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After Effects Rain Questions
I am about to shoot a short film (3 min). It all takes place in real time at one location. It is split about 50-50 for INT/EXT. I’m going to shoot the film in pouring rain (without lightning).
My plan to shoot the more complicated EXT rain shots is to soak the set, props and actors we will be shooting, then have two good sized rain rigs in the foreground of the shot and have a PA turn them on. I would then shoot the scene and add in digital rain from AE in post.
Would this work? If I put on multiple layers of AE’s rain, would it look realistic mixed in with the real rain? I’m also shooting on 16mm, would this make a difference in the final look of the rain at all? There is going to be a shot with a giant window. Can I somehow have the AE’s rain outside the window?
Thank you so much!
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7 Replies
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Hi,
Depending upon the look you are going for and how much tweaking you are inclined to do in AE, you should be able to get a decent rain effect with layers of rain. Even the rain plugin that comes with AE should work if you modify it with some blurs and what not.
One thing that struck me in your post was that you intend to shoot your practical rain effect without lighting. It seems to me that the rain will not show up unless you light it. I haven’t done this myself so I may not know what I’m talking about, but you may want to make some tests before the actual shoot.
You shouldn’t have a problem adding rain to the view out the window. With proper masking and blending layers, you should be able to achieve an acceptable result.
Lars
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“Realism” is almost impossible with simulations unless your’ willing to do lots of tweaking. Natural phenomenon are chaotic and simulations using particle systems are totally controlled unless you go in and mess with the controls.
Can you shoot several minutes of real rain? Use the same focal length you’ll be shooting with. Try to notice how the drops change not only in size but apparent speed with distance from the lens. Also notice how your rain sheets or blows in clusters.
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
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I meant I won’t have any lightning not lighting. I’m sorry if I was unclear about that. We have a very good DP who will do the lighting.
Here’s my problem: the rain machines are not big enough to span some of the wide shots we will be shooting. So, my reasoning was if we rig them closer to the camera and add the AE rain in later, with tweaking and multiple layers we would be able to achieve a good rainstorm look.
So, if I had someone work with me who knows after effects well and we spent several hours on it, could we get a convincing effect?
Also, could we have the AE rain going on outside the window?
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Ah… Lightning… That makes more sense. It would help if I actually READ your post properly.
Lars
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if the AE rain was in front of the real rain, would that make it less realistic?
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Would there be any other options other than using AE (or to make the final with the AE rain look better)? Does anyone here have any ideas about a practical rain machine for wide shots?
I saw this video:
But I’m not sure if that would work for wide shots. I thought about building more than one; maybe that would work. Any ideas?
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I think I have now decided against the idea. I would love to have it take place in the rain, but it’s simply too impractical, and if I did shoot in the rain, that would mean that once I’m in post, there would be no going back. So if it would look fake, it would look fake and there would be nothing I could do about it.
I do have another idea though involving AE. Does AE have some filters or effects that could darken the sky or generate clouds realistically? Something to just help the mood of the film?
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