This shows how to make a fire / flame effect in Photoshop without Plug-ins , I had posted this tutorial on Loreleiweb too .. so thought of posting it here.

NOTE: This isnt advanced Photoshop, so guys you need to make your variations to get the desired effects .. this is just a skeleton.

1) Open Photoshop CS and hit Ctrl+N to make an image of 200x150 pixels, use the paint bucket tool and fill with the background color of your choice. In the layers pallet, make a new layer, then using the marquee tool make a rectangular shape near the bottom.



2) Select the linear gradient tool, select foreground as orange and background as red. Fill your rectangle with orange and red by clicking
inside the top of the rectangle and dragging toward the bottom and releasing. Click Crtl+D to deselect.



3) Select the smudge tool, and start with a 19 pixel round brush, click inside the red area of the colored rectangle and drag your mouse
upward, moving your brush from side to side slightly as you drag.



4) Add a few yellow areas with the brush tool, near top ends of your flames.



5) Go back to the smudge tool, reduce the round brush size to 5 pixels, to blend the tops of the flames. You may also want to drag downward to blend color. Use short random strokes.



6) Select the burn tool, under burn options choose highlights and set exposure to 9, using a large burred brush you can add some shaded areas. Pause briefly in between your strokes to examine your progress.



7) Fire without using any plugins

Regards
Dhanesh.

thats a pretty neat tick to make fire. ive tried it myself and it didn't seem to look as good as yours did, but it was my first attempt. i'll keep trying

thanks for the tutoral

Nice effect Dhanesh, I never knew you were such an artist .

FINALLY ! Thankyou twitch. Means alot. Was waiting for sumone with more experience than mine to comment.

And to be honest jimmy, it was my 2nd try only. but i guess this could be made better and much realistic with variations and tries.

Regards
Dhanesh.

Wow that's a nice effect, the end result just appeals to me alot, I'm definitely bookmarking this page for later reading lol.

I think the misses could have fun with this tutorial also.

If you have or know any other nice things like this to do in Photoshop without any need for additional plug-ins, let me know .

*Thumbs Up*!