Creating Elementals

[Fatboy73]

It's called flame painter. Extremely cheap(like $9.00) Takes a little bit of getting used to, but you can import a photo, trace it and get this effect. Great for making PS brushes as well. http://www.escapemotions.com/experiments/flame/#top

 

[ibclare]

Thanks Fatboy. Wouldn't you know it, an app. I won't knock it since I haven't tried it. So Grey Area, did he nail it for you?

 

[GreyArea]

Sorry about the late reply. The tool Fatboy recommended is neat, but it doesn't quite work for me. It just scribbles all over the place and doesn't give you much control over the result. Maybe if it had a speed control option.

The stuff you did with that figure and the flames I posted looks good, ibclare. I think part of what needs to be done is that at least some of the edges around the body may need to be erased so it doesn't just look like a guy on fire.

I found a good tutorial for making one animal in the shape of another. I'm thinking I can use that to make flames and smoke in the shape of a person. We'll see.

 

[ibclare]

So what do you think of this GreyArea?

 

[GreyArea]

That last one was okay, but it wasn't as good as the earlier stuff you did with the fire and figure I posted.

I found a few better examples that almost look like what I'm trying to do.

Sorry to keep giving you the "Meh" answer, but like most visual artists, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to how my images MUST turn out. I have a vision in mind and I'm sure there's a way to do it I just haven't figured out yet.

 

[Fatboy73]

As I mentioned before, these were either created with flame painter or a similar program. It takes practice to get these results, it's not something you can just knock out after trying the program for 5 minutes.
I personally think we've given you an abundance of info to work with and you should go and practice, practice practice. I would love to see the results after you've put some time into it.

 

[colleague]

these last examples are done with smoke brushes
if you place such a brush on its own layer you can warp it into a shape you want
and with some color adjustment you can change the smoke into fire

View attachment fire dove.psd

 

[ibclare]

That last one was okay, but it wasn't as good as the earlier stuff you did with the fire and figure I posted.

That amazes me, as I think the latter attempt was much better. I would have worked it more if it were something I wanted done. I used flame & smoke brushes, layer masks, glowing edges, blending modes. This kind of thing requires a lot of experimentation and as you read above, practice. I like colleague's idea of turning the smoke brushes into flame, but there are so many approaches. Sometimes you have to take from one method, take from another method and start combining ideas.

You haven't asked any of us to explain our techniques . . . for better or for worse. You need to start somewhere instead of just arguing "artistic temperament." It's not something we don't understand. But what we do understand is that you can't go from wanting to achieve to achieving it, just like that. Art is not only fun and skill. It's work. But it's work we love.

Good luck on finding what you want. If you keep trying things out, keep searching, I'm sure you will. Then come back and share your results and do some teaching yourself. It's a great feeling to be able to hand someone else your knowledge and be part of the community. :mrgreen:

 

[GreyArea]

I realize that this is going to involve experimenting with a variety of methods. The reasosn I haven't asked how you produced any of the works you've shown me are because A) I haven't seen anything that resembles my vision closely enough and B) I think I can work out for myself how you did what you've done so far. Now, if you know how to produce smoke figures like the ones I posted, I'd ask you to explain that, but even that isn't exactly what I want to do.

 

[GreyArea]

I've been playing around with techniques I've seen in various tutorials and here's what I've come up with so far. It's not perfect, but it's close. Just gotta fine-tune it a bit.

 

[GreyArea]

I have a separate but related project I've been working on that might help things along, here. I'm trying to create a tiger whose fur transitions seamlessly into fire so that it looks like it's actually made of fire, but I can't quite get the blending right. Any suggestions?