Week 3 Play and Tinkering

Rain and Snow

Context :

I want to simulate raining and snowing in Unity. Simulating climate plays an important role in my studio project. So, I try to use the particle system in Unity.

Here is an example of making 2D rain particles in Unity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkB6yzCBfgw

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Method :

First, I draw the raindrop and snowflakes particles in Photoshop. The background is just the images I
download. Then, I play with those particle attributes to make them more realistic.

The particles first emit from one point, so I changed a couple of attributes to let them fall. Then, I change the X position in Force over Lifetime to slant particles, so the rain looks like blew by the wind. After that, I deal with the Force, Color and Size of Lifetime to make them more realistic. One of the most important parts is when the rain particle hits the ground, it causes a splash. Thus, I need a Collision which is a plane, and a sub-emitter that attaches a splash. It’s done.

Snow particles have two forms, a circle and a hexagonal snowflake. Same as the rain particles, I get the sown falls. Making the sown flakes rotate which is Rotation over Lifetime. Besides, I have noise on snowflakes, so the snow like drifting down randomly. Texture Sheet Animation is used to make the snow change between two forms.

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Response :

I enjoying which the particles to see how dose these simulate climates. By these tests, I figure out the most attributes of the particle system. Also, it’s great to know that the particle itself can have an animation (see the snow particles).

However, the snowflakes look a little fake. I got the feedback from Wayne that I should make the snowflakes more irregular. Thus, in my studio project, I will refine this.

And, what I'm going to next is to simulate the drifting petals from the cherry trees, which probably would be similar to snow.