Create a StarCraft-Inspired Firestorm in Photoshop [TUTORIAL]:Free Media Online

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Photoshop Tutorials

Create a StarCraft-Inspired Firestorm in Photoshop

Apr 22nd 2013, 14:30

We were recently inspired by imagery from StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. In this tutorial, we will show you how to create a massive spiral firestorm as seen from space. While we will use some stock photography during the course of this tutorial, most of the techniques that we will show will rely heavily on manual painting; so a tablet will be essential. This tutorial also includes several videos to help explain each step, as well as a speed painting video that shows the entire process form beginning to end. Let’s get started!

Speed Painting Video

Tutorial Assets

1. Base image setup and sketch

Step 1

To start off we will open up this image and make a layer out of it; then using the warp tool let’s decrease the spherical distortion a little.

Step 2

Then we will flip the image horizontally and scale it down a bit as shown here; and we will finish it off by cropping the image as indicated.

Step 3

OK let’s proceed making a levels layer and adjusting it as shown.

Step 4

Before we go on let’s convert our document to 16 bits to avoid banding on our painting. Then create a new layer and disable the levels layer for now, grab the paintbrush and sample a blue color from the sky as shown here.

Step 5

Grab a very big soft brush tip and cover the sky as shown here; then sample light blue from the horizon and paint in a softer transition from horizon to deep space.

Step 6

Jump back to the darker blue and reduce the horizon as shown here. Then we will use this moment to remove some close by clouds that could be a problem later on.

Step 7

Next enable the levels layer again and let’s add a curves layer, plus adjust it as shown here.

Step 8

Fill the mask of the curves layer with black, pick up the big soft brush again, and with white let’s just let this layer through a bit over the horizon as shown here.

Step 9

Next up let’s open up this image and change the canvas size as shown.

Step 10

Now we will use the clone tool to eliminate the fire at the bottom of the image and also the tires.

Step 11

Let’s also extend the top so we have a soft organic edge.

Step 12

Now create a layer mask and choose this brush tip.

Step 13

And of course with black let’s mask off around the smoke to get our smoke content standing freely in the middle.

Step 14

Once you are satisfied, apply the layer mask and copy the whole thing on to a new layer in our document; leave the smoke image open, we will use it again several times.

Step 15

Once you have the image in the document let’s distort it a little to change the perspective of it as shown.

Step 16

We will now start sketching the plan we have for the image so move the smoke image out of the way a little bit and sample a medium gray color from the smoke; then create a new layer on top.

Step 17

Choose a very soft round brush tip and start painting in a spiral shape as shown.

Step 18

Let’s now scale it a little if necessary and then distort the perspective also.

Step 19

Once in place just go back to the brush to fill in and complete this base shape.

Step 20

Then we sample a darker gray from our smoke and set the tip size to about 200px.

Step 21

We paint in some shaded areas to suggest volume and maybe then distort the shape a little bit more if needed.

Step 22

Now let’s go back to our light gray color and choose this cloudy brush at about 300px, then just start adding some cloudy strokes to the light surface on our image.

Step 23

Then we do the same for the shaded areas with the same brush and a darker color.

Step 24

OK now we will finish this section by sampling a bit lighter gray as shown and adding some lighter strokes to the top of the clouds.