Special effects has one going up in smoke (3)
I believe the answer is:
cig
'smoke' is the definition.
(cigarette)
'special effects has one going up' is the wordplay.
'special effects' becomes 'gc' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'has' is an insertion indicator.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'going up' is a reversal indicator.
'gc' enclosing 'i' is 'gic'.
'gic' back-to-front is 'CIG'.
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for cig that I've seen is " Smoke".)