Loading...
> >

Rain

thistledownsnamethistledownsname Posts: 1,336
in The Commons

So, there's a few different products out there to simulate rain.  Some of which are on sale today.  I already have rawart's Envirocam, and it works ok I guess.  But I had a hard time getting it between almost-no-drops and greys-out-the-screen.  Today there's Iray Rain and Heavy Rain.

Can anyone give me a comparison of the 3 products?  Which is better for what?

Comments

  • agent unawaresagent unawares Posts: 3,513

    The rain in both of these looks like transmapped planes wrapped in a lot of marketing speak. So realistically the difference is one has fatter streaks and one has thinner ones. You could easily make something comparable with a noise map on a primitive plane.

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    agent unawares said:

    The rain in both of these looks like transmapped planes wrapped in a lot of marketing speak. So realistically the difference is one has fatter streaks and one has thinner ones. You could easily make something comparable with a noise map on a primitive plane.

    In other words...save some bucks and grab a rain brush pack instead...and make your own billboards with the intensity you want.

     

  • AlmightyQUESTAlmightyQUEST Posts: 2,006
    edited September 2017
    Or, look at the splash geometry and puddle shader presets for close up renders of surfaces that the rain is hitting. I have both, only just got heavy rain, but haven't had a chance to do any good comparison renders yet of the same scene with each. Will see what I can do today, but might not be while they're still on sale. *But yes, you may want to see what you can do with editing the product you have if you are mainly just interested in the main falling rain elements.
    Post edited by AlmightyQUEST on
  • Digital Lite DesignDigital Lite Design Posts: 728

    I have the Iray Rain and love it.  While yes, it is "billboards," they are laid out to give you depth you won't get with brushes.  (tho I do also use brushes)  You get a 3d feel in the render when using Iray Rain and I imagine, from what I have seen, Heavy is the same.  So, it depends on where you want to spend your time getting the look you want....Render and get some dimension.  Postwork it and tweak and create the look you want there.  Either works - both are different.  Neither is right or wrong.

  • Griffin AvidGriffin Avid Posts: 3,816

    The only good thing about the rain as an object- is that it makes convincing layers of rain hitting and intersecting your objects.

    Doing it in brushes will work just as well if you decide to make layers of rain and have the layers break up in your image - according to an imagined space that each object takes up.

    But if you just want to do the traditional 'rain in front of the camera lens' effect then brushes is the easier and cheaper way to go.

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 6,055

    Heavy Rain by Marshian has the option for 3delight materials and the splash and puddles for the ground, here is a 3deligth render

     

    KindredArts rain is Iray only but has the drops more defined on the transmapped planes

    only a link to dA because rules: https://pre00.deviantart.net/70e5/th/pre/i/2016/365/3/f/trapped_by_linwelly-datknh3.png

     

    and self made billbords (here used in 3dellight, these are my own) can look like this

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,085

    There are some rain billboard shaders in my Iray pack. Might take some tweaking to get the tiling (IE: scale) right, but hey, it's free.

  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,862

    If you go to this post you'll find 3 in a row that show Iray Rain, Heavy Rain and Ron's Rain in use.

  • agent unawaresagent unawares Posts: 3,513
    avxp said:

    The only good thing about the rain as an object- is that it makes convincing layers of rain hitting and intersecting your objects.

    Doing it in brushes will work just as well if you decide to make layers of rain and have the layers break up in your image - according to an imagined space that each object takes up.

    Nooooo what you do is make alpha maps of rain brushes and texture primitive planes. Then they work with exactly the depth of every Iray rain product I've ever seen.

  • xyer0xyer0 Posts: 6,333
    edited September 2017

    FWIW, Wet, Sweat & Rain for Genesis 2 Female(s) contains two (heavy and light rainfall) medium-sized (large enough to fill a high-ceilinged, extra wide, full body render) rain geometries (not planes) with puddles and single drop ground splashes. But the rain goes straight down (though it could be angled if you chopped of the puddles and splashes wth the geometry editor). Also, I have used the body moisture on some Genesis 3 Females, but I do not have the renders available ATM.

    Post edited by xyer0 on
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,759

    I have both rain products (Marshian and Kindred Arts) and find them quite useful.  I also do rain in photoshop.  It all depends on what I am going for. I find the puddles to be particularly useful. The rain products (just like any other atmospheric weather prop or anything else I guess) save me the time and trouble of trying to figure out how to do it on my own.  Could I figure it out and do it?  Sure, I probably could, but I don't want to. I don't have the time and these products work very well for me.

    And Will's stuff is always good too with the added benefit, as he mentioned, that they are free.  He has some great stuff.

  • thistledownsnamethistledownsname Posts: 1,336
    Thanks for the advice everyone
  • AlmightyQUESTAlmightyQUEST Posts: 2,006

    Sounds like you may have already gotten all the answers you were looking for, but since the renders are already done though I'd share them.

    Both very quick set ups, I would want to adjust the lighting and tone mapping a bit more for both and plan on longer renders, but mainly wanted to make sure to include the puddles and splashes that I think are most useful in each of these. For the Heavy Rain in particular, I want to note that I was using sun/sky, and I would usually expect less gray in the rain if I was using a HDRI setting with dome (though, as advertised, it is quite a heavy rain :) ).

    No adjustments after the render other than adding the text labels.

    test_heavy_rain_20170909.png
    2000 x 1125 - 6M
    test_iray_rain_20170909.png
    2000 x 1125 - 6M
  • thistledownsnamethistledownsname Posts: 1,336
    I think I'm gonna go with Heavy Rain.
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,704

    I have seen any Iray rain models I've liked yet. It is fairly easy to do rain in Photoshop so while I have considered modeled rain it just looks too solid and linear for me.

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,085

    The thing is that if you actually take a photo when it's raining, rain is nearly invisible.

    I read somewhere that when they were filming Singing in the Rain they had to add a little milk to make the 'rain' cloudy, so the cameras would show it.

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001

    With standard cameras and normal film speeds/exposures...yep, pretty much hard to see, unless it's coming down in buckets or something.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,704

    Interesting. I never thought of it being invisible before but that's probably true. It also is a bit misty and foggy, and comes down in different angles depending if it ricochets off something.

  • thistledownsnamethistledownsname Posts: 1,336
    thistledownsname said:
    I think I'm gonna go with Heavy Rain.

    Ultimately, it was the splash patterns on the ground that decided it for me.  I'll give it a go.  If I don't like it, I can return it.

Sign In or Register to comment.