Hey im looking for a tutorial on making big thick black smoke for a volcano.

All the tutorials i can find is for little wispy lame smoke for things like bulletholes and recently fired guns.

Ive tried using a brush...i cant get it to work so unless theres a tutorial that u guys know about that would make big thick black smoke from an erupting volcano or a certain brush i can use that would create the desired effect let me know thanks.

This little ditty might work for ya.

*set foreground to black & bckgrnd to white or vise versa*
1 Filters Render Clouds
2 Copy that layer a couple times
3 Set the top couple layers to multiply
4 Merge all the layers
5 Make a selection, feather the selection (to your liking)
voila....black smoke

I'm not always the best at splain'n things. ...hopefully you get the idea tho.

Thx alot! It looks a lot better than what i originally had, could probs still use a few more tweaks but ill do that after ive done everything else.

I'd attack it by making a brush. Bare with me this is my first tutorial...

Start with a 300 Soft edge brush
Set brush mode to Linear Dodge
Set that opacity somewhere between 10 - 30%
I normally start lower and work my way up depending...
in the Brush presets... Shape Dynamics leave it alone at 'default' but make sure that "Other Dynamics" is turned on.
and use these settings Opacity Jitter 0% With Control set to pen pressure (if you use a pen like I do) Flow Jitter should be 0% and control turned off.
Thats brush one. Save it as a new brush preset and name it 'smoke' or what have you.

Brush two you're going to make will add the 'realistic' part of the smoke.
This next brush will be a textured brush. I love and use this brush exclusively for my cloud/smoke making.
Start with the smoke brush.
Click Texture in the presets.
you can use one of the B&W ones given to you by PS. OR you can find a good outside source like a piece of granite or other interesting rock surface (make sure its really large and B&W) and import that by using the marquee tool Selecting an area. and going Edit>Define Pattern.
now take that pattern and add these settings in the Texture preset. Scale 90-100%. Mode Color Burn. Depth 100%.
Save this brush preset as clouds.
this brush can be used with a normal mode setting or the Linear Dodge depending on the background you're working with. also mess with the opacity and switch between black & white to create desired effect. Will take some getting used to and some experimentation. but you'll love the end result. And best of all, you didn't use a filter to create it. YOU created the smoke!!
examples I've used these two brushes in
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/94777/last-day-at-work.html
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/134242/asteroid-3141592653589.html
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/122740/to-heaven.html
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/127795/love-at-first-bite.html
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/115750/dilemma.html
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/128581/dawn-breaks-at-the-swamp.html
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/127261/land-shark.html
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/126885/get-out-gif.html
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/128618/mission-to-titan.html
makes good surf too
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/113261/escape-plan.html

if you can't figure something out in my really bad tutorial... PM me and I'll try to work you through it.

Cheers!

I don't exactly remember how I made this smoke

http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/100466/vulcanized-rubber-gloves.html

but I think I mostly just used the smudge tool on a few different layers of black/gray/white.

Granted, it's not great, but it might be a part of what you do.

nice lesson TheShaman.

Thanks AJ

oh and for the ash... use the tutorial for making snow here at PSC... Just make the snow 'dirty' with a bit of grey in it.
http://photoshopcontest.com/tutorials/22/making-snow.html

Thanks Shaman. Ill try your tutorial out in the morning. If it doesnt turn out how i like it i always have my half-decent one to back it up.