Rain in Aftereffects

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Wed Feb 05, 2003 11:14 am

How easy is it to simulate rain effects in After Effects or similar program. I have no real experience with it!

Ornsack · Post by **Ornsack** » Wed Feb 05, 2003 7:31 pm

In after effects the way I would do it would be to film some rain in the dark with a bright light shining on it (or you could always pour a watering can in front of the camera, seeing as though you live in a place where you can't rely on rain occuring every single day

).

Then use this layer to superimpose on top of other footage. Use a luminance key (aka lumakey, brightness key, all kinds of things...) to super impose it. It'll just impose the bright areas of the footage (i.e. the rain, as long as the light is shining on it bright enough) and remove the black background.

This is also a great way of superimposing explosions on top of footage!

You could also use a 3D program (such as the great 3D Studio Max!) and use a particle system to simulate rain, but CGI effects are horrible to be fair (says the guy that uses them extensively whenever he gets the chance).

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Wed Feb 05, 2003 11:12 pm

Thanks Ornasck, I can always rely on you. Any other advice or tips would be appreciated.

Ornsack · Post by **Ornsack** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 12:11 am

When I think of them, I'll let you know! But make sure you take many shots of the rain coming from different angles. You don't wanna be superimposing the same shot over every single shot. It'll be like in cartoons where they can't be arsed to animate the rain so they use about 3 cels of it in a loop on top of every single shot

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 3:59 am

Once again i knew i could rely on you old Ornsack. Have passed the info on.

Mushiman · Post by **Mushiman** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 1:37 pm

You could just use the rain plugin that comes with the bundle....

Steve

Ornsack · Post by **Ornsack** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 9:52 pm

Meh... Avoid cgi imagery if possible, stick to compositing the real stuff.

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 11:33 pm

I actually agree with Ornsack on this point. I always try to use the real deal when filming.