BCC Rain

Category: BCC Particles

Effect Name: BCC Rain

The BCC Rain filter, part of the BCC Particles category, is an auto-animated filter which generates realistic rain effects.

Working with the Filter

Presets and Common Controls

• BCC filters come with a library of factory installed presets plus the ability to create your own custom presets and preview them with the BCC FX Browser™.
• BCC filters also include common controls that configure global effect preferences and other host-specific effect settings.

For more information about working with presets and other common controls, Click Here.

Effect Controls

Mocha Mask and Track

Continuum effects include integrated masking and matte tools that allow you to restrict the effect to specific regions of the image.

• Mocha masks: used to create custom spline masks. Mocha also includes Matte Assist ML and Matte Refine ML, which use machine learning to generate and track masks.
• Pixel Chooser: used to generate geometric shapes, gradients, or mattes based on channel, luma, or color-based selections. Additionally, an AI depth map generator, and an AI-powered face detection model allow for precise control of masks and mattes.

For more information, see Mocha and Pixel Chooser.

• Rain Amount: Determines the density of the drops in the effect. Increasing Rain Amount creates more drops, and decreasing Rain Amount creates fewer drops.
• Rain Angle: Sets the angle between the drops’ direction of motion and the vertical axis.
• Rain Speed: Determines the speed of the drops as they move across the screen. Increasing this value makes the drops move faster, while decreasing this value makes the drops move slower.
• Rain Depth: Controls the apparent depth of the effect. Increasing this value creates the illusion of greater depth by varying the lengths of the drops. Decreasing this value creates drops that are increasingly uniform in length, simulating a narrow band of rain.
• Blur: Sets the amount of blur applied to each droplet.
• Composite on Alpha: When enabled, the rain will be composited over a transparent background.
• Pan XY: Sets the perspective view of the effect. Move this point to change the position of the viewer’s eye in relation to the effect.
• Composite Layer: Selects the layer in the timeline to use as the background of the effect. The default setting, None, composites the rain over a transparent background, revealing the layer below the filtered layer in the timeline.
• Composite Depth: Sets the apparent depth of the chosen composite layer. Increasing values move the composite layer closer to the viewer, while decreasing values move the layer farther from the viewer. This setting has no affect if Composite Layer is set to None.
• Random Seed: Determines which value is input to the random number generator used by the effect.

Raindrops Group

• Color: Sets the color of the raindrops.
• Color Source Layer: Selects a composition layer to use as a source for droplet colors.
• Size: Sets the size of the drops. Higher values create longer drops, while lower values create shorter drops.
• Opacity: Determines the opacity of the drops. Higher values create increasingly opaque drops, while lower values create increasingly transparent drops.
• Brightness Variance: Varies the opacity of the raindrops. Increase this setting to create a wider range of droplet opacities.
• Drop Shape: Determines if the raindrops appear as lines or streaks.

System Group

• Particle Lifespan: Determines how long each droplet lasts before it disappears.

Note: If the rain effect stops short of the bottom of the image in a frame, increase Particle Lifespan to extend the effect to the bottom of the screen.

• Generation Width: Sets the width of the rain production region. Increasing this value spreads out the individual drops, reducing the density of the effect. Decreasing this value places the drops closer together, creating a denser effect.
• Tile Width: Sets the width of each individual drop image, which can be useful if tiling becomes noticeable in the output
• Speed Variance: Varies the speed of each droplet. Increase this setting to create a wider range of droplet speeds.
• Direction Variance: Varies the angle of motion of each droplet. Increase this setting to create a wider range of drop directions.

Interaction Group

• Splash on Layer: Selects a layer in the timeline to use as an reflection track. When drops hit the edge of the reflection track, they bounce.
• Layer Use Channel: Selects the channel of the reflection track that determines how the raindrops bounce.
• Pixel Chooser Interaction: Selects the Pixel Chooser mask for the rain to interact with.
• None: Does not apply an interaction layer.
• Use PC Layer: Uses the PixelChooser settings to create an interaction layer.
• Use PC Layer Inverted: Inverts the PixelChooser settings to create an interaction layer.
• Use PC Layer and Pixel Choice: Uses the PixelChooser settings to create an interaction layer and also uses the PixelChooser settings to create a matte.
• Use PC Layer Inverted and Pixel Choice: Inverts the PixelChooser settings to create an interaction layer and also uses the PixelChooser settings to create a matte.
• Layer Mode: The Layer Mode menu determines how the filter uses intermediate values in the chosen channel in the Splash on Layer menu.
• Binary: Uses the chosen Layer Use Channel in the Splash on Layer, but treats each pixel as if its chosen channel is either fully on or fully off.
• Gradient: Uses the channel in the Splash on Layer as it is, preserving the full range of channel values.
• Splash Angle: Sets the angle at which the raindrops bounce off the reflection map.
• Splash Height: Determines how high the raindrops bounce.
• Fallthru Percent: Sets the probability that individual drops will pass through edges in the interaction layer.
• Fallthru Maximum: Sets the maximum number of edges in the interaction layer a drop can fall past without bouncing.
• Splash on Ground: When enabled, the rain bounces when it reaches the chosen Ground Height.
• View Ground: Displays a grid showing the location of the ground.
• Ground Height: Sets the height of the ground. Increase Ground Height to move the ground down, or decrease this value to move the ground up.