Abstract Art

Hi, I'm trying to follow a few tutorials but I'm not having much luck doing so. Would someone be able to clarify a few steps for me?

http://www.freephotoshop.ca/tutorial...act-light-rays

(Can't get past step 5. I sorta figured out up to step 5 but the instructions are a bit unclear on what to do and I'm not that good at using Photoshop yet.)

http://psdtuts.com/tutorials-effects...-smoke-effect/

(The first few important steps used in this tutorial are done in Illustrator. Does anyone know how to emulate the effect using only Photoshop? I tried using the fill options for the pen tool but it's not coming out like in the tutorial.)

Would be great if someone could help! Thanks!

im pretty sure you can actually only do that in illy.

Yeah, for that effect it can only be done in Illustrator. The closest method for a similar effect is to use the liquify filter. Oh wells, maybe one day...