In this tutorial, photographer and illustrator Tigz Rice shows you how to use the Render Flames tool to add a fire to an unlit fireplace in a digital composite. Tigz also provides a wide range of tips and techniques to blend the flames into your artwork and create a realistic glow. We’ve used Adobe Photoshop to complete this process, which is available separately or as part of Adobe Creative Cloud. Some students are eligible for an extended free trial of Creative Cloud, and there are also ways to get Photoshop for free. These settings will be dependent on the type of flame you want to create. Experiment with the parameters to see how they work. I want flames that flow upwards like those in a real fireplace, and you can see the settings I chose to get that here. Once again, use the Pen tool (P) to create a new S-shaped curve that complements the fire on the ‘Flame 1’ layer. Then, highlight all of your flame layers and Shift + Click on the Add New Group layer to bring all the flames together into one group. Rename this group to ‘Flames’. Hover over the line between the adjustment layer and the group while pressing Alt, until a white box with an arrow appears and then click to clip the two together. This is known as Clipping. For more control, click on Master to access a drop down menu of colours. Select Yellows and reduce the saturation so your yellows are less saturated than the reds in the flames. As the environment has a greyish-blue tint, we’ll pick a similar colour for our fill. Once you’re happy with the colour, press OK. Next, go to Filter > Camera Raw Filter… to bring up the Camera Raw dialog. Click on the Radial Filter icon and add +0.5 Exposure and +50 Temperature to create a glow for the flames. Once done, press OK.
