Seriously Cool Photoshop Explosion Effect

Mar 4th in Effects by Fabio
Explosions are cool. Seriously cool. So when I received some e-mails asking about how to create a break-apart, explosion effect, I knew it'd be worth making a tutorial on. Read on to find out how to break apart a body, then add some awesome lighting and glow, and nopattern style, to finish the image off.

Author: Fabio

I am a Brazilian designer living in Porto Alegre (south of Brazil). In 2003, I founded a web design studio called ZEE, with Fabiano Meneghetti, an architect and friend of mine. It's a small studio now, with 4 people working basically with web.

What We're Making

You can download the original image I used on this project at www.sxc.hu.

Step 1

Create a new document, any size. I used 800x600px. Fill the background layer with black. After that, place your photo in the center of the document.

Step 2

Select the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) and select the girl. When you complete the selection process, go to Select > Refine Edge. A dialog box will open with some settings. Select to preview the image on black, and make some adjustments until you find a nice result. Add a bit of feather, radius, and expand the selection. Then press OK.

Step 3

Invert the selection, Select > Inverse and delete the background of the photo. After that, go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen and the Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Set 2% for the noise amount.

Step 4 - Breaking Apart

With the Lasso Tool (L), select the girl's leg like I did, then go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. After that, select the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and fill the selection with black. Make sure that you paint the selection.

Step 5

Here we will need some brushes. You can find good brushes at brusheezy.com. I used a set of brushes called Blood-grunge.

Select the Brush Tool (B) and white for the color. Pick one of the brushes. I used the first one of the set and reduce its size to 300 or less. After that, start painting the hidden leg. You will need just a few clicks with the brush tool to get a good result.

Step 6

The previous step broke apart the leg, but the shatters didn't spread like a real explosion. So in order to do that, we will use the Clone Stamp Tool (S).

Create a new layer above the girl's layer and select the Clone Stamp Tool. Choose Current & Below in the Sample settings. If you have never used the Clone Tool before, the first thing to do is define a source point. To do that hold the Alt key and select the source point. After that, start cloning some parts of the exploded leg to spread the shatters. The last thing here is go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen.

Step 7

Repeat the Steps 4, 5, and 6, but select the arm this time to break apart.

Step 8 — Clouds

Add a new layer on top of the others. Select white for the foreground color and black for the background. Then go to Filters > Render > Clouds. Now select the Lasso Tool. Set the feather to 20px, and select an area around the girl. You will have a selection like the image below. After that, just go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.

Step 9

Double-click on the clouds layer to open the Layer Styles dialog box. The first thing to do here is use Screen for the Blend Mode and use 28% for the Fill Opacity. Then select Gradient Overlay. The Blend Mode will be Color Dodge this time with 55% Opacity. Use the same colors as the image below.

Step 10 — Lighting Effects

I used some brushes to create the light effects. You can find them here: http://r0man.de/kostenlose_brushes_photoshop.htm.

Create a new folder above all the other layers, rename it to "lights" and change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. Then select white for the color and the Brush Tool. Test some brushes to see the result. Create a layer for each effect.

Step 11

Create a new layer inside the "lights" folder. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), making sure the Feather is 0px. Create a rectangular selection. Then select the Gradient Tool (G). For the colors, use white for both start and end, but change the end's opacity to 0. Then just fill the rectangle with the gradient like in the image below.

Step 12

Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool (L) and use 10px for the Feather. Create an elliptical selection like the image below. The just go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.

Step 13

Duplicate the layer and go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical. Then go to Edit > Transform > Scale and reduce the height only. After that, just group these two layers. You can create more lights just by duplicating the group, rotating, and scaling it.

Step 14 — Illustrator

In Illustrator select the Pen Tool (P) and create two curved lines To do that, hold the button every time you click to create a curved point. Use 0.5pt for the stroke weight. After that, select the Blend Tool (W) and click over one line and then on the other. To change the blend properties, just double-click on the Blend Icon. Choose Specific Steps for the Spacing and use like 50 steps. Copy the blend.

Step 15

Back to Photoshop, paste the blend over the girl. After that, select the girl's body. To do that, just click over the girl's icon on the layer palette holding Cmd (mac) or Ctrl (PC), which will select only the girl's body. Then go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide Selection. That will hide the parts of the blend that are in front of the girl.

Open the Layer Style dialog box, change the Fill Opacity to 0 and select Gradient Overlay. Use 20% for the Opacity and use the rainbow colors, like in the image below.

Conclusion

There are lots of different ways to do the break-apart effect. I chose the one that was, in my opinion the fastest and easiest one. You can see that I spent more time creating the lighting effects than doing the break apart effect.

 


Enjoy this Post?

We'd love your vote!

User Comments

( ADD YOURS )

  1. Collis March 4th

    Fabio, I bow to your photoshop mastery … *bow* … wicked effect!


  2. Arik March 4th

    Ok…now THAT is DOPE. Doper than the Pope…even if the pope had soap on a rope.

    Kudos to you my friend, I believe I will have to open up some major effects if I want to keep up with you.


  3. Sean Hodge March 4th

    Great job on this tut. I have to try this now. Thx.


  4. honso March 4th

    omg this is awesome! great tut, thank you!


  5. Hyperninja March 4th

    Seriously amazing tutorial. That is top notch! I’m definatley liking the break apart effect.

    Thanks for sharing


  6. Cain March 4th

    Awesome, but I think I liked it better without the star bursts. It looked cooler when it was just fading away.


  7. Mystic March 4th

    Really good ! good job and thx


  8. Arnaud March 4th

    Fabio, I love you.

    THank you very much ! Amazing work.


  9. Brent Nelson March 4th

    Great tools to be used. Thank you for the free tutorials. I’ll try to use these in my works too (But not reproducing the same effect. Tweaking and playing with it)


  10. Aloke Pillai March 4th

    Its freaking awesome!

    keep Rocking!

    Aloke Pillai


  11. giackop March 4th

    i was waiting for this fabio.. thanks!!


  12. Julio Fragoso March 4th

    Great tuto buddy !!


  13. Ryan March 4th

    Wow, very good tutorial, keep up the great work!


  14. Chris March 4th

    It’s legen …. wait for it… dary! Truly awesome!


  15. Fredro March 4th

    AMAZING AND GORGEOUS. Can’t wait to try this one.


  16. Duluoz March 4th

    Does not give the effect of “exploding” at all. The detail is flat and lacking any kind of dimension. I don’t “get” how this is exploding. It just looks like slopping masking. I don’t get it. Why would you choose a happy woman jumping as a subject for exploding something. Are you happy when you explode too while wearing attire popular in the mid-90s? I don’t think so.


  17. canute March 4th

    freaking amazing


  18. Hero March 4th

    Seriously? … This image is a disaster. Could you possibly have more random things happening to this poor girl?

    I know you do better work than this Fabio. Not only is this piece lacking your usual style and the graphical focus, but the end result is altogether ghastly. And while ranting, let me say (on behalf of real life designers everywhere), I think we’ve seen quite enough of these swirly glowing light tutorials. How about a tutorial that has graphical relevance in the real world?


  19. niksy March 4th

    This is one great tutorial. Achieved very nice effects and also learned some new (at least for me) methods for my future works. Thanks!


  20. Jason Brown March 4th

    AWSOME!!!!!!!!!

    Please could you link to the original image as I realy want to give it a try. I’ve looked all over http://www.sxc.hu. but can seam to find the original.


  21. Ben March 4th

    This is a great tutorial - with an effect I might actually use for once! Nice and keep it up :)


  22. Chris March 4th

    Does anyone know what the type face is that Abduzeedo uses for his logo??

    Cool tute, really like it.


  23. Andrew D March 4th

    Great work! Loved the tutorial


  24. Livingston Samuel March 4th

    Wonderful tutorial and spectacular effects. :D


  25. gimper March 4th

    hey nice work!!. persoanly i wouldn’t add those extra flares beside the leg it made it look over done and cheesy, with that said i couldn’t have come with a better outcome then yours :D


  26. Zair Abbas March 4th

    Very nice work! :)
    thanks!


  27. diver dan March 4th

    Amazing. Simply amazing. Great effect on the breaking away. Whys the picture called “Teste” though…lol


  28. Rajender Kumar March 4th

    Gr8t Work really fantastic


  29. firewalker March 4th

    Hail, Fabio! For the awesome tutorials!


  30. Matt March 4th

    Don´t ever stop making tutorials! This is easily the best site on the entire web for tutorials. Keep up the great work.


  31. Andrei Constantin March 4th

    Was about time to be published on psdtuts. I was wondering how you managed it since i’ve seen the results last week on your blog

    Congrats


  32. Wax March 4th

    Great work and thank for showing us how to use this tools and effects for our own compositions… sorry about my english…
    Adios a todos.


  33. Daniel March 4th

    Wonderful Fabio, oustanding effect !. Love that one ! Thanks for sharing ;)


  34. Arnaud March 4th

    I have test, it’s very simply and beautiful.


  35. Xavier March 4th

    How great is that effect!
    Abduzeedo for president! ;.)


  36. Alberto March 4th

    The effect is really nice, and the tutorial is clear and simple.
    Fabio’s workis stunning!

    Apart from that, I have to say I agree with Hero:

    quote:
    we’ve seen quite enough of these swirly glowing light tutorials. How about a tutorial that has graphical relevance in the real world?

    I wrote my own but unfortunately it was rejected. That’s ok, probably it wasn’t good enough, but Collis, please, publish something useful for us working with photoshop and not only playing around to create a nice new desktop wallpaper effect.

    Look at the interface section: it is soooo poor!!


  37. AC March 4th

    Nice tutorial, but you can achieve a nice break apart (explosion) effect with Filter > Distort > Displace.

    It’s all about to get a good displacement map. In cinema 4d just create a polly and explode it, then export and use it as displacement map.

    Good work guys.


  38. Mark Bowen March 4th

    Hiya,

    Nice tutorial. For anyone trying to find the original image then you can just type in jump at http://www.sxc.hu and you should see it appear as one of the first images.

    http://www.sxc.hu/photo/950733

    Hope that helps.

    Best wishes,

    Mark


  39. Shane March 4th

    A very impressive end result. Thanks for the tutorial.


  40. parttimer March 4th

    Amazing tutorial! cant wait to try it, I love these type of effect but I do agree with Alberto when he says…

    quote: “Look at the interface section: it is soooo poor!!”

    I would really love to see more interface tutorials!


  41. Peter Jensen March 4th

    Very nice and simple Tut. You can find the Org. Pic here:
    http://www.sxc.hu/photo/950733


  42. MarGera March 4th

    Thanks for another great tutorial. Also really helpfully that you stated what size document you started with :)


  43. Steve March 4th

    Jason,

    Check out http://www.soemone.com. That is where this effect is from.


  44. lupe March 4th

    From Lupe Fiasco’s album cover.


  45. b00m March 4th

    wow :p


  46. Jamesr March 4th

    Great tut, learned some great stuff.


  47. The Daniel Richard March 4th

    Woah. Now that’s what I call awesome! O.O


  48. sct March 5th

    Awesome tutorial as always.


  49. Markus March 5th

    Awesome! I just love your light effects! xD


  50. mathface March 5th

    wow,
    now we can all make work that looks the same. totaly radical. I’ve been trying to get my designs to have that played out 2002 urban outfitter catalog design look. next time use some futura and throw in some floral patterns, william morris is so hot right now.


  51. Stockvault March 5th

    Excellent tutorial! The light effect may be a bit overdone, but the tutorial it self is very good and educational.


  52. David March 5th

    Impressive. I found the title a tad misleading but found the tutorial to be quite useful. Thx


  53. Fredro March 5th

    @ Hero: Don’t think that’s really fair, first off this is a free tutorial (and an amazing one at that). You may not like the result, but I know many people who come here not to turn in these exact tutorials into their own work, but rather to learn new skills in the applications that are utilized in these tutorials. Keep in mind that what doesn’t work for you in your “real world” may work wonders for others. The illustrator effects alone in this tutorial will help me on two projects I’m currently working on.


  54. Josh March 5th

    Just astounding… as always.


  55. walter March 5th

    nice work you are great a real photoshop master


  56. Lukas March 5th

    Awesome effect! You got my bookmark on del.icio.us.


  57. Dan Lund March 5th

    Absolutely amazing!

    Makes me wanna work in photoshop yet again - with other stuff that just correcting photos.

    Keep up the good work :)


  58. ryan March 5th

    that’s really cool, thanks for sharing the links to the brushes you used.


  59. r0man.de March 5th

    Hey thanks for using my brushes :)


  60. David March 5th

    @Fredro - If you LEARNED anything - you have no business designing. There is nothing shown in this ‘tutorital’ but very basic, beginner things you should already know.

    @Hero - You are 100% correct. This is very played out design and holds no relevance in todays market.

    This site looked promising at first. I was sure someone would come up with a tutorial site that didn’t pander to the non-designer beginner. I keep watching for new posts and keep finding the same poor tutorials. Now they want $9 for additional tutorials. If they’re like the free ones - there is no way I would pay $9 or $0.09.

    I get tired of these tutorial sites pandering to the lowest common denominator because its easier to sell to the vast majority of non-designers than it is to write quality tutorials that have merit and usefulness for intermediate to advanced students and professionals.

    I would give the pay for site a try just to see what $9 gets me - but I am very sure I would not be able to get a refund if I found it to be more useless garbage as shown above.

    Try and change my mind with future content. But I don’t know how much more of this I can waste time looking at.

    Cheers.


  61. bweb March 5th

    amazing stuff :)


  62. dzovan March 5th

    Woooooooow, extraordinary!


  63. CMoore March 5th

    @David/Hero:

    Are you serious? Come on, man, be realistic here. Not everyone in the world has the Photoshop or designing skills you apparently claim to have. Not having seen your work, I can’t make a claim either and I’m not saying mine is mastercraft either.

    But on that same token we have the fact that most sites that ‘cater to the lower denomination’ don’t have the same quality of stuff that PSDTuts has. You take a look at any site with PSD tutorials, then look here, I guarantee this one will have the majority of the better tutorials.

    Before you and Hero go saying nobody likes these shiny, flashy light tutorials anymore stuff a sock in it. I happen to like them, call me a noob or novice or whatever you like. The stuff I learn from here helps in basically everything I work on after that. And before you flame me like you did Fredro, I’m not a designer. I just like Photoshopping for the fun of it. Ever consider that those two projects Fredro’s doing might just be for personal use? Drop the flaming, it’s not helping out the site at all.

    @Fabio:

    I love your stuff, everyone else may hate the shiny light effects but I personally love them and yours are amazing. Keep it up and don’t let the flamers shut you down.


  64. Terry March 5th

    holy crap.. i love this… wow… wait til i do some craziness to my kid’s pics!!!


  65. Terry March 5th

    @david: lowest common denominator? who are you to judge what is or is not a quality tutorial? everyone starts somewhere, and this incldued you. if you don’t like it, please, PLEASE, submit a tutorial that the rest of us can use. you must be a highly paid master of your craft, so bestow your wisdom upon us plebes!!! please, link us to all the huge accounts you’ve worked on, and please, show us your massive portfolio of never before done photoshop projects!!!

    it’s self-centered and hypocritical to put beginners on the fringe, and this is no place for people to down the folks who want to find the basics for this, but can’t afford school.

    maybe you should go to another site instead.

    @ the rest: keep them coming. i really like fabio’s work flow, and i think that in itself is a help.

    peace


  66. Brad Frost March 5th

    Congrats on all the Diggs. This was an exceptional tutorial.


  67. Beelzeboss March 5th

    NICE. I have done similar things in the past. But this is alot cleaner. Really nice.


  68. Jin March 6th

    @david,

    i cordially challenge you to link me a tutorial that you find worthy of your time, but i have a feeling you can’t.

    as someone who’s been using photoshop since v2, i still browse ps tutorial sites. why? for me, it’s never really about how pretty/practical the end results look. it’s about the process. that’s where you may find something you don’t know. people never cease to amaze me.


  69. Terry March 6th

    Yeah Jin, you’re right.

    i also think that anyone who thinks a decent tut has to have dozens of steps should post one. hell, i’ll pay for their own tutorial site.. not really…

    good job team!!!


  70. Tom Ross March 6th

    That my friend, is amazing. Well done!


  71. Brian March 6th

    Yeah that David guy has no clue as to what he’s talking about. I’ve been using Photoshop since v3, and trolling around looking for sites with photoshop tutorials off and on for the last 10 years. This site has a lot to offer. Unlike most PS tutorial sites PSDtuts offers tutorials with the end result of a polished professional looking technique/design. PSDtuts is like the Bob Ross of Tutorial sites.

    The thing about PS tutorials is that they are meant to show you the endless possibilities in Photoshop. A simple tutorial and a complex tutorial can easily manifest into something much more special if a reader decides to attack the technique taught in a tutorial at a different angle. Much like… I don’t know…. ART SCHOOL. To go off on a rant about how these tutorials are for novices must mean that Dave isn’t trying to hard as an artist to make these tutorials work for him. That or he’s looking for tutorials on how to write Adobe Scripts. If that’s the case then yes Dave… these tutorials are not very advanced from a technical standpoint.


  72. WesTwood March 6th

    i think i did a pretty good job

    http://octavisanderson.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/breakapart.jpg


  73. The Daniel Richard March 6th

    @WesTwood: Nice one there for yours too! Haha. Very soon we’ll see lots of individuals’ photos with themselves exploding or vaporized.


  74. T-Bone March 6th

    to the flamers posting in here — there are some good IDEAS in these tutorials (this one included)… that’s what I get from this site. The results of the tuts are pretty cheesy and over the top, but some aspects can be translated to suit the occasional project I’ve worked on.

    Use your (supposedly) creative brain to apply some techniques where appropriate, or to give you some starting points to expand on. Or you could stop visiting and leaving non-constructive comments.

    keep up the good work psd tuts!


  75. Kishore Blog March 6th

    Wow!!. Amaging work. Hope u keep more good stuffs here.

    http://www.kishoreblog.com


  76. Andrique Sondropogolos March 6th

    @Morons

    Fabio is good. It’s a tutorial for a reason; to show those who don’t know how to do this “simple” thing how to do it. If you’re true designers you shouldn’t be looking for tuts, anyway, you should spend more time writing them

    -A real designer.


  77. Perre March 6th

    Well, if you really work in the graphics sector or study for designer…you see David is right about some things. Expecially this part.

    “I get tired of these tutorial sites pandering to the lowest common denominator because its easier to sell to the vast majority of non-designers than it is to write quality tutorials that have merit and usefulness for intermediate to advanced students and professionals.”

    The vast majority of non-designers. Its crystal clear what he tries to say here.


  78. MyHieu March 6th

    Nice tut ;)


  79. manicd March 6th

    Its not just the finished result that is important its the techniques used to get there. I found the tut very useful thank you.

    PS - Which set of BLOOD-grunge brushes did you download from here: http://www.brusheezy.com/brushes
    (I can’t see it :( )

    Could anyone help please


  80. Chaos March 7th

    Excellent work congratulations has already implemented some
    Work and is a pretty good effect Thanks see my work http://design-digitaldream.blogspot.com/


  81. lou March 7th

    @manicd

    I spent a few minutes looking else where for the brushes and they’re found here I believe: http://krisnreine.com/?page_id=28


  82. Myo Kyaw Htun March 7th

    You want us to do the same ? But anyway, I got the ideas and the ways you’ve done.


  83. Vitthal Roonwal March 7th

    I was always looking for such good tutorials, though am a webdesigner and designed over 300 sites but i wanted to know abt the advanced photoshop which now have helped me a great thanks to you all buddy’s

    Thanks once again

    Brb
    ;)


  84. escanive March 8th

    Very neat effect indeed!


  85. hawkes March 8th

    kostenlose_brushes_photoshop url - error 404


  86. SID_seba March 8th

    Great work!
    Creativity, is not a mather of tools (only ;))
    congratulations


  87. Maicon March 8th

    really professional tips!


  88. manicd March 8th

    @ lou thanks mate I appreciate it.


  89. Vishal March 8th

    Ultimate. i’m gonna check every tutorial on this site now.
    tutorial pirate i am. thank you sooooo much for this dude!


  90. alana March 8th

    wow, you rock.
    this is amazing.
    this is AWESOME!!
    thhhhhaannnnnkkk yyyyyooouuu
    :D


  91. Digital Revolutions March 9th

    Absolutely fab!


  92. Dan Crum March 9th

    I have to say, I agree with Hero and David. A tutorial that teaches you to rely on brushes and reuses the same glow effect that is all too common on this site? Wow. Thanks. How about something useful. Not more of the same “look swirling glows!” space fillers. The original text effect tuts, by Collis, on this site were great. They were simple techniques that could be used in a variety of ways to achieve great effects. How about following the trends at least. How about a tutorial on the homemade look or a better explanation on giving things a vintage look than “do exactly what I’m doing or risk ruining the effect.” I mean, why not try and keep people caught up with design trends rather than teaching us how to use the clone tool or makes things glow, etc.


  93. ibrahim.x March 9th

    simple and cool

    i like the way you put your tutorial

    keep up the good work


  94. Terry March 10th

    so, if there are professional people here, aggro’d at the idea of beginners actually learning something, why are they not submitting tutorials? and why is it assumed that photoshop is used only by pros? what about the illustrator, the DIY home enthusiast, or the person who simply does not have the time to go to school or meet other people in this field of work? are amateurs some kind of “dirt”? maybe you should read up on Gestault and take some design classes at the CC if you need help. if you need a tutorial based web site to step up your level of skill so much that everything that is posted is critical, maybe school is a better answer. they serve lessons with lots and lots of steps.

    it’s the process people. the end result of an “example” is just that; and EXAMPLE.

    good job fabio.


  95. red alkolik March 11th

    WOW!i dont know what can i say else^^


  96. Fernando werner March 11th

    Super bro!!!


  97. Koolie March 11th

    Awesome! I feel inspired and humbled that you would take the time to do a tutorial for all of us.


  98. Clear Ice March 11th

    Great work! The amount of effort put into this must have been huge! I’m a fan of really cool graphics, and this tops it all. Love it! Pls share more soon!

    -clearice


  99. metallica March 12th

    that’s nice pal .
    look i wish to have like this work on my mail .
    if you can help me by seb\nding them to mine plz .
    anyway nice work.


  100. egypt web design March 13th

    wow nice


  101. Spike March 19th

    Nice tut, but it’s ugly as ass.


  102. BenRulz March 21st

    Hey …awesome tutorial….. u give out such amazing tuts…. really appreciate it for sharing some of ur tips and techniques ….. very clear, understandable and easy to follow ….. detailed tutorials u give out….Keep At It….!!


  103. Nix March 21st

    Wow! So amazing!!! Great job!


  104. BMAn March 22nd

    this is awesome tutorial hot simple niceeee


  105. Alex March 23rd

    Where did you get teh font at the end what is its name???


  106. Alex March 23rd

    Also, how did you do the lighting/glowing effect ont eh writing?


  107. Hendo March 23rd

    AMAZING!!!


  108. egypt web design March 26th

    Great Coll Effects


  109. sergio April 10th

    excelente tutorial, muy inspirador
    gracias!

    very nice tutorial!
    thanks!


  110. creatived April 11th

    WOW!!…amazing tut, there is so much to learn here!!


  111. 3sulblog April 17th

    STUNNING effects and final image result… very very nice!!!
    Good job… I love that!


  112. zetakaene April 23rd

    fantastic tutorial, but can you link the images in sxc.hu please

    congratz!


  113. tokkra May 4th

    You are amazing..Wonderful tutorials !!! Keep up the good work !!!;)


  114. Olsn May 7th

    When i press (W) on my keyboard, the magic WAND tool is shown? I want the blend options up so i can create the lines :), Could some one help me?


  115. BT May 9th

    Uh, I like the explosions, but I think they’re poorly executed here… It just looks like you’re blowing off her arm and leg… but it’s fun and colorful, so it’s cool? I feel like this idea could be done in a different, more effective way… but I’m not photoshop master, so I guess I can’t complain. I just wish there were something I could use beyond this stock photo.


  116. anita mann May 15th

    I agree with Hugh Jass. These stupid tutorials really suck big donkey balls actually. I can easily do better while im taking a crap. YOU SUCK!!!!!


  117. mightee_mouse May 18th

    Nice tut! And thanks for the links to great brushes as well -


  118. shadow May 19th

    Great tut!

    My only problem is that I don’t have any illustrator..

    but great nonetheless!


  119. Egypt Web Design Company May 31st