Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Hey all!
Another classic, we have rain! In Anime and other older cartoons, it's rare to have fully animated scenes with integrated rain. It's also a nightmare with particles - even with dynamic paint. BUT with a post processing tool, you can pretty much have your cake and eat it too!
cgtrader.com/3d-models/scripts-plugins/rendering/for-anime-in-blender-rain-tools
So how does this work?
The Rain Mist group uses primarily the global normals to tell which way is up, because rain comes down. So all of the visible upward facing surfaces get rain mist over 5 depth based layers. This is where the exclusion mask comes in. Often you'd have characters or objects under shelter in pouring rain, so what do you need? Masking to prevent it raining under surfaces!
When there is rain and it's under solid cloud cover, the sunlight is effectively from directly above - this allows you to use the sun lamp with the shadow pass as an exclusion mask, like in the demo scene.
Just remember that this mask excludes, so you need to invert your shadow pass!
The rain drops themselves consist of 3 layers, each has individual opacity control and global opacity. I included a perspective slider for when characters are looking up - demo video. It's only limited to one point of perspective (middle top), but does bend the rain when you rotate the overall angle and turn it up - VERY cool effect!
You simply animate these groups together!
The way Blender's compositor works, makes this a breeze! Follow the camera keyframes in the viewport with the compositor open to animate the rotation, for example, and then just add in-between keyframes and boom, done with the rain rotation.
For the mist, you just animate your coverage and breakup. The defaults are pretty solid, so you should be good in most instances.
Included:
- Demo sceen with
- Rain Mist node group
- Rain Drops node group
Rain Mist node group:
- Image
- Depth
- Normal
- Exclusion Mask
- Depth Mode (Normalized - Direct)
- Offset - X
- Offset - Y
- Splash Surface Area
- Breakup
- White Mist
- Blur Size
- Final Mix
Outputs:
- Image
- Rain Mist Only
Rain Drops Group
- Image
- Depth Map (0-1) (Optional)
- Base Scale
- Droplet Length
- Droplet Width
- Density
- Relative Scale
- Relative Offset
- Perspective
- Degrees
- Randomize Direction
- Animation Speed
- Final Mix Influence
- Front Layer Opacity
- Middle Layer Opacity
- Back Layer Opacity
Outputs:
- Image
- Rain Only
This has been a labor of love, coming all the way from 2020 - I kid you not! I hope you love it and that it is of tremendous value to you, not only saving time, but getting the look you want! :D
GOD bless you!
PS, farm house scene was a free model downloaded from CGT - own materials. Toy block demo scene included.
#water #rain #precipitation #falling #down #clouds #dark #gather #beautiful #peaceful #sky #weather #anime #cartoon #post #compositing #blender #excite #soamaze #loveit #jazzed
Hey all!
Another classic, we have rain! In Anime and other older cartoons, it's rare to have fully animated scenes with integrated rain. It's also a nightmare with particles - even with dynamic paint. BUT with a post processing tool, you can pretty much have your cake and eat it too!
cgtrader.com/3d-models/scripts-plugins/rendering/for-anime-in-blender-rain-tools
So how does this work?
The Rain Mist group uses primarily the global normals to tell which way is up, because rain comes down. So all of the visible upward facing surfaces get rain mist over 5 depth based layers. This is where the exclusion mask comes in. Often you'd have characters or objects under shelter in pouring rain, so what do you need? Masking to prevent it raining under surfaces!
When there is rain and it's under solid cloud cover, the sunlight is effectively from directly above - this allows you to use the sun lamp with the shadow pass as an exclusion mask, like in the demo scene.
Just remember that this mask excludes, so you need to invert your shadow pass!
The rain drops themselves consist of 3 layers, each has individual opacity control and global opacity. I included a perspective slider for when characters are looking up - demo video. It's only limited to one point of perspective (middle top), but does bend the rain when you rotate the overall angle and turn it up - VERY cool effect!
You simply animate these groups together!
The way Blender's compositor works, makes this a breeze! Follow the camera keyframes in the viewport with the compositor open to animate the rotation, for example, and then just add in-between keyframes and boom, done with the rain rotation.
For the mist, you just animate your coverage and breakup. The defaults are pretty solid, so you should be good in most instances.
Included:
- Demo sceen with
- Rain Mist node group
- Rain Drops node group
Rain Mist node group:
- Image
- Depth
- Normal
- Exclusion Mask
- Depth Mode (Normalized - Direct)
- Offset - X
- Offset - Y
- Splash Surface Area
- Breakup
- White Mist
- Blur Size
- Final Mix
Outputs:
- Image
- Rain Mist Only
Rain Drops Group
- Image
- Depth Map (0-1) (Optional)
- Base Scale
- Droplet Length
- Droplet Width
- Density
- Relative Scale
- Relative Offset
- Perspective
- Degrees
- Randomize Direction
- Animation Speed
- Final Mix Influence
- Front Layer Opacity
- Middle Layer Opacity
- Back Layer Opacity
Outputs:
- Image
- Rain Only
This has been a labor of love, coming all the way from 2020 - I kid you not! I hope you love it and that it is of tremendous value to you, not only saving time, but getting the look you want! :D
GOD bless you!
PS, farm house scene was a free model downloaded from CGT - own materials. Toy block demo scene included.
#water #rain #precipitation #falling #down #clouds #dark #gather #beautiful #peaceful #sky #weather #anime #cartoon #post #compositing #blender #excite #soamaze #loveit #jazzed
