Rain Drop Effect

[tazmanian]

sorry....

[sireel]

could you decribe the scene it might help? are the rain drops going to be upclose or from a fair distance away? how close is the camera to the surface? What kind of surface is the rain drop going to hit? how big is the rain drop going to be? do you want alot of splash? Does there have to be a run down the side of the object after the drop hits the surface?

[ajackd]

Hello all,
Okay here is how my scene will basically be set up. 1 drop of rain, dry-cracked ground, and the sketch should help with how everything will be framed. Appreciate all your help because right now I am not sure even how to start. How you guys and gals can help.

Thanks,
Ajackd

[srv]

sounds tough, will be interesting to see how u tackle it.
My initial thoughts
get as much reference as u can - timelapse stuff would be good
soft body for the drop up to a point...
.. where the outward force of the impact becomes greater than the surface tension of the water
then maybe you could turn off visibility of 1st drop... - your two objects idea
... then if u look at how traditional effects animators (Disney for example) do it the water glob (for lack of better word) breaks apart, becomes many globs that become smaller and smaller.
they could get absorbed by dusty ground slightly after impact
you could even have spawning of more globs on impact
good luck and keep posting

[Boa]

I think it's really difficult to achieve this effect "by hand". If you manage it don't forget to post. I would like to learn this too.

The easier way is to use a particle system like RealFlow from Nextlimit (though it is quite expensive). They have a tut on their site called "Liquid Logo". Maybe you could use this as a reference:
http://www.nextlimit.com/realflow/tutorials/Liquid_logo/Logo.html

Greetings,
Boa

[frog]

I don't think it would be that hard using standard Max particles. Basically you would need a raindrop object which deforms when it is the ground and is then replaced by a particle system, try metaball type particles maybe as they could be made to look 'watery'. It will take quite a bit of experimenting but I'm fairly sure it can be done in Max.

Good luck :)

[Anton Andriesh]

Try to use metaparticles ... or Clay Studio plugin, it creates blobs, like meta particles, but you will have to make each drop separately...

[sireel]

I dunno guys, there so little comtroll with particle systems and at such a close up shot I would think the more controll the better. I would have a hand made water droplet morph out and then fade as a particle systems shot up with the splashes, it might take more time but if its only one or two drops doing this while the rest fall in the background it might be worth it to get the desired effect.

[ajackd]

Alright Guys,
Thanks for everything, I kind of have an idea of how I am gonna get this done, and I will keep posting as I make progress.

Boa- thanks for the link, great reference, everyone else, check it out if you already haven't...its pretty cool.

Back to work, and thanks again. If anyone else has any breakthroughs, please keep me up to date.

[eek]

Im working on the same problem, and finding it really tricky!
Its whether you wanna see it hit and bounce off the ground. Im working hit the ground and obsorb. (probably with a animated texture) and also start off a few and become a down pour.
Also ive got the splash/puddle as one object and the rain as a particle system.

But at the minute, mine tests look like a sludgy mess!, mud pool!

Ill try and post something up soon.

EEk.
Ive got to work out wet fur as well!!!!!!:D

[fire3d]

Use RealFlow!!!
:applause:

[Ronski]

As it's a close up going with real flow or meta particles (or even a morph( seems the best route to try. You could also maybe look at Particle Paint from Peter Watje (http://www.max3dstuff.com/) for the tranistion from dry to wet. There's a nice example of this on Johannes Schlörb's site (http://www.schloerb.com) in the 4D section.

Please post some results on how you get on.

Cheers,
Kieron

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