$15 DIY Film Rain Machine

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Today I will show you how I built two different rain machines or rain makers (call it what you want it), that you can use in your next video production. The first one cost me $15 and the second one was $70. Enjoy and learn!
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My name's Tom Antos. I am a film director and cinematographer with over 14 years experience in VFX & animation. Jak sie masz?! I'm originally from Poland ;) Check out my channel here: / polcan99

[@TheMeejahChannel]

brilliant idea and the "rain" it produced was spot-on - looked very genuine on camera. Good job!

[@TomAntos]

Thanks!

[@KDD8]

DIY $15 Film rain machine, Little brother and a water hose ;)

[@MoreLikeCappuccino]

Your 1st design provided better movie rain. The 2nd is almost like filming in a real rainstorm... Great tutorial!

[@TomAntos]

MoreLikeCappuccino Thanks! Yeah each machine produces different results.

[@LukeCameronMW]

Love love love this video and tutorial! Just built one in Taiwan - 4 nozzles and works well! Thanks for taking the time to film this and then post it!

[@buzzedlunne6668]

How annoying would it be, that just after you finish making your customised rain maker natural rain begins to fall from the sky :P

[@TomMakesThings]

lol

[@CrackaLackTV]

Bus Lan lol that'd suck

[@Gojira5400]

Bus Lan hahaha

[@antoniuskelvinkurniawan]

My face would looked like 0:00

[@winfredhelessly3221]

Lol

[@brucepurcell-theactor7647]

If you make your bottom board vertical, so that you can make a "T" shape with your boards, you will reduce the bending that happens in the middle.

[@terrythomas5305]

Thanks... I luv how you get expensive effects with in-expensive methods!

[@TomAntos]

Terry Thomas Thanks!

[@ChristianVezina]

Wow this looks so fantastic compared to other solutions that i have seen. I really wish i thought of this before filming my rain scenes.

[@CraigOfilm]

Thank you for the great tutorial and tips! You just saved me a LOT of money on a film! :)

[@robyworks]

Perfect, thank you!

[@TomAntos]

robyworks no problem!

[@HatsuonJ]

Thanks, Tom for this video. I bought your Lighting Dozen Tutorial, and this is the perfect video to complement that awesome rain cinematography segment.

[@TomAntos]

Thanks Hatsuon Jones for buying the Lighting Dozen Tutorials!!! Great to hear you liked it.

[@FlopsyGuitarBunny]

Good thing you're better at video making than putting up umbrellas:)

[@TomAntos]

+FlopsyGuitarBunny ;-)

[@4kRealSound]

This is the best raining machine I have ever seen. I like it very much. It must be collected.

[@PerfectRumble]

great tutorial and nice setup, especially the one with pvc pipes and sprinklers!

[@TomMakesThings]

Thanks!

[@donariessol282]

Great video I hope you looked into getting a PVC cutter way more efficient than the hand saw. Thank you for the tutorial

[@FrostyTheBeerMan]

Tom Antos hey Tom, by the way, in that intro, it seems like you were *only* using the garden hose... if this is correct, the shot was really impressive and very very real looking. Amazing you accomplished that only with the garden hose. ( when the cam zoomed out, that what I saw, unless you had both garden hose AND pvc pipes ( sprinklers ) working also....

[@TomMakesThings]

Yup the opening shot was the first rain machine with just the garden hose and the last shot in the tutorial is done using the PVC rain machine. They both work great, but the PVC sprays the water a bit longer and it doesnt break as easily.

[@KAGARAKIS]

very realistic!!!!!!!well done tom!always your tutorials are very helpfull!greetings from greece!and i wish to you and to your family the best!

[@BrentTouchstone]

Great! So I'm thinking... since I'm filming under trees I can just run a, decent quality, sprinkler hose through some branches and turn on the rain. Trying to keep my next short film as low budget as possible. This info will really help. I think this might be epic :) I'm going to use it in conjunction with a smoldering campfire FX I came up with in my last short film. Thanks

[@AndrewConway]

You gave me an idea, how about since it's not going in the ground, you use Electrical PVC Schedule 80 and I guarantee it won't bend... And or sister it to two 10' pieces of 3/4 EMT conduit for support... Think I'll do that and thanks for the idea...

[@erikm9768]

Great. But how do you make a portable system? Most locations doesnt have access to continuous water. Especially outside

[@joejose8433]

sephiroth x my friend a 55 gallon drum of water you can also rent one of those portable water tanks that you see in the parking lots when a parking lot is closed for the night and somebody go out there and power wash

[@MrDiegoNori]

Portable water pump drawing from a drum of water, and use a portable genny for power, or a small inverter and a car.

[@KarachiFilmSchool]

Genius at work. Many thanks indeed!

[@mantra4ia]

Dang, I wish I would have watched this a few months ago, I disposed of a folding mattress bedframe that might have worked well as a support frame for the PVC. I am going to try this out though.

[@RAINSORI]

It was very helpful Thank you.

[@ChrisSchieritz]

Obviously I love your work Tom, back in college we'd even watch your videos as a reference to filmmaking advice, i'm sure anyone can build one of these contraptions and it looks amazing and on such a much larger scale but I just created a video as an alternative to getting a sweet practical rain effect, it's on a small scale but it's incredibly easy and handy because you can take it absolutely anywhere without having to build anything, it's outside the box as well and I believe it would really help out so many people if they were looking for a great alternative to this, you even get an awesome blood splatter effect with it!

[@defiverr4697]

4:20, Dog steals the shot from the lead actor.

[@AnthonyJames1983]

Absolutely mind-blowing. I always thought to get that effect you needed a huge 1,000 gallons per minute water pump and a crazy apparatus to disperse the water. This is awesome. Thanks :)

[@ibifaaombo7269]

Hi Tomantos that was so cool, am going to try it and you will see it in my next film or music video. thank u so much. loving it already.

[@damndude7156]

Make more video like this dude

[@MickScarborough]

A PVC cutter will speed this up greatly and remember to use the primer before using the cement or the joint will be weak. Tom forgot that part.

[@nnazim1893]

Great video👍

[@Haveyouever12]

YOURE AMAZING AND EXTREMELY CREATIVE!!!! huge fan!!!

[@RemoFiore]

Awesome I'll have to try that one !

[@ahmedejaz]

your background scenery are beautiful

[@Daberkstudios]

Thank you for sharing this Tom! - and great tutorial as always! :)

[@valdensefilms]

Thank you so much Tom. This is very helpful.

[@jboyynahum3983]

I'll be getting your tutorials soon.

[@TomMakesThings]

Jboy y Nahum Thanks!

[@defiverr4697]

For the opener, I would have started with a shot of your getting out of the car in the rain, fidgeting with the umbrella, and soaking, rain stopping, then pull pack to the setup. That's just me. I'll try this set up.

[@ChrisMitchellClare]

Biggest question is where is your water source coming from for it to work in the middle of nowhere or in the middle of a forest?

[@GanaeMaria]

This is such a great video, thanks so much!

[@RSBSTEADICAM]

In the professional sector vertical rain towers with a spray head is much more flexible than your overhead approach.

[@NatureSoundZzz]

Thanks a lot 👍

[@wxstream8005]

We had a rain machine and while using it at night TONS of bugs came to visit, it ruined the scene. Reason is it had been dry and there was no water elsewhere, we solved it by flooding part of the road a few yards away from the rain machine, all the bugs went to the pool of water which formed in a run on the side of the road. It's actually funny to see this were gonna keep it as an outtake

[@aabood007]

Your tutorials are amazing thx a lot man

[@PROvidsTV]

Great job! A little question though, I need to get the same effect going but on a city street, where I won't have direct connection to a private water supply (it's all appartment blocks around here), do you or anybody else have some tips on how to do this?

[@TomAntos]

if your in the city then there is always water connections on every building. just ask the owners of a building nearby for permission to connect. You'll be surprised how many people will let you connect water or power if you ask nicely :-)

[@ChrisSchieritz]

Hey how's it going, I know i'm super late to this party but if you haven't found a portable alternative I think you'll love the video I just posted because I found the perfect way to do this effect, you don't need to build a huge contraption and you can take it absolutely anywhere, it's definitely worth checking out because I don't think anyone else has used my method before, definitely one of the best / easiest ways to get the effect anywhere, I hope it helps!

[@Zegeebwah]

@@ChrisSchieritz I looked on your page for the video but I didn't see it

[@ChrisSchieritz]

@@Zegeebwah it's the blood splatter effect one 😄 personally I really like the rain effect but people only seemed interested in the similar blood spraying effect you get with it so I figured I'd just shorten the name for them 😬

[@TheEmperor2029]

2 main and important things stayed SECRET for me 1. where you hold the water and how much liter you take with you? 2. How you press water, that it throw out from tubes' holes? (sorry if there is grammar mistake)

[@LukaszAntos]

you have to connect it to a water supply line... you cannot just set this up anywhere.

[@TheEmperor2029]

Lukasz Antos And maybe water cistern.

[@CCAkuna]

Great machine, Tom!

[@4kRealSound]

Thank you. I made a rain machine from your tutorial.

[@playprostudios712]

Awesome overall especially the night scene there. But I wouldn't run from the axe wielding dude like that, I'd dent my front bumper with him. Very deeply. Thanks Tom Antos.

[@Promikes]

where did you get the water? :)

[@NeeloJay]

Promikes that's what I was gonna ask

[@TheIdeasGuy]

+Neelo Tv I reckon it might've come from a tap. Where else does water come from?? ;)

[@quass3000]

+TURFA The ocean.

[@NeeloJay]

Lol of course but you need a outlet for the water

[@DevilWearsAdidas]

the earth is made of 75% water

[@satanlover134]

10:06 you could probably get away with using open zip ties and grip the zips with closed zips on the vertical end followed by the same process on the horizontal I think.

[@chaloschicles114]

Nice tutorial

[@TomAntos]

Thanks

[@kennethalbert4653]

Typical PVC pipe is "schedule 40", for what you are doing, there is a "schedule 80", significantly thicker walls, therefore more rigid !

[@TheMazzken]

I have a question where do you find water to power up the Rain Machine?

[@KRConnection]

Great Job!

[@TheMazzken]

Where do you get the water to power up the rain?

[@juuonse]

It would be more rigid if you flipped the pieces of wood 90 degrees on their side. Wouldn't be so much flex in it. You could easily just drill a hole through them all and use a bolt/stick/whatever to keep the middle part collapsible =)

[@alonsooseguera8487]

could try to introduce a metal rod inside to make the pipes more steady?

[@BlacksheepPictures]

wow great! how did you light the car interiour? with leds ? and outside the moonlight pls?

[@pranayamaproductions]

AMAZING!!!

[@btm96]

This will definitely come in handy, thank you!! Was this all shot with the gh4?

[@TomAntos]

The shots in the actual rain were shot on the GH4... the behind the scenes was mostly done on the Canon 7D.

[@TolgaBedirVideos]

great job, thank you!!

[@dorathedora]

Hi! Love this video thank you. How did you find a hose hookup in the middle of the woods?

[@setthelightsband]

That was exactly my thought lol

[@RockwayComtech2011]

Hi Tom, We built your second design for a school project but are having trouble getting the sprinklers to spray at all. Did you have to adjust your sprinkler heads in some way to control the flow of the water? Thanks!

[@JaeNiverseTV]

hello Tom...greetings from Africa, huge fan...i got a quick question, how do i simulate lightning flashes when filming for a horror movie?

[@thoughtyness]

I would use a flash light then do the rest in post.

[@redghostx]

Thank you ;)

[@Pedro-ic5ym]

If I put the sprinklers looking down would it create a good look if I put the machine right on top of where I want to record?

[@MelindaAugustina]

So smart!

[@satanlover134]

9:13 maybe double the pipe in to a latter?

[@kenyee88]

would 1" PVC have worked better? i.e., not needed the support piece?

[@TomMakesThings]

It might. Try it and let me know ur results. Thnx!

[@fullmoonfilms95]

How do you get the water to come out of the water hose like that? Did you puncture holes in it or something ?

[@IndianaJames]

where do you get the water from?

[@LadhayamtaaEntertainment]

this helps alot

[@tomg8043]

Clever!

[@BrianBerneker]

3/4" PVC = CHUBBY RAIN!

[@mairinsea8032]

lmao

[@RustyTube]

Nice!

[@SunnyDuttaRoy-ou6ue]

Thnk u so so much

[@jonathanmacias5450]

Can I do this for watering plants

[@samhaboush865]

I bet if you used conduit, that would of stabilized the setup.

[@nightwingsurfer]

any idea how to do moving shots and follow your actors with the rain machine?

[@teresadolan6507]

You'd have to play around with the rain machine for that to work

[@S9universe]

amazing

[@LutchMediaUK]

Nice!! What light are you using as the back light?

[@TomMakesThings]

1K Red Head Tungsten light

[@LutchMediaUK]

How are you geting power there?!

[@ForboJack]

***** generator?

[@GeofryMasters]

Lol this tutorial reminded me of the Red Green show!

[@TomAntos]

;-)

[@PDXFilmmongers]

What if you are at a location where there is no water source to hook the other end of the hose to? Say you are out in the middle of a field or on a rural road not near any house?

[@TomAntos]

You can bring water in a big towable container and gas or electric pump

[@giorod6435]

do have to be clean.water or salt water

[@TheArchitectFilms]

you this is a total finest job it, defiantly not portable

[@MayhemJack]

What if you have to shoot on location and there is no water source? I mean, you can't just knock up on people's doors and ask if you could use their tap, right?

[@ChrisSchieritz]

Hey how's it going, I know i'm super late to this party but if you haven't found a portable alternative I think you'll love the video I just posted because I found the perfect way to do this effect, you don't need to build a huge contraption and you can take it absolutely anywhere, it's definitely worth checking out because I don't think anyone else has used my method before, definitely one of the best / easiest ways to get the effect anywhere, I hope it helps!

[@Helsingborg36]

nice. where will you get the water from when shooting your feature?

[@GeofryMasters]

That's a good question!

[@TomAntos]

Im filming on a farm so there's plenty of water hose conections

[@MegaUltimateHD]

What camera are you using for your feature

[@TomMakesThings]

Still deciding but I think most likely Panasonic gh4

[@STMENTNETWORK]

Hey can u put links to the to heads u use in the pvc build. And where to get the hose so i can try that 2.

[@TomAntos]

I got it all at my local hardware store... but I'll see if I can find it online and post the links on my website.

[@4kRealSound]

where is the water come from in the forest?

[@nnazim1893]

Hii, I actually came here so that I can create artificial rain for my daughter as she loves splashing in the rain.

[@PalavenAvenger]

Is it possible to move this makeshift creation with the actor? I.E. the actor walks down the street being soaked by rain

[@darktidesstudios8658]

I noticed your license plate was from kitchener ontario! thats where we're from.

[@filipghiorghi]

how to slow mirror and find 50mm shot adrey rublov

[@errolteichert3052]

Do you have an estimate for how much water this uses per minute?

[@TomAntos]

Nope because that would depends on how many holes and sprinklers you put in it and also what water pressure your supply hose is at.

[@b5mickey93]

@14:38 what tripod did you use?

[@TomAntos]

Mickey Louis The CAME-TV tripod .... I did a review about it. You can find it on my website.

[@dandruff9901]

genius

[@elisafioritto1369]

COME SI FA L'AQUA

[@cinematrack6326]

What Camera Did You Use?!!

[@THATHATSALLFOLKS]

Machine???

[@ENEYEFilms]

0:44 what ran past your car?! (bottom left corner of screen)

[@TomAntos]

LOL my dog