# Best Method For Rain Effect



## thommyboy (Oct 17, 2008)

I am going to need to make it look like rain for a dance show coming up next month. Any opinions on the methods. So far I am bouncing between these:

A 2200 lumen data projector using a stock rain background 
(very poor man's DL.1)​S4 w/ Gam Film F/X Rain Pattern

S4 w/ effects wheel

Mac 700 Spot ($ might be possible here, might not)


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## Sony (Oct 17, 2008)

I've personally always loved using projectors for dance shows because they can always be used for cool effects. Rain would be easy with a projector, however I don't know how well a 2200 lumen projector would be able to punch an image through the powerful stage lights. We use a 4500 lumen projector at the theatre where I design and it works really well. This however of course depends on how bright the lights on stage are, you could just dim the stage lights when it's time for the rain to start so it can be seen more easily.


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## philhaney (Oct 17, 2008)

I would use a scene projector, 'course I'm probably talking old school here.....


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## bdkdesigns (Oct 17, 2008)

philhaney said:


> I would use a scene projector, 'course I'm probably talking old school here.....



Is that another name for a Linnebach Projector?


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## Grog12 (Oct 17, 2008)

Want it to look like rain? Talk to your choreographer and get them to keep the piece upstage of the first panel of marley. On your two furthest DS available linesets hang a 4 inch capped pvc the width of the opening of the stage. Drill small small holes' (1/32" maybe) into it. Fill it with water and run it like a snow drop. Put this particular piece (if its a concert) at the end of an act so you can mop up before the next piece.

Or if this a full length piece...ignore everything I've said.


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## Van (Oct 17, 2008)

When we did _*House and Garden*_ Last year I was disapointed when they decided to cut the "real" rain effect and elected to go with video. In the end the thing that worked best was a S4 with a metal film reel, I can't remember if it was GAM or Apollo, forgive me Keylite.
Anyway, it worked Very Well!. we kept the video but we simply pointed it at the floor so it looked like splashing rain drops whereas the metal film and s4 made a convincing look of rain on the rest of the set.


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## gafftaper (Oct 17, 2008)

I'm facing a similar problem with the storm in _Night of the Iguana_. I've got a 5,000 lumen projector to play with. Where would I get some "rain" video to experiment with?


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## philhaney (Oct 17, 2008)

philhaney said:


> I would use a scene projector, 'course I'm probably talking old school here.....




bdkdesigns said:


> Is that another name for a Linnebach Projector?



Never seen one, but from the definition in our glossary, no. 

Here's the scene projector (or Scene Machine) that GAM sells now:




Here's the blurb from their web page on their rain loops:



This is what the inside of the film loop section on the machine I used looks like:



I used one of these in the late 1980's to float clouds across the cyc while the shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks by night, it looked old then. I didn't know anyone still made them which is why I said I was probably old school.

However, they DO make a 2K version, and they also make rain wheels for the same machine (just insert the wheel attachment in place of the film loop attachment.....)


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## Van (Oct 17, 2008)

www.bluepony.com I have a DVD that a guy from Apollo gave me. 
He didn't give me any gum though.


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## jerekb (Oct 17, 2008)

Grog12 said:


> Want it to look like rain? Talk to your choreographer and get them to keep the piece upstage of the first panel of marley. On your two furthest DS available linesets hang a 4 inch capped pvc the width of the opening of the stage. Drill small small holes' (1/32" maybe) into it. Fill it with water and run it like a snow drop. Put this particular piece (if its a concert) at the end of an act so you can mop up before the next piece.
> 
> Or if this a full length piece...ignore everything I've said.


Never done this before but what if you did it upstage of the dancers and laid downed black plastic beneath the pipe with two pieces of PVC raising the edges so the water stays on the plastic you could even put some kind of absorbent down and just fold up the plastic to keep from getting water all over the stage. ??


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## Grog12 (Oct 17, 2008)

That could very well work jerek...the problem I see with it is the dancers aren't behind the effect...so if they're supposed to be in the rain...well you get my point.

We did this effect combined with a Film reel (gam if I remember correctly) for Big River 7 years ago and it completly wowed the audience.


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## philhaney (Oct 17, 2008)

Grog12 said:


> Want it to look like rain? Talk to your choreographer and get them to keep the piece upstage of the first panel of marley. On your two furthest DS available linesets hang a 4 inch capped pvc the width of the opening of the stage. Drill small small holes' (1/32" maybe) into it. Fill it with water and run it like a snow drop. Put this particular piece (if its a concert) at the end of an act so you can mop up before the next piece.
> 
> Or if this a full length piece...ignore everything I've said.




jerekb said:


> Never done this before but what if you did it upstage of the dancers and laid downed black plastic beneath the pipe with two pieces of PVC raising the edges so the water stays on the plastic you could even put some kind of absorbent down and just fold up the plastic to keep from getting water all over the stage. ??



We've done a few pieces involving water (fountains and the like) on stage and it's not always easy to get the water to read as water.

In the episode of Movie Magic that was all about water effects, the company making the rain for the film being shot said they had to design special nozzles to make bigger than normal rain drops or they would be invisible on camera (They had pipes with nozzles suspended from a crane 20 feet in the air, and they were making it rain).


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## dannyn (Oct 17, 2008)

I know that you were probably looking at a rain effect that did not use any water, but you may want to look here
Stage Rain
If you are looking for a rain that is projected, you could edit this to what you need, and burn it to a DVD.
Rain Video Effect - FlashDen


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## Van (Oct 17, 2008)

Another common pratcice for rain, in the movies and stage has been to use white rice dropping in front of the scene, into a catch basin. As stated earlier in this thread, the problem with using real watter on most rain effects is that you really don't "see" the rain in mid-air, only it's after effects, wetness, splashing, etc.


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## TommieD (Oct 17, 2008)

You could use a snow drop with some small pieces of transparant plastic. Place it in front of the stage so that al the lights from the auditorium shine tru it.

The dancers will stand behind end won't get wet. 
After the show you can easily clean it up.

A snow drop can be easily made from a big plastic pipe cut in half (10" or 12") with some 1" holes. Put some black rope on the sides to wiggle it. Use steel wires to hang it on your ceiling, or truss construction or whatever you have.


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## zuixro (Oct 18, 2008)

TommieD said:


> You could use a snow drop with some small pieces of transparant plastic. Place it in front of the stage so that al the lights from the auditorium shine tru it.
> 
> The dancers will stand behind end won't get wet.
> After the show you can easily clean it up.
> ...



Good idea, but I think the plastic will fall too slowly to look like rain. I think they will probably float down more than fall. (depending on what you use of course)


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## Les (Oct 18, 2008)

TommieD and zuixro I see you're new here. Please introduce yourselves over at the New Member area. Oh and as a friendly caution, we try to stay away from rigging advice on this forum. Have fun and be safe!

Les


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## zuixro (Oct 18, 2008)

Actually I've been a member for like 2 months, and I did introduce myself...

Anyway, back on topic.

I like the projector idea. With the projector in front the dancers would have the video projected on them too. It could be a nice effect. But like someone said, if the stage lights are too bright, you be able to see the projection very well.


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## malex (Oct 19, 2008)

I did a rain effect for "110 in the Shade." We used pvc pipe with 3/16" holes pointed to the sky (the water moving up, over and around the pipe and falling makes for more irregular droplets) and fed it water continuously. We were able to clean up a minute of water ouptut in about 2 minutes using squeegees and a shopvac. We were sure to put electrical tape over the seams in the stage masonite to keep it from puckering or swelling. Worked like a charm. I also put 2 coats of flat black on the stage before, to seal up everything real nice. If you have enough paint on the deck and seal your seams and use squeegees and a shopvac, you should be able to make it really rain and clean it up very fast without destroying your deck or stalling a show too long.


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## scottmcleod (Oct 20, 2008)

I have a rain file that we used last year in a show. Worked BEAUTIFULLY when being projected with QLab and a fade in and fade out.

I custom rendered it using particleIllusion (a compositing software with effects for movies)

I will upload it to an FTP if you have somewhere for me to put it.

It's 112.5MB, 640x480, PhotoJPEG encoding.


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## Van (Oct 20, 2008)

TommieD said:


> You could use a snow drop with some small pieces of transparant plastic. Place it in front of the stage so that al the lights from the auditorium shine tru it..........


 
Good Idea TommieD, and can be effective. I often, however, caution flks against using plastic, around dancers. As we all know dancers can trip over a heavy line on the ground plan, and most plastics become extremely slippery on a stage floor. It is for this reason aloe that I usually frown upon the use of plastic " Fake Snow" in the Nutcracker, or Christmas Carol, when there is a lot of danceing going on there is a lot of potenital for slippage.


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## Ross (Oct 20, 2008)

For a tropical rain effect I did recently, I pumped some fog onto the stage and used a couple S4 gobo rotaters with lotsadots shooting down through the fog. My biggest issue was that I didn't cool down the fog and with it shooting from the catwalk it never quite reached the floor.


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## stagebuilder (Sep 4, 2017)

scottmcleod said:


> I have a rain file that we used last year in a show. Worked BEAUTIFULLY when being projected with QLab and a fade in and fade out.
> 
> I custom rendered it using particleIllusion (a compositing software with effects for movies)
> 
> ...


Hello there, I know this is an old posting but I have a rain effect I need to create, I toured with Wicked for over 7 years and our rain scene was done with digital projectors. If you have a rain video I could utilize, I'd really appreciate it. I could invite you to my drop box which might be the best way, if you're willing to share the video, I would definitely give the proper credit too.
Thanks!


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