How To Create A Ring Of Fire

This is a cool effect hen created with a little bit of precision. We will create a ring that appears to be ablaze or commonly known as a ring of fire. It’s actually a lot easier to do than you may think if you have not tried to create this effect before. Photoshop is perfect for these effects that require a little patience with the pixels and color.

So, here are the steps:

1. Create a document 600 by 600 pixels, fill the background with black.

2. Draw an elliptical circle that fills about 50% of the window.

3. Got to edit, then stroke, select center and adjust the amount to 50% – we need a nice thick stroke to begin.

4. Go to filter, Gaussian blur, set to 30.

5. Now we need to lock the transparent pixels so we can apply an effect just to the pixels, so press Lock Transparent pixels.

6. Now, go to render, then clouds

7. No we need to bring out the detail but not too much, some subtlety required. We will use plastic wrap, so go to Artistic, then plastic wrap and use the settings shown below.

8. The effect should be as below

9. Take the lock off the layer.  Go to filter, then Liquify and use the settings below.

Brush size: 73

Brush pressure: 49

10. Now when you press ok, it will render the effect. It’s a good idea to try a few times; perhaps you can set the flames to have sharper edges. So, go over it again with the brush, first reducing it in size to about 20, then wisp the flame ends sharply with the mouse.

11. Adjust the Hue/Saturation to the below settings; we want some of the yellow and red hues to stand out.

12. The effect should resemble the image below.

13. Now for the exciting bit as our ring of fire emerges in the document. Duplicate the layer, and then change to color dodge on that duplicate layer.

14. The ring of fire is almost done. Duplicate the layer again to intensify the orange and white colors that make a fire so significantly bright.

There it is – The Ring Of Fire blazing on your screen. Changing the Hue position will adjust the colors across the flames; perhaps you would like a red flame for example.  Also, try reducing the width of the initial stroke. Adjust as you see fit for your desired fiery effect.