This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Adonic Meki: As an effective non-artist, I'm curious how the rain aura makes drawing rain easier. I'm totally uninformed, not saying whether it's right or not, just interested in how that'd work.
Bluetooth The Pirate: Well, as I know a little about animation...
It's a lot easier to airbrush in a rain aura around a figure than to individually render each drop impact. It helps to make it look like water is actually striking the character/object, since the raindrops themselves are either not drawn, or are drawn as a few frames that loop on the top cel layer. In modern digitally-colored cel jobs, they have access to all the nifty Photoshop tools like airbrush and alpha transparency, making it even easier to draw it in. The aura itself is often the only moving object in a scene (if it's a static tableau or a Pan and Scan), operating on a three-ish pose loop with a choppy delay so it appears to shimmer, a la Squigglevision.
As is often the case in animation, they are painting in broad strokes and simplifying out details in favor of symbolic or suggested detail.
Adonic Meki: Interesting. Thanks for enlightening me, B T the P.
nayhem: Funny, I came here just after Redemption in the Rain during my usual random-item browsing…
