First, here's the link to what I'm trying to follow (the big word here is
'trying')...http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/burst/burst.htm

I'm totally lost on what this person is trying to explain. I have a photo I
took of an eagle that I want to burst thru a US flag. Trying to follow these
directions, I get totally lost.

Assuming my images are called: eagle and flag...could someone be kind
enough to explain step by step on how to achieve the effect thats trying
to be explained from the link above?

Thanks
Doug

Well for a flag rip you need to change the method a little as you need to be able to keep the color of the stripes right.

First create the hole in a duplicate layer of the flag.
Now you will need to create each tear seperate and then flip (horiz/vert) now realign to the hole for the tear.
Now you can distort using distort>twist and or distort>zig zag.
Using a grunge type brush you can rough up the edges.
Mask the eagle removing the background.
Later you will have to decide what sticks out and what is behind the flag, for this I merged (to a new layer) the individual flag tears. Copy the mask from the eagle on to the mask for the flag hole and remove any unreguired parts to keep some of the eagle behind the flag (see image) then copy the same mask to the mask for the tear layer.

The second image shows the tears with the eagle mask so attached is tears before eagle and before edges made rough.