Let’s talk simulations!
As I mentioned in another post, simulation is processor intensive and is often not used on characters for a TV production. So things like hair and clothing are designed in such a way that they can be animated with mesh bones instead.
But for things like rain and water or other such effects, simulation is much easier to add.
I was struck by this scene while rewatching Prodigy. If you look closely (I slowed down the gif and zoomed in so you can see it better) there actually are water droplets being simulated falling off the characters bodies.
And you can tell that it’s simulated because when Dal drops his hand suddenly, the water that had collected on the top of his hand takes a few frames for gravity to start pulling it down again. That’s obviously not how water would behave IRL, but it’s probably the best the simulation can do for a TV show. You can see this many of the shots when a character moves faster than the simulated gravity can affect the water.
I personally would’ve expected the water in scenes like this to be a particle effect that just adds drops of water falling from key parts of their mesh to create the illusion that they’re getting wet, I was not expecting there to be full on simulated water droplets that interact with the bodies of the characters.
While not perfect simulations, I do appreciate that they took the time to simulate water at all. They really didn’t have to. A couple particle emitters in the right place and with the overlay of rain covering up the finer details, they could’ve easily gotten away with less. The fact they didn’t, even if the result isn’t 100% perfect, shows me that they care about the attention to detail.