Slapstick - Background

I created the background for the animation, separating the bench and the overlay onto different layers. I'm really happy with this environment, as the colour and lighting both aid in conveying the nighttime scene as well as keeping it sufficiently lit as to be visible. I also really like the colour of the surrounding trees/bushes, as it keeps the image interesting. To improve I would have made the line work of the bus shelter a lot cleaner.

I then took the background into after effects to add the rain effect. This was really useful as it showed me first of all how to do it, as well as the process for masking off areas where the rain won't affect it. I initially had trouble with what layer to put the rain effect on, however solved this by adding it to an adjustment layer. I also had quite a bit of trouble with adding the subtle splashes around the scene, and ended up creating a short frame by frame animation and looping that to give the right effect. I think this works really well and sells the image, however if I had more time I would polish the rain splashes and make the masking of the rain a lot neater.