TUTORIAL FOR PREMIERE

INTRODUCTION
In this Rain FX tutorial we will add digital rain to your video or still image using Adobe Premiere. These same techniques can be applied to most non linear editing software. If you're not sure how to do it in your choice of software, download the free test clip,

Making rain appear realistic involves a lot more than just adding a layer on to your existing video, each background will have it's own challenges and needs. Keep in mind that each background will require a different treatment. The way you implement Rain FX is key to achieving a realistic effect. Here is one case study.

SUMMARY
A. How to apply the clips using the screen transparency mode
B. How to make the fake rain appear more realistic
C. Quick tips on other uses for the clips

THE  TUTORIAL
1. Place your background footage on Video track 1. In this case I'm using a still image. It's an overcast day, but there's no rain visible in the picture (click to see).

2. Place a Rain FX clip on the Video 2 track.

The Rain FX background is black, but we want to see our background as well as the rain. So...

3. Right click (or "click and hold" on a Mac) on the Rain FX clip and bring up the Transparency settings (found under the Video Options settings)

4. Select "screen" as key type. This will cause the black portions of the Rain FX clip to disappear, leaving us with just the raindrops overlaid on the scene.


Now when we render our work area we can see our rain superimposed.

5.  It still looks a bit off. The rain is just too stark, making it look unnatural, so lets try to make it blend in a bit more by making it more subtle. Go back to the transparency controls (3 then 5) and reduce the transparency. Let's try something around 50%

 accomplish this That's better, but the dark areas are still too dark for a rainy day. If we had a lot of rain in the distance, we would expect the image to be a lot more hazy. We can achieve this by adjusting the brightness and contrast

6. Drag 'Brightness and Contrast' onto the background Video 1 layer

7. Increasing the Brightness and decreasing the contrast slightly gives the background a slightly washed out look that mimics the effect of a rain induced haze. (If the image was a close-up, this step might not be appropriate)

 

 It now looks like a dismal day. Hooray! The rain is visible enough to show up, but still subtle enough not to stand out or distract. I have accomplished what I set out to achieve, the look of a rainy day without drawing too much attention to the rain drops themselves.

All that's left is to copy the clip (ctrl+c or command+c) and paste it (ctrl+v or cmd+v)  until it covers your background layer. All the Rain FX clips loop, so you can make the rain last as long as you need. Each copy retains all it's transparency properties.

Using this technique you can continue to modify the scene until you have the rain performing to your liking.  For increased density of rain, duplicate layers of rain and offset them slightly until you have the desired look or add more layers of different rain.

QUICK TIP #1:
Clips 9 and 10 are views of rain falling as if you are looking up towards the sky. To create rain from the reverse angle, as seen when looking down from a tall building, simply reverse the clip and your rain is now falling down to the ground below.

QUICK TIP #2:
There are other unintended uses for these clips. Clip 9 could just as easily double for stars streaking by a spaceship travelling at Warp speed.

Superimpose clip 5 over a dark blue/gray background and you're looking at a road from the front of a car.