In the last tutorial we played with particle system and created the flowing lava. Today, we stick with liquids and we will show you how to create using particles in Maya to create the rain. This task in the beginning certainly sounds like a complicated thing, but the opposite is true. It will take only a few steps to create the illusion of a total acceptable rain. For the whole scene we only need one particle emitter and the floor. Floor like a surface on which raindrops will fall and are scattered in all directions.

Step 1:

Model up your floor, on which the rain will fall.

step_01

Step 2:

Create a particle emitter in menu Dynamics> Particles> Created Emitter (type Volume name DEST, Rate 100,000).

step_02

Step 3:

Now select the emitter RAIN and in table ParticleShape in sheet Render Attributes tab set the shape of the particles on the Streak. Then click Current Render Type and set the following values: Line Width 2, Normal Dir 2 Tail Fade -0.3, Tail Size 3

step_03

Step 4:

Select first particles and Shift-select the plane. Now there are two active objects. Go to the menu Dynamics> Particles> Make Collide and thus create a collision object, ie the floor.

step_04

Step 5:

Select with the left-mouse click object particle 1 and on the right in the attribute editor tab geoConnector1 set the Resilience to 0.3. This will ensure that the drops are not so much bouncy.

step_05

Step 6:

Now we have to set up the drop that after falling it will be splashed into several directions. Select the menu Dynamics> Particles> Particle Collision Event Editor. In the table select an object particle1 Type – Emit and Random # particles. Then press button Create Event

step_06

Step 7:

And that created another object “particle 2”. Select it and the Attribute Editor tab, set particleShape2 shape on the Streak and then click Current Render Type where to set the following values: Line Width 1 Normal Dir 2 Tail Fade -0.1, Tail Size 1

step_07

Step 8:

So, to force drops falling down, we need to assign particles to the gravitational field. Choose both particle objects and in menu Dynamics> Fields> Gravity> options set the Magnitude to value 3.

step_08

Step 9:

As a final step assign to both particle objects some material. I used Blinn pale blue, and I set the Transparency to 60%. I suggest that you use Ramp in shades of blue to black instead one color only.

step_09