procedure on the other pair of lines we have.

Step 3

Now it’s all Photoshop from here. Copy the first blend and paste it in to Photoshop as a Smart Object. Repeat that for the second layer. We choose to paste as Smart Objects because you can scale and re-scale without losing quality. This happens because they remain vectors rather than becoming bitmap graphics. Besides that we can edit the vectors again, and if you are using the CS3 version it’s possible to apply all filters in a non-destructive mode as well. That means if you apply any filter you will be able to change their parameters anytime or even delete the filter effect returning to the original image. This is not dissimilar to Layer Styles except now with filters.

Step 4

Here I just organize my layers using folders. Set the blending mode to Multiply for both folders: Shape 1 and 2. After that apply a Gaussian Blur with a radius of 1 pixels in both layers: Smoke 1 and 2.

Step 5

Duplicate both layers inside of each folder. So you will have Smoke 1, Smoke 1 Copy, Smoke 2, and Smoke 2 Copy. Change the Blending mode of the Smoke 1 Copy and Smoke 2 Copy to Overlay

Step 6

Now we are going to change the color from that grayish tone to a blueish one by creating a new fill or adjustment layer and choosing Hue/Saturation. Put that layer on top of the others and double-click on the layer to edit the Hue/Saturation parameters.

Step 7

Duplicate the Smoke 1 layer and Rasterize it. Then put it on the top of the other layer, even above the adjustment layer. After that change its blending mode to Color Dodge and apply a Gaussian Blur with the radius of 25 pixels. You will get a light blue color like a glow.

Step 8

Now we have the basics. We could stop here and have a great effect already, but let's take it to the next level. It's time to add some extra wafts. First fade Smoke 1 back to about 50% so it's a little softer. Then duplicate the Smoke 1 group and fade right back to 20%. Select the group and add a Layer mask. Then using a White to Black radial gradient, mask it out as it gets to the right side so the smoke is fading off into nothing.

Step 9

Next duplicate the same fading out smoke layer we made in the last step and rotate it to make it look a bit more random. If you had time you could replicate these layers from the very beginning steps in Illustrator. Your aim should be to have wafts of smoke going away from the main smoke channel. If you want a smoke on white effect, you should stop here.

Step 10

Next create a new layer above all the others and fill it with a gradient going from white (#FFFFFF) to grey-ish blue (#C4CCD0) as shown.

Step 11

Set the new layer's blending mode to Exclusion. Exclusion (as well as Difference) invert colors from lower layers, which gives us a smoke on dark-grey effect.

Step 12

The coloring is now pretty cool, but it could be even more graceful. Create a new layer above the others and fill it with a linear gradient from #5f4547 to #7096e4 as shown. Once you have the gradient, set the blending mode to Color and 50% Opacity.

Step 13

Finally we add a bit of text to finish off the image. This effect is best when you create it larger than you need at the end, then shrink it down and run the Unsharp Mask filter over it (Filters > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask) to get the curves looking clean and crisp.

Conclusion

Using Illustrator’s Blend Tool gives a lot of flexibility so it’s possible to create all sorts of shapes and blend them, even creating blends with four different shapes. Then in Photoshop with the Smart Objects and Smart Filters we can apply, change, and test all kinds of filters and combinations. It’s all about playing with the tool.

As Bert Monroy always says, I hope you have learned something from here and it’s not the end result but how we got there. Thanks

Sample PSD

Download the PSD for this tutorial

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User Comments

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  1. Bob Backus November 1st

    Hmm, this is a slightly weaker tutorial than the normal amazing stuff we see here.

    I’m just sayin’.


  2. Patrick November 1st

    That’s a real pretty effect and all but it’s doesn’t look all that smoky to me.


  3. Malte November 1st

    Great Tut! But I have my difficulties on creating the curved lines in Illustrator.. Is it also possible to upload the Illustratorfile? This would be great help for me =) …


  4. Murray McGinley November 1st

    Good to see a bit of illustrator work here!Hope to see more soon.Cheers for the tutorial!Brilliant as always!


  5. Jf November 1st

    Excellent tutorial. I already know where to use this technique. Thanks a lot


  6. Kyle November 1st

    That is gorgeous. Another wonderful tutorial. A+


  7. Tobolka November 2nd

    Oh my god, this is graet, thaks man.


  8. Noel November 2nd

    Pretty … love this site and how often it’s updated with fantastic content and easy to follow tutorials :D 5/5


  9. Hauff November 2nd

    Hmmm.. sorry, but I must say… this was not a good tut.
    I was expecting the best here. =(

    Extremely Yours Sincerely


  10. Markus November 2nd

    I have not tried this tutorial, but can you make it in Photoshop CS2


  11. Solarion November 2nd

    Very nice!
    But I think the effect would be better with darker colors or with a darker background


  12. Deezul6 November 2nd

    Another great tut! Thanks!!!!


  13. Alen November 2nd

    Very nice. I like it.


  14. Naveed Ahmad November 2nd

    WOW nice trick and a gud use of Illustrator and Photoshop
    keep it coming mate ;)


  15. bigFan November 2nd

    doesn’t really look like smoke… maybe a film-ish fake-ish type ? Sorry man i expected more from PSDTuts.com


  16. Ravi Vora November 2nd

    I think the main drawback to this tutorial is that you have to switch applications. Really, you could make this tutorial Photoshop only and get away with it.


  17. mygrads November 2nd

    not your best I’m afraid…


  18. Neo November 2nd

    This isn’t as good as your previous Smoke Tutorial. THat one created a better effect than this. Look more real.


  19. Jeffrey November 2nd

    this tutorial definitely looks like a came off of some newbie website. Not a good tutorial at all, you can do all this in photoshop, not 2 programs. Horrible tutorial, I was expecting better from this website.


  20. Deezul6 November 2nd

    Honestly, some of you should be a bit more appreciative that a site like this exists. I know i am. So ease up. You can’t expect every tutorial to be some grand thing. There are people who pay for this kind of stuff.


  21. Chris Biele November 2nd

    Good tut Fabio. Mine didn’t quite turn out the same due to my amature pen techniques, but with a little color adjustment I turned it into some nice flames.

    Cheers


  22. Mike November 2nd

    Have to agree I’m afraid. I preferred the other technique on your website. This one doesn’t look natural at all, although that is probably intended?

    Still very useful though!

    (…but not for smoke).


  23. Nobody November 2nd

    I think he was aiming for a DIGITAL smoke look, not a realistic one as some of you seem to be moaning about. And it looks like he made this tutorial upon request anyway….so it obviously helps some people… :)


  24. handx November 2nd

    I dont have illustrator..help me PLEASE!n :(


  25. Stephen November 2nd

    To the author’s credit, this tutorial does lay out some general concepts that can be applied to your own composition. That, and I couldn’t have written a better one, so I have to approve.


  26. Collis November 2nd

    Hey folks! Zee and I have done a little more work on the tutorial to give it a bit more punch at the end in true PSDTUTS style :-)

    I think Fabio’s tutorials are going to enrich this site tremendously and I for one am already learning a few things from him!


  27. Shyam November 2nd

    Where do you get these ideas man! you rock as usual. This one is a simple piece when comparing with all other tuts., yet well presented… keep it up boss!


  28. fabio November 2nd

    Firstly I would like to thank you all for the comments…. I know i could have done it only with photoshop but with illustrator it is much faster and easier to customize than with the liquify in PS for example…..besides that, the idea was to come up with a very easy way to create an abstract design in this case like those smoke photos…..


  29. T-Bone November 2nd

    quote: I think he was aiming for a DIGITAL smoke look, not a realistic one as some of you seem to be moaning about.
    __________________________________________________

    ^ exactly.

    this technique could come in very handy, thanks a lot for the tut.

    only thing i can moan about is the way it’s written – it could really use an editor ’s eye… commas and full stops would work wonders!


  30. andrea November 2nd

    No, it doesn’t look like smoke, but it is a nice sorta-elegant little effect that you could use in a number of ways.

    Love the tips on this site, keep it up. :)


  31. davidmac! November 2nd

    This was cool. I will add it to my toolbox and hopefully find somewhere to pull it out when needed like I’ve done with most of your other tutorials. Keep up the good work. Thanks for all your help.


  32. ididthis November 2nd

    i’ve been digging this web site since it started! you all have fantastic tuts! this also is great, nice use of illustrator! keep it up!


  33. adrian vergara November 2nd

    i love this!


  34. Its called digital November 2nd

    It is called a [i]Digital[/i] smoke effect. That is the reason it looks like this. This is a great digital image and I will most likely use it myself

    Nice Tut


  35. Eric Thoolen November 2nd

    I just want to say I LOVE IT! This kind of tut’s I can learn a lot with! Thanks….


  36. Bjorgvin @ stockvault.net November 2nd

    Excellent tutorial as always.


  37. Richo November 2nd

    THIS IS AN EXCELLENT TUTORIAL!

    Don’t listen to all the whingers, I think it is very important for psdtuts.com to have tutorials ranging from easy to difficult. I am a novice Photoshop user and I find this tutorial is completely within my ability!

    Thank you and keep it up Abduzeedo, you have supporters!

    Richo :D


  38. ieki November 2nd

    Doesn’t look very smoky to me either….


  39. Sangesh November 2nd

    I’ve been searching for this type of tutorial. Thanks to del.icio.us i found your website and thanks to you for this awesome tutorial.

    cheers.


  40. Bruce Colthart November 2nd

    Nice enough tutorial – thanks! I’d bet there’d be fewer negative comments if “stunning” wasn’t promised in the title. A less sensational and more descriptive (honest) title – might have been better, using “smoke-like” or “smokey.”
    Eagerly anticipating your next totally incredible installment!!!


  41. nico November 2nd

    thx

    WE WANT MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    This site provide the best tuts I ever seen


  42. Kimlam November 2nd

    can anybody mail me the the intermedia tutorial site or stuffs for photoshop! thanx in advance! u may mail me at this address rosy45@mail.com

    @@@@


  43. IlLness November 2nd

    I dont suppose there a way to imitate the first few steps in photoshop, i tryed and the end result was,. pooo

    pointers

    ps. nice tut


  44. Arik November 2nd

    When I visited PSDtuts yesterday and saw the original version I kinda thought to myself…this isn’t worth it. It looked like a cheap piece of plastic.

    I still don’t think it’s smoke, or at least, not the same realistic result that if to be obtained with the liquify filter such as explained on abduzeedo. BUT, when you add in the extra steps it does create a nice effect.


  45. bart November 3rd

    Nice that it is updated. This is much better!
    Great tutorial on a great site!


  46. levent November 3rd

    updated superb :D


  47. Marty November 3rd

    This is a fantastic tutorial! I learned a lot. I actually intend to go read it a couple more times. Thanks again for the great tutorials! Keep up the good work.


  48. Jon November 3rd

    I am loving this site more and more. Keep up the amazing tuts.

    Jon -
    http://www.dinnermint.org/


  49. joost canters November 3rd

    props! very nice!


  50. Jeremy November 3rd

    I think this was a great tutorial. It’s called *digital smoke* and hence has an unnatural digital vibe to it. The title makes sense, but is a bit misleading because it seems so many people were anticipating something else. This seems more deserving of a title relating to creating an attractive and abstract wallpaper, like the tutorial that shows how to create a Mac style background. Still interesting to see how you used the blend tool.


  51. Scott November 3rd

    Great tutorial. Surprising to see some of the negative comments on this. Are you guys for real? Personally I like using the 2 applications together, especially since they were designed to work together.


  52. jamarvelous November 3rd

    Thank you for the article. Very clean and slick. Very controlled. This is going into me digital morgue.


  53. Jeffrey November 3rd

    I left a bad comment on this tutorial before, But now that you have updated it, I think this is a very good tutorial. Very nicely done, looking forward to seeing more of your tutorials. Thanks


  54. Ando November 3rd

    Great as always! Keep it up, and guys buy them coffee!


  55. Antomio November 3rd

    Do any knows where can I get free tutorials that I can add to my website. I will be giving credit to the author, and site. Also, I can give them links that can bring more traffic to their website. Do any one knows?


  56. benny November 3rd

    Nice tutorial using illustrator and photoshop .Well done Fabio and psdtuts :-)


  57. Jeff Boek November 3rd

    In itself it may be a ‘waeker’ effect then the other tutorials here. But if you combine it with your design the effect would look amazing with the right work.


  58. Mike November 4th

    Yeh, the update has made quite a difference. Looking pretty cool now. Thanks for this and all the other tutorials!


  59. k November 4th

    hi.. great tutorial. just one thing (dont know if it’s cs2 problem). when applying gaussian blur to the smart object (after setting 1st layer to multiply) it’s rasterizing it. would that be fine? or am i missing something?


  60. mykdotcom November 4th

    thanks for sharing!
    i’ve made it differently using some variations!
    thanks again!


  61. Ken_Sai November 4th

    Very nice! Cool TUT!


  62. Nyan November 4th

    I am very interested your’s smoke style. If possible, could you please explain step by step. Thanks!


  63. Joefrey Mahusay November 4th

    What a nice effect!. Great Work!


  64. Andrew November 4th

    Great work! and…

    To the complainers please shutup! So what if it doesn’t look like smoke, at least it still looks amazing.


  65. JS November 5th

    I think that most of the people complaining probably don’t have the skill set to figure this stuff out. Nice job…very elegant look.


  66. Ether November 5th

    Thanks Fabio!

    I love the abstract-look of this tutorial! I’ve actually been looking for something like this to incorporate into a project I’m working on.

    Thanx again!


  67. PT November 5th

    Great Tutorial, Great simple effect.

    Horrah for PSDTuts.


  68. Alan November 5th

    I’m a bit confused - I followed your tut step by step, and I keep getting a very different result. Is this because I’m using AICS3? Because the problems start at the blending - there’s no “line” created once I blend, and all blending does [even with the options] is make a gradient between the lines [they do cross].

    Thanks-
    Alan


  69. KitsuneChan November 5th

    Thanks for what I think is a great tutorial only one thing.. What if you don’t have any other program that is even close to illustrator!! What are “we” supposed to do then?


  70. sandy November 5th

    nice.. Amazing effect
    Thanks PSDtuts
    wonder full tutorial


  71. Daniel Pinheiro November 6th

    O tutorial é bem bacana Fábio…
    E o seu site tb é 10…

    Parabéns…


  72. @rend November 6th

    Very good tutorial, you get the best quality of vector objects by exporting them from illustrator to photoshop, this way al the objects will remain the same and they’re also exported as several uncombined layers. Everyone knows vector object are made in Illustrator, not in photoshop..

    ;-)


  73. josh November 6th

    I think this is a great tutorial. I really like the effect - it is what you say it is - a digital smoke effect. I think most of the complainers are just hacks looking for quick effects. Tutorials are to be used as an addition to a growing skill set, not a one-time deal.


  74. scfcats November 7th

    You guys are invaluable, a constant source of inspiration. Thanks!


  75. Sayajee November 7th

    It’s Coooooooool :)


  76. mark November 8th

    Very nice. Reminds me of my ps3 “wave background”.


  77. Mark November 8th

    Awesome technique - this is cool and great job this is very awesome tutorial.

    Thanks for this


  78. ezoryak November 8th

    Nice tutorial using illustrator and photoshop! Great tutorial on a great site! Very nice..!


  79. strk November 8th

    thanx for this tutorial! interesting…

    just a question: I don’t have the option to paste from Illustrator to Photoshop as “Samrt Object”. Any ideas?

    Thanx in advanced


  80. Perre November 9th

    Yea i like it, and the blend effect on the curves in AI is really helpfull. Never thought of that :) and i love illustrator


  81. Agilius November 10th

    Wow! Grate job. I am impressed. Wonderful tutorial.


  82. crabbie November 10th

    the tutorial is great.
    clear step by step easy for dummy like me


  83. CrazyLeaf November 10th

    Great tutorial. Doesn’t really look like smoke. More like silk blown by wind, but nevertheless it’s a cool tutorial.


  84. Simon November 10th

    Fabio another awesome tutorial! So jealous of your talents!


  85. Tuts4all November 12th

    Not sure how much people would use this as apposed to the other tutorials you write. But its another great tutorial.


  86. BAMF! November 13th

    hey love this man i was just wonderin what font was used here anyone help me out?


  87. Alex Pobi November 14th

    Just the kind of tutorials i need, a beautiful work, thanx alot and keep up the good work.


  88. kiran November 15th

    ya really nice effects i liked it very much


  89. VELAYUTHAM.P November 15th

    What a nice effect!. Fantastic Work!


  90. William Johansen November 16th

    Hey guys!

    Awsome illustration. Thing is that Im kinda new to this, specially illustrator.

    So I was wondering if some one could explain step 2 to me a little closer. (Please send me a mail: dkmwilliam@gmail.com)
    I didnt really understand the part with gray and white.. Like how Im supposed to do it, couldnt find the tools or what Im supposed to use.

    Didnt work with step 3 either with blend thing, but maybe because I skiped step 2..

    Would be VERY, VERY nice if someone of you could help me out!!

    Thanks ALOT!


  91. William November 16th

    Hey guys! Great tut.

    Im new in illustrator and need some help with step 2. Could anyone please explain closer to me how I do the white and gray stuff to the lines?

    Would be VERY nice. I really want to be able to create an image like this! It`s awsome.

    If someone could just mail me: dkmwilliam@gmail.com

    THANKS!


  92. jordan widel November 16th

    Thats such a good affect


  93. Ezequiel November 16th

    WOWWW nice job!! great designer!!


  94. nguyen kiem November 16th

    i wanna learn more about creat a powerpoint to plan my lesson . please show me how to do this . thanks in advance


  95. Chibone November 17th

    :S the tutorial look so hard, but pretty nice


  96. ni3 November 17th

    Hmm, this is a slightly weaker tutorial than the normal amazing stuff we see here.

    I’m just sayin’.


  97. Mankaran November 18th

    Great tutorial!!!!!


  98. Matt November 19th

    Add a few Filter / Wave effects and it will look more smoky.


  99. diverdan November 19th

    This is great. I’m almost done. Thanks for all the greats


  100. arnel November 21st

    wow.a nicene….


  101. Ashutosh November 21st

    this is very good for bad students


  102. Shami November 22nd

    i love it


  103. Rajender Kumar November 23rd

    I think its amazing effect which we use in differnet style.


  104. reezluv November 23rd

    wow..awesome tutorials..this is the best website that I have ever seen that provides the fantastic design and graphics..thanks a lot..

    maybe I will submit some tutorials to your site later..lol:)


  105. israel November 24th

    quisiera saber si puedes hacer este tutorial en español, pq me paece muy interesante.. gracias


  106. Thales November 24th

    Hey
    I really like this tutorial, so I want to translate it to post in a design forum
    I will not change the text (just translate), and I will put the credits
    I wait for the answer in my e-mail
    Thank’s


  107. Peter November 25th

    I can’t get the first few stages on this either…

    The PS stuff is fine but I can’t get the initial “smokey effect” in stage 1 and 2 look like the ones in the tutorial.

    Help please! peter_john_myers@hotmail.com

    thanks


  108. IsmetM November 25th

    I love this tute. I dunno how anyone can say it’s a weak tute! Maybe the title confused some? I ain’t looking for smoke but just that beautiful effect.


  109. Mayura November 27th

    great designer!!

    Thanks


  110. Karthik November 30th

    Very nice and creative…..
    this is very helpfull and brain stroming


  111. mehdi December 1st

    dear friend
    thank you for nice work ……


  112. Pavel December 1st

    Doesnt look like smoke really, but its still pretty creative and looks cool :). Thanks for the great tips :). Keep up the good work.


  113. Sabaj December 2nd

    this is a great tutorial!… I could see how the title be misunderstood.
    Thanks for the beautiful effect!


  114. Tele Ogundeko December 2nd

    what a drag!! whats with the dweebs here who keep moaning? He did say digital smoke, not natural smoke for bloody designs sake! This is a nice looking effect for people who could need it. If you don’t, then put a sock in the moans and just look away..to punch holes in the designer’s aura for a tutorial he gave out freely is just not worth it. Very unappreciative and down right ungrateful for something you dont pay for. “i expected better from this site” what a load of bullfrog!!!


  115. Mike December 7th

    Love the look, I did have trouble with step 2, with the middle grey line not showing once the blend between the white and dark grey line are blended with the 200 lines.


  116. egypt web design December 10th

    really very nice effects i liked it


  117. Anton December 11th

    man this is great.
    i was on your website all day reading stuff. i am actually a fireworks user but still learned alot.
    wonder in all the photoshop features can be transfered to the fireworks…
    thanks alot for the tutorials.
    doing a great job.

    Dont Waste Your Life.


  118. dan December 11th

    Difficult to follow and unclear…


  119. Gabbby December 13th

    Excelent!

    thnks…

    have a nice day :)


  120. JOE December 15th

    ok grate one but this is some how confuzing for new ps and ill user like i am not couse its hard but its kind not
    good explaned or some steps are just skiped


  121. khalidbrar December 17th

    great designer!!

    Thanks


  122. hossein December 17th

    wondefull
    thanks


  123. Abhijit December 20th

    Nice but I don’t have illustrator so have to try in Photoshop only :-(


  124. Kathryn December 25th

    I’m a design student and I so appreciate your taking the time to share your techniques. Thank you.