Car on Fire
1. Open up a picture of a car (or anything else) that you want to set on fire. I will use this great pic:
2. Duplicate the layer (Ctrl + J) and name it "Fire". On the copy, go Filter > Brush Strokes > Spatter with Spray Radius: 22 and Smoothness: 15
3. Still on the copy, go Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map and apply a gradient like this:
4. Add a layer mask to the layer and then duplicate the layer, name it "Fire Base", you should now have 1 original, and 2 "fiery" layers with masks. Fill both masks with black. On "Fire" start painting with white on the mask to reveal parts of the fire/glowing metal.
5. Take the smudge tool and a soft round brush, Strenght: 70%. Start smudging from the BRIGHT areas of the fire to make the flames (Because the inside of flames are the brightest), do this on the layer and not on the layer mask!. While you are doing this, you must also paint with white black on the layer mask to show/hide parts of the flames you want.
6. When you are happy with the flames, paint with white on the layer mask belonging to "Fire Base", on the car under the fire, making the fire "see trough". Set "Fire Base"'s opacity to 30-40%.
7. If you want you could also add some smoke! Create a new layer underneath the fire layers and use the brush tool with a soft round brush and maybe some other fitting brushes, use different shades of gray.
8. We can make the effect even cooler (or hotter?). Duplicate your original layer and make a selection like below and then go to feather (Ctrl + Alt + D), I used a radius of 20px. Keep the selection active.
9. Go Filter > Distort > Glass with these settings: Distortion: 10 - Smoothness: 15 - Texture: Canvas - Scaling: 100 %. You have now made a "heat effect", and are now done!
Here's my final:
