ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

9 years, 5 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

It will depend a lot on the rest of the shot you're adding it to - ie everything overcast, cast an scene wet, puddles, spashing, etc. I know this because we ended up getting weather effects in for a scene then it with digital rain - having real puddles, real wet reflections/glare on wet ground etc makes the shot, but adding digital rain made up for the fact that it's damn expensive to do properly practically, so we had a fairly minimalist rain setup (it gets through water fast!)

9 years, 5 months ago - Bhavi Satkunarasa

Hi Paddy, thank you for answering - it would be a nighttime shot of a character walking towards a house through rain, so it would literally just be raindrops through the night air around the character. We would drench the actual character with real water but it's a mid shot of him so we won't need to see rain actually fall in him. As for close-ups of puddles, splashing etc. we won't be doing any of that it's just this one shot.

9 years, 5 months ago - Dan Selakovich

If that's the shot, use a garden hose and just do it. Much easier to protect the equipment than to do that in post, and will look better, too.

9 years, 5 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Is it the kind of rain that comes with wind? That's harder to fake in AE ;-)

Sounds like you know your shot and are mitigating where you can. Why not try an effect test first? You can get/make your digital rain in a particle engine or as stock I imagine, so practice placing it on some similar shots headed down with plenty of sound effects and see whether it looks good enough.

Fact is no one shot ever made or wrecked a movie, and its easy to get fixated on it rather than if you can do 'good enough' allowing you to get on with the rest of the planning :)

Also, pro tip, get an ezy-up (or cheap and cheerful gazebo) and if it happens to look rainy quickly set the camera up under the shelter and just steal the shot ;-)

9 years, 5 months ago - Dan Jones

Watch Scorsese's 'After Hours', he got very good 'fat' rain just using hose pipes spraying from a roof. It was shot at night though.

9 years, 5 months ago - Yen Rickeard

All of these plus, once you have soaked the area, made the puddles, drenched your poor actor, use a plastic roof to protect your camera, you just need a a single drenching line of 'rain;. Spray hose, onto a plastic sheet, so that the drops accumulate on the sheet and get nice and fat. and drip off the lower edge in a single line of fat drops.