affinity photo Completing my fanfiction composite - Creating a rain/storm Effect, adding a vehicle

[SolidSnake2003]

4 hours ago, AffinityJules said:

In my view those pictures are totally unsuitable for rain in a night scene. Both pictures look like they have been taken during the day and are far too white to sit properly against a dark background without sticking out like a sore thumb. Look for pictures of rain/splashes, etc, against a dark background, it will make it easier to extract. Another thing to consider is the angle of the picture itself, does it match the eye-level view of your composite, or is it higher or lower? 

And while I'm at it, do you know how to extract elements from a photograph using channels?

I ask this because I don't know anything about your knowledge base level when using Affinity Photo.

To be honest I didn't know that you could extract using channels till you told me I could with Affinity Photo. I used Photoshop Elements for the longest time and extracting via channels isn't available even with the Elements plus add on. I also have GIMP as well, but don't know if extracting through channels is possible with it or not. I knew it could be done with Photoshop cause I saw it was done by a compositor named Jeff Chapman for various works he's created and shown a speed process on his YouTube channel, as well as a multi-part tutorial for some of them.

[SolidSnake2003]

@v_kyr @AffinityJules @iconoclast @firstdefence @carl123 Sorry if I am being too difficult with my project

 

[SolidSnake2003]

@v_kyr @AffinityJules @carl123 @iconoclast @firstdefence I do appreciate all the help that everyone has given me. I hope I haven't been too much of a bother.

[SolidSnake2003]

@v_kyr @AffinityJules @carl123 @firstdefence @iconoclast Here is a new preview of the composite. I've tried finding images to get rain from, couldn't find any. The closest I could find was screenshots from paid video downloads from ActionVFX, and didn't want to risk using something I shouldn't since I haven't bought the resources. I've tried using different free splash brushes I've found and used motion blur to enhance the effect of motion. What do you think?

Hope you all like it.

[SolidSnake2003]

7 hours ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

@v_kyr @AffinityJules @carl123 @firstdefence @iconoclast Here is a new preview of the composite. I've tried finding images to get rain from, couldn't find any. The closest I could find was screenshots from paid video downloads from ActionVFX, and didn't want to risk using something I shouldn't since I haven't bought the resources. I've tried using different free splash brushes I've found and used motion blur to enhance the effect of motion. What do you think?

Hope you all like it.

I hope that I haven't offended anyone.

[carl123]

13 hours ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

@v_kyr @AffinityJules @carl123 @firstdefence @iconoclast Here is a new preview of the composite. I've tried finding images to get rain from, couldn't find any. The closest I could find was screenshots from paid video downloads from ActionVFX, and didn't want to risk using something I shouldn't since I haven't bought the resources. I've tried using different free splash brushes I've found and used motion blur to enhance the effect of motion. What do you think?

Hope you all like it.

The rain on the ambulance roof is too uniformed and too high. You would not get splashes that high and splashes tend to be random

The splashes on the umbrella are probably just Ok on the left and right sides of the umbrella but the middle section is also far too uniformed and looks wrong

Try to make the splashes much more random and not so prominent, they should be a very subtle effect

Or just leave the splashes out altogether and concentrate on just finalising the image and move on to the next bit of fanart

I think you have probably nailed this composition as much as you can

[SolidSnake2003]

5 hours ago, carl123 said:

The rain on the ambulance roof is too uniformed and too high. You would not get splashes that high and splashes tend to be random

The splashes on the umbrella are probably just Ok on the left and right sides of the umbrella but the middle section is also far too uniformed and looks wrong

Try to make the splashes much more random and not so prominent, they should be a very subtle effect

Or just leave the splashes out altogether and concentrate on just finalising the image and move on to the next bit of fanart

I think you have probably nailed this composition as much as you can

Just leaving it like this?

What kind of suggestions do you have to finalize it?

[v_kyr]

As carl123 already said, the rain on ambulance & umbrella do look too ordered and evenly distributed, make them much more irregular and chaotic distributed. Splashes there are also too high, which looks overall unnatural.

Fine tune that stuff via making etc.

[AffinityJules]

You must be subtle when simulating rain in a composite; gray smudges will not sell the concept and will look like exactly what they are. 

A few comments on previous pages I mentioned whether or not what you're doing looked real enough to sell a concept to a viewer, or indeed yourself? I don't wish to keep repeating myself, but you and I both know what rain looks like out there in the real world, and when we do composites we are trying to approximate the visual aspect of what we know rain looks like.

The picture attached is another quick/rough example of what you should aim for.

You have chosen quite a difficult subject to portray in a composite, rain is never easy - apart from applying a block rain layer, there are all the little details that help to sell the concept. This is where you will have to decide how far you wish to take it in regards to realism. If you're not able to apply the subtle effects needed then you might consider rapping up the image and move on to something else.

Personally, I haven't got the time to keep making these quick examples for your consideration, quick or not it does take up a lot of my time, but with dedicated practice, trial and error, you will slowly learn and get better with your composites. I am no expert, I draw upon what I have learned over the years along with some tricks I picked up. The best teacher of all is nature, study that in all aspects, light and dark, wet or dry, cold or hot, etc.. and then think about how it should look in your composite. And to reiterate, both you and I know if something looks realistic or not when creating a composite.  

[carl123]

6 hours ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

Just leaving it like this?

Yes, that looks OK to me.

 

6 hours ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

What kind of suggestions do you have to finalize it?

Nothing really, just have a final look at it to see if you see any obvious minor touchups needed but if you have all the final elements in the composition then it's good to go

 

[SolidSnake2003]

@v_kyr @AffinityJules @carl123 @iconoclast @firstdefence Here is a new preview of the composite. I have adapted different techniques from different Photoshop tutorials on creating realistic rain splashes(the only real effect I couldn't replicate is the Path blur tool, but just making sure I have things in place before worrying about warping anything to look more accurately positioned). I created a mezziont coarse dots texture using PSE, and a free dust particles brush to create some mists of rain splatter. The last thing I added to this preview that I added just to see how it looked is adding a single raindrop dripping off the longest spike of the umbrella, and a little stream of water to make it look like water was dripping off the umbrella.

Hope you all like it. I think its starting to look more realistic. Still have more to go, just making sure I'm on the right track.

[SolidSnake2003]

This is the tutorial that I used for helping me create the rain on the umbrella: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osiXdJd1DOQ this is the site where I got the dust brush I used to create the mists of rain: https://retutstudio.com/add-rain-in-photoshop/#rain-popup

 

[carl123]

14 hours ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

Hope you all like it. I think its starting to look more realistic. Still have more to go, just making sure I'm on the right track.

Yes, that's a lot better than the last image.

Work on that to finish it and it should be all done 

[SolidSnake2003]

@v_kyr @AffinityJules @firstdefence @iconoclast @carl123 Here is a new preview

Hope you like it

[v_kyr]

[carl123]

16 hours ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

@v_kyr @AffinityJules @firstdefence @iconoclast @carl123 Here is a new preview

Hope you like it

No, you have gone backwards from your previous image

These splashes do not look realistic

Make the splashes a much more subtle effect if you are going to use them in your composite

Right now, they are far too much of a distraction from the main theme of the image (which is the injured Georgie)

 

[SolidSnake2003]

@v_kyr @AffinityJules @carl123 @firstdefence @iconoclast Here is a new version with the PSE texture re-added, and correcting the mother's hair color to match the actress's natural color.

Hope you all like it.

[iconoclast]

3 hours ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

@v_kyr @AffinityJules @carl123 @firstdefence @iconoclast Here is a new version with the PSE texture re-added, and correcting the mother's hair color to match the actress's natural color.

Hope you all like it.

I'm still not lucky with the lighting. The fireman on the left is lightened by the lamp in front of him. That's almost OK, I think. Only the shadow on his back could be darker. But the woman that stands a little bit on the left behind him is lightened from the opposite side. That doesn't make sense. Even because the lighting on the guy directly behind her (the one with the umbrella) anon comes from a different side.

And the raindrops irritate me too. They would be lightened by the lamp too, and wouldn't be so bright. And they wouldn't be only around the umbrella and the roof of the ambulance. Rain would cover the whole scene as directional blurred stripes. They would bounce of the umbrella and the ambulance, but from the people around too. And if there is no falling rain, there wouldn't be raindrops bouncing of from anything. I think, I would create much less rain, because it would also make the ground and the people wet. That would result in much more contrast in lights and shadows.

[SolidSnake2003]

39 minutes ago, iconoclast said:

I'm still not lucky with the lighting. The fireman on the left is lightened by the lamp in front of him. That's almost OK, I think. Only the shadow on his back could be darker. But the woman that stands a little bit on the left behind him is lightened from the opposite side. That doesn't make sense. Even because the lighting on the guy directly behind her (the one with the umbrella) anon comes from a different side.

And the raindrops irritate me too. They would be lightened by the lamp too, and wouldn't be so bright. And they wouldn't be only around the umbrella and the roof of the ambulance. Rain would cover the whole scene as directional blurred stripes. They would bounce of the umbrella and the ambulance, but from the people around too. And if there is no falling rain, there wouldn't be raindrops bouncing of from anything.

Here is a new version with some shadows added and the rain made visible.

Hope you like it @iconoclast

[iconoclast]

18 minutes ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

Here is a new version with some shadows added and the rain made visible.

Hope you like it @iconoclast

It's a little bit better. But I wouldn't let the rain fall exactly vertical. Of course even not horizontal, but with a slight angle. To suggest a little bit of wind, what would correlate with the cloudy sky and the tree in the background. It would even look more dynamic and create more suspense. And I would add more than one layer of rain, because there would be more rain between the spectator and the paramedics in the background than between them and the people in the foreground. And it doesn't make sense, that the falling rain appears as blurred shadow stripes, while the bouncing rain appears as bright drops. Hope you understand what I mean.

[SolidSnake2003]

9 minutes ago, iconoclast said:

It's a little bit better. But I wouldn't let the rain fall exactly vertical. Of course even not horizontal, but with a slight angle. To suggest a little bit of wind, what would correlate with the cloudy sky and the tree in the background. It would even look more dynamic and create more suspense. And I would add more than one layer of rain, because there would be more rain between the spectator and the paramedics in the background than between them and the people in the foreground. And it doesn't make sense, that the falling rain appears as blurred shadow stripes, while the bouncing rain appears as bright drops. Hope you understand what I mean.

@iconoclast I get what you mean by more slanted rain. Which do you think makes more sense, slanted left, or slanted right?

[iconoclast]

1 minute ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

I get what you mean by more slanted rain. Which do you think makes more sense, slanted left, or slanted right?

I would say, that the tree looks like the wind is coming from the right.

[SolidSnake2003]

@iconoclast Here is a new preview where I fixed the rain, and fixed another error I noticed with the ambulance doors:

Hope you like it.

[iconoclast]

19 minutes ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

@iconoclast Here is a new preview where I fixed the rain, and fixed another error I noticed with the ambulance doors:

Hope you like it.

Yes, that looks better. I would make it a little less slanted. This looks like a storm now. Think of, that a storm or even stronger wind would also cause e.g. clothes and hair to flap, and the guy in the foreground wouldn't be able to hold his umbrella so upright. A little bit of wind should be enough.

And there is still the problem with the raindrops. Your drops that bounce from top of the ambulance have the same size as the drops that bounce from the umbrella in the foreground. And it doesn't look realistic how the light interacts with the rain. I can't say from memory how that should exactly look like. Maybe google for "Nightrain".

[SolidSnake2003]

@v_kyr @AffinityJules @carl123 @iconoclast @firstdefence Here is a new preview of the composite. I have redone the rain, and added a cloud texture to the splatters to reduce their visibility.

Hope you all like it.