Particle disintegration effect in photoshop tutorial Avengers Infinity War meme

Colin Smith

This tutorial shows how to create the Marvel Avengers, Infinity Wars disintegration effect in Photoshop.  I have put my own twist on it with the person turning into waves of particles as if they are being turned into dust I call this the particle disintegration effect and I have made it easy for you in this free PhotoshopCAFE tutorial.

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Marvel Avengers, Infinity War DUST effect: How to create a disintegration dust effect in Photoshop.

“Mr Stark, I don’t feel so good.” Here is how to recreate the disintegration effect from Marvel Infinity wars.

Now, this kind of effect has become very popular, especially since the disintegration memes started up. You are kind of seeing it everywhere and there’s a lot of different things we can do. Splatter we can do, dispersion we can do disintegration by using different types of brushes. And the effect is actually really easy. I am going to show you how to do it right now.

Woman in a teal jacket leaping against a white wall, her body disintegrating into flying particles

I started with this photo.

Woman in a teal jacket and red sneakers jumping in front of a weathered white wall

Step 1

Select the background layer.

Click Ctrl J for Windows or Command J for Mac to copy it.

Click Ctrl J/Command J again to copy it once more.

Layers panel with Layer 1 copy, Layer 1 and the Background

Step 2

Rename the newly created layers.

I named these “inside” and “outside”.

Hide the inside layer

Layers renamed inside and outside, with the inside layer hidden

Step 3

Select the Outside Layer.

Grab a Lasso Tool

Lasso Tool chosen from the Photoshop toolbar flyout

Make a selection around the person in the photo.

Rough lasso selection around the jumping woman

Step 4

You now want to fill with Content Aware.

Press Shift+Backspace for Windows, Shift+Delete for Mac.

Color Adaptation selected.

Fill dialog set to Content Aware with Color Adaptation checked

Click OK.

Woman removed from the white wall with Content Aware Fill

Press Ctrl+D to deselect.

 

Step 5

Select “inside” layer and turn its visibility on

Inside layer selected and visible in the Layers panel

Go to Filter>Liquify

Increase the size of the brush by pulling up the size in the properties panel.

Grab the Forward Warp Tool.

Grab and drag with your brush.

Liquify Forward Warp smearing the woman to the right in long streaks

 

Step 6

Get Freeze Mask tool. Freeze Mask tool icon in Liquify

By using this you protect the specific areas from changes.

Paint the lower part of the leg with the mask.

Lower leg painted red with the Freeze Mask in Liquify

Grab the Forward Warp Tool.

Grab and drag the area around the other leg with your brush.

Click OK.

Liquify smear with the frozen leg kept intact, OK circled

Step 7

Now we hide the Inside Layer, by masking it.

Hold down Alt key/Option key on Mac and click the mask icon to create an inverted mask (black).

Inside layer with a black inverted mask, the add mask button marked with an arrow

Do the same for the Outside Layer.

Outside layer given a black inverted mask too

Step 8 Getting the brush you need to apply a dispersion splatter.

Grab your shatter/splatter brush, or Get one through creative cloud if you are a subscriber
(If not an all apps member, try searching places like Deviant Art of Brushezy for free brushes and skip to step 9)

Go to Adobe Creative Cloud>Assets>Market

Do a search for splatter brush.

Creative Cloud app Assets Market searched for splatter brush

Add the brush to your library.

Splatter brush results in the Creative Cloud Market

Click on that little icon. Cloud download icon for adding a brush to a library

Create a new library and click on it to download the brush or just add the brush to the existing library.

Splatter Watercolour 3 brush with Add to Libraries and Create Library

 

To see all your brushes you go to Window>Libraries

Libraries panel showing the downloaded splatter brushes beside the photo

Step 9

I’m going to modify the brush.

Go to Brush Panel, Window>Brushes

In the Brush Panel select Shape Dynamics.

Increased Size Jitter

Under Control, choose Pen Pressure if you want to use a Wacom or Surface pressure sensitive pen.

Pulled up Angle Jitter a bit.

Brush Shape Dynamics with Size Jitter on Pen Pressure and Angle Jitter raised

Step 10

Select Scattering right below Shape Dynamics.

Increase Scatter as well as Count and Count Jitter.

Under Control select Pen Pressure. (If you are using a Wacom tablet)

 

Brush Scattering at 265 percent with Count Jitter on Pen Pressure

Close the brush panel.

Make your brush smaller by pressing the Left Bracket Key.

 

Step 11

Open the Layers Panel.

Now we’re going to apply the effect to the Outside Layer.

Select Outside Layer Mask.

Outside layer mask selected in the Layers panel

 

We have the brush selected.

White as a foreground color.

Opacity 100%.

Begin to gently paint inside the person. Not too close to the edges just yet.

Splatter brush revealing white wall specks inside the woman's body

 

Make the brush smaller by pressing the Left Bracket Key.

Paint on the edges, so that the edges start to disintegrate.

Edges of the woman's hair and arms starting to break apart with the brush

 

Step 12

Select Inside Layer Mask.

Inside layer mask selected in the Layers panel

Make a brush a bit bigger by pressing the Right Bracket key.

Paint on the edges to add dispersion there.

Particles from the smeared inside layer appearing beside the woman

Step 13

Make the brush really small by pressing the Left Bracket Key.

Paint stream-like or wave-like shapes.

And here is the end result:

Woman dissolving into flying particles like the Avengers Infinity War dust effect

Isn’t this effect fun?

Now you can disintegrate your friends and turn them into dust “Mr Stark, I don’t want to go” (Watch the Avengers Infinity Wars if you don’t get it).

Add a comment. Also, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter. New tutorials are on their way and by signing up you make sure not to miss out on any!

And until next time, I’ll see you at the Cafe.

Colin


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14 comments

  1. Cyndi Lee

    Thank you Colin! You are amazing and always inspire through your education. I met you briefly at MARS and I hope you’ll find a way to come back so I can take your class next time!

  2. Dennis Zito

    Hi Colin,

    Wow, that pretty darn cool! I’m definitely going to try it out on some photos.

    Thanks,

    Dennis

  3. Very cool effect! Plan to try it out! Thank you!
    I LOVE the NEW site, Colin! So nice!!
    Su

  4. Michele Barrette

    I already have cs5 superguide, cs6 superguide, destination and blending mode

  5. FotoPhantasia

    Been wanting to try this effect out for ages- your tutorial really makes it nice and easy plus logical- I like the way you give us both the video and written explanation- intend to do many more of these tutorials.

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