Matrix Digital Rain Effect

Materials
1. Create some images (100x100px) with Chinese like letters as in the Fig:10. We need 15 different images and note the color of the character; light green.

Download the sample files

Put all the images in a same folder and name them as a1.jpg,a2.jpg,a3.jpg …..,a15.jpg. In a notepad write down the names of first 8 images [a1.jpg,a2.jpg….a8.jpg. one in each line] and save the file as “a1.ifl” in the same folder. Save another “a2.ifl” with the names of last 7 images[a9 to a15] and a “a3.ifl” image names.

*An IFL (Image File List) file is an ASCII file that constructs an animation by listing single-frame bitmap files to be used for each rendered frame.

If you are too lazy to make all these images, simply download the sample files and use it for the next steps of the tutorial.

2. Open the Material Editor, select an empty slot and rename it as “Leading_Char”.

3. Assign a Bitmap to the Diffuse map slot and chose “a1.ifl” as bitmap. Go to the Time rollout of the bitmap and turn on ‘Sync Frames to Particle Age’.

4. Go back to the parent and drag the Diffuse map to the Opacity map slot; select ‘Instance’.

5. Turn on Self-Illumination color and set the color to R=134,G=255,B=106.

6. Drag the material to another empty slot and rename it to “Trail_1”. Go to its Diffuse map > Time rollout and set ‘Playback Rate’ to 0.15 .

7. Go back to the parent and assign a Particle Age map to the Self-Illumination. In the Particle Age map, set the following values.
Color #1 = 63, 178, 0    Age #1=0
Color #2 = 11, 60, 0      Age #2= 37
Color #3 = 1, 15, 0         Age #3= 60

8. Make 2 copies “Trail_1” material and rename them “Trail_2” and “Trail_3”.

9. Select “Trail_2” material and go to its diffuse map. Change the bitmap file to “a2.ifl”. Go to the Time rollout and set Start Frame=12.

10. Repeat this to “Trail_3” Changing the bitmap file to “a3.ifl” and Start Frame to 7. Set Playback Rate=0.2 .

11. Select the “Leading_Char” and set its ‘Material Effects Channel’ to ‘1’. For the three other materials [Trail_1,2,3], set this value to ‘2’.

12. Now go back to the Particle view. Select ‘Material Dynamic 01’ in ‘Trail 01’ event. Click on the “None” button and assign the “Trail_1” material we just created.

13. In Animated Texture group, set Max Offset=8.
We are randomizing the age by 8 frames, so we can get randomized texture frames. If you set a value larger than 8, you will get some black particles, cause we only have 8 frames in texture.

14. Do the same to the ‘Material Dynamic 02’ & ‘03’ in ‘Trail 02’ & ‘03’ assigning “Trail_2” and “Trail_3” materials respectively. Set the Max Offset values 7 and 8.

15. Now add a ‘Material Dynamic’ operator to the ‘Event 01’. Assign the “Leading_Char” material to it. . In Animated Texture group, turn on ‘Reset Particle Age’.

Render the Camera view and you should get this.

Now it’s defiantly like Matrix. But still need some glow…

Finalizing

1. Open the Environment and Effect window and go to the Effects tab. Add a Lens Effect > Glow.

2. Go to the ‘Glow Elements’ rollout and Rename it “Glow_lead”. Set size=0.1, Intensity =70, Use Source Color= 68.

3. In Radial Color group change the first color to R=24,G=201,B=0.

4. Go to the Options tab > Image Sources group, turn on Effect ID and set value to 1.

5. Add another glow and rename it “Glow_trail”. Set Size =0.08, Intensity=74, Use Source Color= 32. In Radial Color group change the first color to R=66,G=164,B=0.

6. Go to the Options tab > Image Sources group, turn on Effect ID and set value to 2. In Image Filters group turn on Bright and set value to 79.

Huhhh !… That’s all… Render the scene and enjoy it !

If anything is difficult to understand, please feel free to comment.

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Tags: 3d max, degital rain, matrix, tutorial