Hi all,
I’ll be rendering an elaborate animation in a few days and have been pondering various ideas for increasing the efficiency and reducing the render time needed for each single frame. In particular I have been thinking about using baked lightmaps…
My four characters will be walking down a narrow street before entering a door, and I’m well aware of the fact that I can’t bake the light for the moving characters. However, I will be rendering three different camera angles of the exact same scene (the sequences will be edited together later), so I’m wondering if there’s a way to somehow make use of the fact that the light will be the same in all sequences (just viewed from different angles)?
Frankly, I’m really not sure, if what I have in mind is possible at all. But I was thinking… can’t I somehow pre-compute the animations and everything that moves from some kind of “universal” angle and then transfer this information to each of the cameras? Do I even make sense? 
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
SAY WHAT? Your post has me confused. By the way for me Cycles baking is a gift when animating even through it’s only good with Diffused material.
Your ‘Combined’ bake cares not one wit about camera angles. As long as the lighting hasn’t changed significantly doing your animation it will be good to go (Look Right) Regardless of cameras and angles. Now glossy surfaces are view dependent and baking doesn’t work there. As long as your bake materials have NO glossy component you are good to go.
Also baking is not an exact science but trial and error. For interiors I have found unchecking AO and World compositing works best for me (Lose the S Curve) It just takes some playing with is all I’m saying. And don’t hesitate to pick 2048 for the image size when unwrapping. Hell I never go below 1024 even for smaller object. Best of luck with the project.
Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, I also think that Cycles baking is a gift indeed. Unfortunately, however, my lights will be pretty elaborate and there definitely will be glossy materials. Even a few (slightly) translucents. Which is why I have been trying to come up with clever ideas for decreasing render time in the first place.
As to my post being confusing… yes, I was afraid it would be. I’ll try again:
Say, you have a (plastic) character walking down a street for 50 frames with a street lamp above his head. I have a camera in front of him, that moves with him (like a camera guy walking backwards) and a second camera at the side, filming the scene from a 90 degree angle. I was thinking… The lights on the character will be changing significantly throughout those 50 frames, of course. But then I will be re-rendering the whole scene from the second camera, so… wouldn’t it somehow be possible to somehow “store” the light information of each single frame and then just render the 50 frames as seen from the two angles?
Not sure, if what I’m talking about can be done with some kind of lightmaps?
Marcus to be frank I have not a clue but I would say no. I was only thinking about baking the houses or parts of them. Which should work nicely for the lamps mounted on them and available moonlight. That right there would save you a lot if you bite the bullet and keep the glossy material to a minimum on said houses.
As you well know or will soon find out animation is one compromise after another. Unless you want to deal with render times from hell and obviously you don’t. But, you know this already. If you do come up with a way to accomplish this please let everyone know. Matter of fact I just saw your forum join date so I’m probably wasting your time. Once again best of luck with the render times.