While creating an animation, everything was going well, and the first test renders were smoothly rendered in good quality. However, as I progressed and added more elements to the scene, I suddenly noticed that the initial shots are rendered darker. I haven’t changed anything, and multiple cameras cover the same spot, but not only is it darker, but I also end up with something like this:
I should add that I haven’t changed any render settings. I’ve checked if any objects are around, but nothing. I’ve even copied part of the scene from the shot to a new project, but it rendered strangely there too. I’m not a rendering settings expert, but no matter what I do, the pixels are so sharp that nothing helps.
So now I have a question: what could have gone wrong? Because I have no idea…
Copying part of the scene and having it render slower in the new scene is a clue. Something you copied is doing the slow down. In the scene if you turn off things one by one you should find what is slowing it down. To make sure it is turned off in the render make sure you click on the eye ball and the camera off. If you don’t see either one go to “filter” and turn them on in the “outliner” so you can see them. A long time ago I had a slow scene and narrowed it down to a few geometry lights that were so tiny, but adding a ton of time to the render.
You might also have switched to using CPU from GPU. If you have a good GPU it will be way faster.
It looks like you have some volumetric scattering or fog going on. That can add a lot of time to rendering. Usually if you can you fake it. There are tutorials if you do searches as to how to fake god rays.
