Blogternals

Today I am going to show you one way to make smoke for your graphics. I know there are a hundred and one ways to do this but this method is the one I like the most because I have more control over what is happening to my photos or images. This is actually very easy to accomplish and the results are unbelievably realistic if you choose the right colors for the given photo (try to match the lighting best you can). We are going to be making use of two of the filter tools in the GIMP arsenal, Gaussian blur and the IWarp distort tool. OK, enough filler conversation lets get started already.

For this tutorial will are just going to make some grey smoke on a blank canvas but the technique will apply for any photo or image.

First create a new image any size will do but I used the following so if you want for constancy sakes you can use the same settings.

Next change your brush to a nice grey color, let’s use #777777. Now select the brush tool and use the 11px circle. Now create something similar to the following.

Now select the Gaussian Blur tool: Filters->Blur->Gaussian Blur. and use the following settings.

You should wind up with something similar to this after you apply you apply the blur.

This next step is the most important and something you will need to experiment with to get it looking right. Select the IWarp tool: Filters->Distorts->IWarp… You should try and mimic the movement and look of smoke here when you are done use the shrink option to make the start of the smoke look a little smaller.

Your finished product should look like the following.

Now that you know the secret you realize that it is indeed simple to create smoke in GIMP.

Enjoy and Have a Good’n!