How to Make Flowing Water in Photoshop

Through this tutorial, we will learn how to use various types of Photoshop filters to create a (hopefully) realistic effect of water running from a fountain or a faucet. First off, you should know that this tutorial absolutely requires that you have Photoshop CS2 or higher. It won't work otherwise, so don't say I didn't warn you.

Now, let's get started by going to File and creating a new document. I'm doing it at 500x500 pixels, but of course size it to suit your needs. Now go to the bottom of the tools panel and reset your foreground and background colors to the default black and white.

Next you should create a new layer, and then go to Filter->Render->Clouds and create clouds. Then go to Filter->Blur->Gaussian Blur, and adjust the slider to 6. Once that's done, go to Filter->Blur->Motion Blur and apply an angle of 90, and a distance of about 80. You can adjust these settings to your liking with experience.

Now go to Image->Image Size. You want to set the width (with a document that starts at 500px) to 300pixels. Be sure that you turn off Constrain Proportions. Then click ok. So now your document should now be 300 pixels wide and 500 high.

Next it is time to give things a bit of a shine. You should now go to Filter->Artistic->Plastic Wrap. Adjust the Highlight setting to 15, the Detail to 10, and the Smoothness to 10. Then you should go to Apply Filter->Sketch->Chrome. Adjust the Detail to 0, and adjust the Smoothness to 8. Finally, go to Edit->Fade Chrome. Here, you should adjust the Opacity to 100%. Set the Mode at Hard Light.

Now it's time to play with the shape some more. You should go to Image->Image Size. Reset the image height to 800 pixels. Leave all other settings as they are, while making sure that the "Constrain Proportions" is not checked. With that done, go to Edit->Transform->Warp. You should now move the anchors around, up and down, anyway you like, in order to get the resulting shape to look like running water.

Now, we will just add some gradient color to the background layer, and change the water layer's blending mode to Hard Light. And there you have it. As mentioned above, you play around with most of these settings to get the particular effect you need for your project. I find this technique very useful when working with CGI generated graphics, whose water often looks a bit unreal.