Topic: Animated Rain in GIMP

[fencepost]

Another oldie, but goodie!  Enjoy!

Hello, Class!  In today's lesson, I'll show you the steps to creating animated rain like in the image shown below.



The method we'll be using requires some basic GIMP skills (adding layers, setting layer modes, using some basic filters, etc.).  One nice thing is that we will be doing the animation directly within GIMP (I'm specifically using 2.2.9, but the older versions should work fine).  No GAP will be necessary.

Step 1

Open up the image you desire to add the rain effect to.  I'll be using this one:



Step 2

Duplicate the image 2 or 3 more times.  I'm duplicating mine twice.

Step 3

Add 1 new layer for each number of background image layers and fill them with white.  Since I have a total of 3 background layers, I now have 3 white layers as well (a total of 6 layers).

Step 4

Re-order the layers so that you have a background layer with a white layer on top of it.  The layers should alternate like so:



Step 5

Add some noise to each white layer by going to Filters | Noise | Scatter RGB.  I've used the following settings, but you can experiment a bit:



It's really not necessary to change the settings of the noise filter as the noise is placed randomly.  After I got the settings I wanted, I just made each white layer active and hit Ctrl-F to repeat the filter with the previous settings.  You can change the settings if you want, but I'm just letting you know it isn't necessary.

Step 6

Now add a motion blur to each noise layer.  Here's my settings:



Step 7

Now, set the layer blend mode for each of the noise layers to "Multiply" (or some other blend mode that suits your taste.)



Step 8

Merge each one of the noise layers down to the background image below it.  Menu: Layer | Merge Down.  I now have 3 background layers with rain.

This is what my layers look like:



Step 9

Now, try out your rain.....Filters | Animation | Playback

Step 10

Optimize it for animation:  Filters | Animation | Optimize for GIF

Step 11

Save as a GIF

Step 12

When you see this window, please set the options as follows:



Here's my results once more:



How'd you do?

Now, get out there and show me your rain!  Happy GIMP-ing!

Art

[z3matt]

Nice tut.

[Nimmy]

Not sure on what to do to get the "rain" more noticeable.   

[Darth_Gimp]

You will notice in the example and outcomes that the rain, like real rain, shows up more on lighter backgrounds. What you have is cool... just dark.

[sdort]

thanks darth_gimp, i found out that later , so i had to invert it.

[texjoy]

TY 4 da lesson dis wut it resulted

[Darth_Gimp]

less ghetto more English please.

[texjoy]

rain tutorial is awesome plz make tutorial on how 2 post is dis a post it says ima be kicked its almost 90 days and i have no post idk how   plz help me

[Darth_Gimp]

Yes this is a post. So do not worry so much.

[DesiredForgotton]

Inspired by all the rain lately i've done one for around where i live..



Posted on: March 30, 2010, 10:12:53 PM

thanks darth_gimp, i found out that later , so i had to invert it.

I Love the background on that .. How did you Do it ? Or Is It an image ?