Re: Rain with Trapcode particular by Joe Moya on Mar 1, 2008 at 3:02:11 pm
... it's been a while since I used this effect...
but, my results were similar.
If my memory is correct... to achieve this effect...
I used a custom particle (i.e., a picture of an actual rain drop) ...
... and, the trick I used to control the direction of the rain fall was accomplished by parenting the particle flow/direction to a light source. In essence, the flow direction was constrained to the what is the equivalent of a point of light you would get with a spot type light source (adjusting cone angle).
...also, if my memory is correct... I used multiple layers of rain drops to achieve the kind of different size rain drops needed to add to the realism...plus, I used different life to death size variations of the rain drops with-in the layers (...which was about 3 or 4 layers). In fact, the looked I achieved was a bit more realistic that the example when I was finished.
BTW, this process took some time to get the effect just the way I wanted it to look...specially when you start to incorporate camera movements in conjuction with the "spot light source/rain direction" parented layer.
Another thing to contend with is the brightness of the drops... if you plan on using this in a room with a large projection screen... you will need to make the rain drops much lighter than they appear on a rendered video. So... don't judge how the rain drops will actually look relative to the black background by using your computer screen as a benchmark. You'll need to see what your completed project look in the enviroment that it will be presented or could be presented.
BTW, there is nothing simple about recreating this example and it helps to read the article associated with this project (I'm assuming you have done this).
