need a second (or more) set of eyes to check out something

so I'm working on issue 1 of A Legacy of Sin, and in it I have a scene with a character interacting with the environment in a way that the game engine itself does not, so I'm turning to Photoshop to create the effect. But I'm not totally sure if I'm pulling off what I want to pull off. So here's what I'm doing. I'm doing a test piece using other images I have to build the effect. With out saying more then I already have, I am posting the image and going to ask a question:

Here's the image:


And here's the question: What is the character doing? IE with out the benefit of the knowing what comes before this shot or what happens after what, what do you see the character doing?

Creating some type of radioactive ball of energy.

Creating or opening something that contains a point source of massive energy.

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fireclap?

The effects, fire at the feet and the radiating beams, do not seem to be related. The fire is not within the beams, while the fire flames radiate from a point at his feet. Also the different colours involved. But since the flames don't seem to tie into the costume (he's not torch-like), I suspect the effects are meant to be related. Perhaps the flames should be just within the sphere in that case.

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I'd guess he's using hand clap to blow out the flames. But if that's the case why must he stand IN the flames to do so? Hulk never stood on the tanks to hand clap them away....

It looks to me that he is focusing energy between his hands... which enables him to travel at super sonic speeds (possibly faster than light), causing friction and hence the fire.

Edit: this was in reference to the first image.

okay I'm feeling somewhat better about the second image given the responses I've gotten.

The idea is the character is caught in a flame thrower attack and he uses a hand clap to snuff out the flames.

Now, knowing what I'm shooting for, does the image work in that regard? If not, why? What would you need to see in the image, or in a previous panel to support what I'm attempting to convey?

Yes it works okay. What would help sell it better for me would be, now that you reduced the sphere of the handclap, have the fire reacting to the leading edge of the blast. i.e. the fire in the lower right should come up a bit from the ground and then bend down and away from the hero in a cascading arc where it meets the trailing edge of the outgoing clap fx.
Another thing that would help is seeing the stream of fire coming from the flamethrower (presumably) offscreen. That would help depict it as an attack on him rather than him being the source of the flames (like he activated Hot Feet or something)

P.S. My first guess upon seeing the earlier image was that he had just unleashed the Autobot Matrix of Leadership (33 seconds in) while standing in a campfire.

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Much better to me

If I had to design the image, I would drop the pinpoint between the hands and go with something like a ring of distortion at about his wrists in diameter and his hands together, but since I know if I were having to make this image I would have no freaking idea how to do that, perhaps instead of straight radial lines from the pinpoint have ripples? The straight radial lines, especially with more on the edge that don't go all the way to the center give me the impression of energy focused in towards the pinpoint rather than out from it.

like this?

The latest image works best. I know how I would film the effect, and how I would animate it. Getting it to show up in comic form is a bit more difficult for me just because I have less experience there. Depending on the route your comic is going to take, the text and or previous and following panels are important.

I really like the last one. The flames do seem to be trapped outside a sphere of force, which originates at the clap.

Perhaps the flames could be laid as a strip, extending to, say, 7 o'clock (with hero facing at 12 o'clock). Unless he was on fire, I don't quite see why the flame originates at him. If he was on fire, I'd expect the flames to be blasted more omnidirectionally. He must have stepped on a fire to get where he is now. More background flames might better associate fire with the terrain.

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