How To Make Your Own Version Of That Sad 'Avengers' Disintegration Meme
By this point, if you weren't one of the millions who saw "Avengers: Infinity War" in its massively successful opening week, you've probably seen the super-popular (and sad) meme it has spawned: all your non-Marvel favorites getting disintegrated.
Don't worry, I'm not here to say who dies by disintegration in "Infinity War," nor will I over-explain the appeal of the meme. Seeing a favorite Marvel character turn to dust on the big screen is a real gut-punch, but applying the same effect to another pop-culture character is just funny. That's all.
Today, I'll walk you through how to craft your own "Infinity War" disintegration meme. Credit for the technical steps goes to Colin Smith's wonderful tutorial at PhotoshopCAFE, but killing your darlings takes a lot more than just image editing.
Step 1: Decide Which Beloved Pop-Culture Figure You're Going To Disintegrate
Now, it should go without saying that you can't just pick anyone. For one, they've got to be iconic enough that your meme stands a chance of blowing up on your social media platform of choice. Your candidate for disintegration should also be one whose well-being matters to you a great deal — if you wouldn't get a little bit affected by their actual on-screen death in a TV show or movie, they're not fit for this meme.
There are a lot of ways to go about picking the right choice for you. You could start with your favorite movie or TV show, then weigh which character's untimely departure would be the most devastating. Alternatively, you could lean on nostalgia — pick something that's not necessarily a fave but that'll get the '90s kids going.
In my case, I had to go with Special Agent Dale Cooper from "Twin Peaks," my favorite TV show of all time. More specifically, I'm going with Dale in his green Dougie Jones blazer, as seen in last year's revival of the series:
Step 2: Get Your Image Ready In Photoshop
Once you've decided who you're going to remove from existence "Avengers"-style, open up the image in Photoshop.1 It should instantly be set as the locked background layer — leave it that way. Duplicate that layer twice and give them names so you can keep track of which is which. For the purposes of my image, I called one layer "No Cooper" and the other "Cooper Dust," which will make sense in a moment.
Step 3: Entirely Erase Your Fave From Existence Using Content-Aware Fill
Select the equivalent of your "No Cooper" layer. Using the lasso tool, completely surround the person you're about to disintegrate — in this step, we'll actually be annihilating them completely.
Once selected, go to Edit > Fill and select "Content-Aware." You shouldn't have to make any adjustments here: just hit "OK" and Photoshop will do its best to obliterate your fave, leaving no trace of them in the layer.
Okay, okay, this isn't that devastating. You'd use the same technique to delete a stray cloud from a photo. Cooper is still there on the other layers… but we've only just begun down this dark, depressing path.
Step 4: Twist And Sculpt Your Cherished Character Into A Living Sculpture Of Pain
Now select your Dust layer. You're going to want to distort your character so that their body stretches beyond their normal silhouette in the direction you want their earthly shell to crack and fade away towards. Colin Smith's tutorial recommends using the Filters > Liquify tool, but I cut Cooper's silhouette out first and heavily skewed it up and to the left, stretching his face into a mask of dazed torment:
Then, for added effect, I went back over the layer with the Liquify tool and drew out a couple of strands of cloth, hair and sinewy flesh. Later on when I break up Cooper into a million pieces, these strands will look like teeny-tiny pieces of him sent adrift on the uncaring winds.
Step 5: Turn The One Person Who Can Make You Smile Without Fail Into Dust
Alright, we're in the home stretch now. Turn both layers you just edited into negative masks — there'll be a black box representing the mask next to the images in the Layers window.
Select a good speckle brush either from the Photoshop presets or the Creative Cloud library. You can get fancy with randomization and sizing if you want. Set the color of the brush to white and select the layer you removed the character you're disintegrating from in Step 3.
Start painting with the brush on the side of the character matching the direction you cruelly distorted their body in on Step 4. Vary the brush size and intensity. The leading edge of the silhouette should be almost completely gone like so. We are become death, destroyer of worlds.
Now select the equivalent Dust layer and start painting over to the side where the bits of your all-time fave's body should be floating away as they turn to vapor and then, finally, cease to exist. Continue until you're happy with the way it looks, you monster.
You've done it. You've really done it. Oh God.
Step 6: Reel Away In Horror As The Full Weight Of What You've Done Settles On Your Conscience
See above.
Step 7: Realize That It Was Objectively A Mistake To Pick A Character You Cared So Much About And That, While You're Happy This Was Only For A Dumb Photoshop, You'll Never Forget The Terror You Symbolically Subjected Them To… Maybe Some GIFs Of Them Will Help
Okay.
Getting better.
Alright, feeling pretty good now.
Step 8: Delete The Horrible Image You Created In Step 5
See above.
Step 9: Repeat Steps 1-5 With A Character That's Just Funny To See Get Disintegrated
The obvious choice here is Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean (complete with a turkey on his head), but there are plenty of other options out in the world. Austin Powers, Borat, the lead singer of Smash Mouth, Gilly from "SNL", Aquaman, any Trailer Park Boy but Bubbles, the cast of "Vanderpump Rules", Vince McMahon… the list goes on.
Phew, that's much, much better.
