Liquid Fire

  1. 1. Step 1

    To start creating this really cool effect, select 2 colors, a dark brown and a bright orange/yellow. For this example, the foreground color was #9C4505, and the background color was #E0DE37.

  2. 2. Step 2

    Create a new RGB document, any size, although it works better larger. For this example, I used an image that was 256×256 pixels. Go to Filter-Render-Clouds on the Background layer. Now it looks like the image to the left.

    To decrease the roughness of the clouds, go to Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur. I used a 5 pixel blur on this image. That radius may do the trick on larger images as well.

  3. 3.

    Duplicate the Background layer, by right-clicking on it in the layers palette, and going to Duplicate layer... Just hit Enter to go past the dialog box. You should now have two layers, a Background layer and a Background Copy layer.

  4. 4. Step 4

    On the Background Copy layer, select Image-Adjust-Desaturate to take all color from the new layer.

  5. 5. Step 5

    Go to Image-Adjustments-Levels (Ctrl-L) on the new Alpha channel, and slide the top sliders in until you get a decent amount of contrast.

  6. 6. Step 6

    Go to Filter-Sketch-Chrome and enter in high values for detail, and low values for smoothness. It doesn't look that great now, but it will shortly.

  7. 7.

    Select the entire canvas now, by pressing Ctrl-A. While the Background Copy layer is selected, press Ctrl-C.

    Go to the channels palette, create a new channel, and press Ctrl-V to paste it into the new channel. Deselect by pressing Ctrl-D.

    Duplicate the new channel to a new document by right-clicking and going to Duplicate channel select New Document under the drop down menu, and then save the new document on your hard drive.

  8. 8. Step 8

    Go back to the Layers palette, and turn the blending mode to Overlay on the Background Copy layer.

  9. 9. Step 9

    On the Background layer, go to Image-Adjust-Levels, and move the top sliders in until you get a bright red, and a bright yellow color, similar to the look of the left.

  10. 10. Step 10

    On the Background layer, go to the Filter-Distort-Displace. Use values of about 30% on both the horizontal and vertical settings. Choose the .psd file that you just saved as your displacement map, and press OK.

Additional Ideas

To add some more detail, you may want to try using some lighting effects. Or you could investigate using Strych9ine’s excellent tutorial that converts this technique into Liquid Plasma.