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!