Ok, how to make Explosions.
The Easiest way is to steal them! LOL! What? No, I’m serious! Go to Google or Yahoo and search the images for explosions; And you might get something like this;




And I’m going to add it to this pic;



First thing is bring up the Explosion picture and using the freehand tool, select the explosion;



Right Click and Copy;

Minimize the Explosion pic and open the helicopter crash pic, right click and “add as new Layer”;



If the explosion is not the right size, you have to go back to the explosion picture and resize it, and then copy and paste until it is the right size!




Move the explosion layer where you want it. Then using the layers option Pallet, drop the transparency down until you can see through the explosion.




Using the eraser tool, erase the explosion where it overlaps the walls and parts of the chopper blades. It helps to expand the picture 3 or 4 times it’s normal size and adjust the eraser tools size.

Then, bring back the transparency level until it looks as natural as possible! (I forgot this step in my pic!!!) Then, using the Gaussian blur, blur the layer.








And VIOLA! Explosion and Helicopter crash! The more time you work on these Techniques, and the more effort you apply, the more natural and professional your pic will look!!

Realize, I threw this tutorial together. With more time and effort, the results can be much better. Like these two pics:










Enjoy!

Excellent work as usual Frank. And taking your tips literally, I just "borrowed" the explosion pic you posted above, thank you!

__________________
"The future's uncertain and the end is always near." - The Doors "Roadhouse Blues".