How to Create Rain

R

readw

Member
I need to shoot a night scene in the rain. Unfortunately waiting for a raining night is not an option. Does anyone know how I can set up a scene to do this? Is it possible to rig something using a hose and get a realistic effect? Any pointers or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks


Warren
 
Re: How to Create Rain

I've used a hose before. Wasn't the best in the world, but I guess it looked good enough. Be sure you back light it though.
 
Re: How to Create Rain

Hey there,

Sure this is possible, what you can do is build a little rig. Something like this. I'm note sure how big an area you need to cover with rain, but I'm gonna asume your not gonna go bigger than between a Medium to long shot.

This is not the best way, but it's cheap.

use PVC Pipe, connect a water hose to it. Seal of the other end. Then drill the smallest holes you can and test it. Try and drill the holes in the same direction. If you watch rain, you'll notice it generally falls in the same direction. Drill every so often I sligthly bigger whole.

If the rain is nit "strong enough" drill the wholes little bigger.

Then build as many as you need. You can try and slave the water by connecting the PVC pipes with short pieces of hose. But not sure how much watter pressure you have.

IF you then add a FAN to blow on the water it helps to make it look a bit more real. move the fan futher away till you like the effect. But it's gonna have to be a strongish fan.

- Derrick van Niekerk
 
Re: How to Create Rain

You can also create rain in post. Boris has some plugins that do that. I haven't tried it out, but I;ve seen the demo

Boris Continum Complete (BCC)

I probably spelled it wrong.
 
Re: How to Create Rain

post will work unless something in the shot is supposed to get wet, you cant really fake that.

If its a tight shot the PVC thing above will work well, or any rain sticks from the hardware store.

As mentioned, back light it, and rain looks the coolest when you use a 180 degree shutter.
 
Re: How to Create Rain

Thanks to everyone who has responded.

For those who are interested here is a summary of what I have found out so far.

Back lighting is probably the most important thing to use. This is interesting - on one site they reported that by using no backlighting it eliminated the effect of rain on a rainy day shoot when they didn't want it.

Shoot on a 180 degree shutter setting. This apparently helps with the effect.

Keep the shot tight if possible.

Options for making a rain rig.

Use a piece of PVC pipe 4 inches or so in diameter and drill a series 3mm holes along its length about 25 mm apart. Other options include using a rain stick obtained from a Hardware store and using a fire sprinkler heads.

The above options have been reported as being very effective.

Adding milk to the water. This technique was used for one of the most well known rain scenes ever produced ("singing in the Rain") so I'll trust the experts with that one. I imagine that it has been used on many other films but not reported.

Overall the recommendation seems to be to get the rig as high as possible, the recommendation seems to be around 8 meters above the set. This allows the drops to become more random and realistic looking.

Cheers

Warren
 
Re: How to Create Rain

Well if you do descide to do it in post....I had just upgraded to After Effects Pro 6.5 and it has Rain in it...and it seems to look pretty good....I think the PVC thing will doo the trick. IF you want a clip..I could render something out for you if you would like..I haven't got to play with it too to much but let me know. JohnGuarino@brainworkmedia.com

Good luck

Johnny5
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top