Help: Rain drops from above

[kanachi]

Hiya everyone,

I am creating an image of a fantasy town as viewed from above (gods eye view) and would like to have rain drops falling upon the settlement from this angle and height. I'm just wondering what techniques and methods you would use to generate the effect of these raindrops. This is the only example of the kind of thing i'm talking about that I could find (sorry about the lack of a direct link i dont have 5 posts yet!):

stoneclaw.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=24#/dxtgp1

I’m sure it’s pretty simple in theory, I’m just struggling to generate something realistic (my issue with the above image is that the amount and density of the raindrops feels a little OTT). Any help you can offer to get me started would be fantastic!

Thank you so much!

 

[PotatoSkins]

Hey Kanachi!

So I've been playing around with Photoshop for quite a few minutes and this is my effort:


I have used mostly filters for this look. I would suggest: White fill -> Add Noise -> Motion Blur -> Polar Coordinates. I would then play around with the levels so that some parts are black in order to have individual drops. Then I would use the layer options 'screen'.

I hope this helps.

 

[thedirtyknapkin]

Hey Kanachi!

So I've been playing around with Photoshop for quite a few minutes and this is my effort:
View attachment 18640

i think that looks better than the example provided

 

[kanachi]

Hey Kanachi!

So I've been playing around with Photoshop for quite a few minutes and this is my effort

Hiya PotatoSkins!

Thank you very much for putting this example together for me and explaining your workings. I think this looks good. I will probably try to add a few larger drops closer to the edges of the frame so it looks as though you are amongst the rain itself, but this is a fantastic base to work from. Fantastic stuff!

If anyone else has any other ideas/takes as well I would be most grateful.