What's a relatively simple way to make a convincing rain effect over a scene. I'm using Premiere as my editing tool.
I have After Effects and I suppose I could use the Particle Playground, but it seems as if there should be a simpler way of doing it.
Anyone here simulate rain in a video before?
I have After Effects and I suppose I could use the Particle Playground, but it seems as if there should be a simpler way of doing it.
Anyone here simulate rain in a video before?
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Re: Rainmaker
Sat, December 2, 2006 - 2:03 AMHave you tried finding or shooting real rain footage (which should be easy in Seattle) and simply overlaying it in a partial dissolve, or via an opacity change in the rain layer?
(I use Final Cut, which can do what I describe, and I don't really know what Premiere can do.) -
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Re: Rainmaker
Sat, December 2, 2006 - 4:09 PMThey can both do pretty much the same thing, frankly, but the trouble is that REAL rain just plain doesn't show up on MiniDV unless it's a complete torrential downpour.
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Re: Rainmaker
Mon, December 4, 2006 - 9:50 AMActual or real simulated rain works better with close ups than it does with wide shots. I've shot in rain before and you'd be surprised just how much rain it takes to really show up on film. At the coast once during a storm with high wind and rain not much ultimately showed up on screen and required tweaking in post. Shoot in rain to get the right look for a scene but don't be surprised if you have to add FX after to be able really see the "rain" on film. -
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Re: Rainmaker
Mon, December 4, 2006 - 9:55 AM"I've shot in rain before and you'd be surprised just how much rain it takes to really show up on film."
Oh, I'm a convert already. Our DP tried explaining this to me, but he had to SHOW me to make it real.
"Shoot in rain to get the right look for a scene but don't be surprised if you have to add FX after to be able really see the "rain" on film."
I should have explained more from the beginning -- sorry. Several of our shots ARE in rain (because, well, we shot in PDX in winter), and sometimes you can hear the pattering and sometimes not, and there are usually puddles on the ground. Nearly every shot was at night and in most of the closeups, there is water visible if there was rain at all that night.
So, what we're doing is trying to salvage a diabolical situation. 8)
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Re: Rainmaker
Sun, December 3, 2006 - 8:17 AMThere are several "free" movies on www.flashkit.com that make snow and rain effects.
If you have flash, you can get the free movies, publish it and output it as a quicktime movie that you can use as an overlay. Some of the movies I saw on flashkit had drops making ripples as well. That always adds to the realism when you see the rain affecting the environment as well.
How many seconds of footage are we talking about?
What angle?
Is it a locked shot? -
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Re: Rainmaker
Sun, December 3, 2006 - 8:53 AMSeveral minutes, lots of different angles, but they can be arbitrary.
We're using rain to cover up audio glitches and to add atmosphere. -
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Re: Rainmaker
Mon, December 4, 2006 - 6:29 PMI would think cylindrical mapping of footage would be the way to go.
Multiple layers at different speeds.
Don't forget lightning flashes. -
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Re: Rainmaker
Thu, March 8, 2007 - 4:09 PM"I would think cylindrical mapping of footage would be the way to go. "
Okay, now I'm curious. Is this something that I can do in After Effects? What IS it, exactly? I mean, I have an idea based on the name, but can you take a single piece of video and set it on an infinite loop, like a cylinder?
What's the mechanism for that?
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Re: Rainmaker
Mon, December 4, 2006 - 6:32 PM -
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Re: Rainmaker
Mon, December 4, 2006 - 9:46 PMha-ha! I used that tutorial and the technique for Dream-Quest, our first feature! 8)
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Re: Rainmaker
Tue, December 26, 2006 - 2:55 PMYou seem to be enamored with AE's Particle Playground.
I kinda side with the idea of using an overlay of the rain.
You can always simulate rain by taking a length of PVC tube with holes cut into it and feeding water into it. That will create a controlled downpour that you can then film against a black background and use as an overlay. -
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Re: Rainmaker
Wed, December 27, 2006 - 9:31 AM"You seem to be enamored with AE's Particle Playground."
It's neat.
"I kinda side with the idea of using an overlay of the rain."
Yep, as long as I can make it convincing. Four layers seems to be enough to befuddle the typical mind.
"That will create a controlled downpour that you can then film against a black background and use as an overlay."
Hm, it would have to be pretty high to not seem like sprinkling and video doesn't really pick up water.
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Re: Rainmaker
Thu, March 8, 2007 - 5:20 PMGet a black wall at night
Line up several sprinklers or shower heads above it and a few feet in front of it
Light it obliquely from below and the sides so that it shows up optimally
Shoot it at several different lens lengths, for a few mins at a time.
Overlay it using partial opacity and "screen" in AE or your favorite compositing program
Finally, darken the background footage a little bit to emphasise the impression of a dark cloudy day.
-Lokmer
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Re: Rainmaker
Sun, March 11, 2007 - 10:35 AMParticle playground always disappoints me.
I keep looking for the button that lets me use a layer as a facing map for a particle. It just can't do it. I can't believe the author would make such a sophisticated plugin and not let you use a facing map. -
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Re: Rainmaker
Sun, March 11, 2007 - 3:34 PMForgive me for asking a dumb question, but what is a facing map? -
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Re: Rainmaker
Sun, March 11, 2007 - 5:05 PMA facing map is simply a transparent PNG (or any format with an alpha) that is used instead of the default particle type of the emitter(like diamond or polygon). So, instead of a diamond shape being draw at the particle coordinate, you could have an alpha layer/comp at every particle point. Facing generally implies that no matter what the angle of the camera to the emitter is, the image maps will alwyas face the camera. This is typical of most 3D applications. If you have ever used maya, 3dsmax, or blender, this is built in. There are other features in AE that have this option as well (is it card dance...?), that is why I am so supprised that particle playground does not have this.
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