How to do a Disintegrate Effect in PaintTool SAI in 3 Easy Steps

Ever since Avengers Infinity War erupted on screens worldwide and the might entity Thanos snapped his fingers to wipe out half of the Marvel universe, artists have been attempting to replicate the disintegrate effect. While most do so on Photoshop, performing this task on PaintTool SAI isn’t as easy.

Fortunately, you have us to show you a quick trick in how to do a disintegrate effect in PaintTool SAI.

How to do a Disintegrate Effect in PaintTool SAI

Until more brush effects for PaintTool SAI becomes available, you’ll have to be a bit innovative in your design if you want a disintegrate effect. We’ll show you the basics, but it’s up to you to master this technique.

Step 1: Layer the disintegrate area

Firstly, select the image you want to use. Photo’s with light backgrounds work better, but you can challenge yourself to something more difficult if you choose. Once the image is loaded, select the Lasso tool and clip the area you want to disintegrate, turning it into a new layer by copy-pasting.

Step 2: Stretch it out

With the layer and area still highlighted, got to Layers in the top menu and Transform. Move the shape outwards to stretch while still maintaining the attachment to the base. You’ll want to ensure that the new layer still looks good, unless you’re going for a crazy effect.

Step 3: Erase select parts

Once completed, you’ll have the stretched layer superimposed over the original. Head to Eraser on the side, and change the type to Spread&Noise. Also, ensure you have the right size for your selection. You can start randomly erasing parts to make them vanish, showing the original layer underneath. Continue performing this task until you reach the desired effect.

Vanishing into thin air

Of course, an easier way would be to download a brush textures pack online and using the appropriate brush to create the disintegrate effect. However, we thought you’d have more fun using the basic tools on PaintTool SAI to have more artistic control. If you have a better way of creating this effect, please let us know.