how do i add a grain to my render?
i see all of these really cool looking renders that look like they have a “grain” to them…how to i acheive this affect?
the gimp
photoshop
paint shop pro
it is just a simple noise…
now, if you are talking about any of the ao (ambient occlusion) renders, setting the number of samples to pretty much anything lower than the highest will introduce grain. Also, yafray has a similar result (for similar reasons, with a similar “fix”)
but, I hate grain in cg stuff, it is usually WAY overdone
You can probably find a Sequence Editor plugin to add noise.
Martin
aah…and…um…how…with gimp?
ill try a bit myself.
but, I hate grain in cg stuff, it is usually WAY overdone
Totally Agree
I find it amusing that cg artists spend a great deal of time and energy trying to create effects like grain and lens flare that photographers spend a great deal of time, energy and money trying to get rid of.
stiv: now i totally agree 
stiv you are right! hahah did not realize that! but to be honest, i make both in each medium. i love totaly sharp and clean images but also very noisy images as well.
joguy
you can also use the ao option in blender which produces a nice grain in the scene! i think most grain you see here is actualy done by this!
claas
How broken is that… faking bad photography and strange, unrealistic lighting with rendering algorithms which take 10 times as long, heh.
Everyone is always talking about “soft shadows” and whatnot, and I swear, if I look around in the room, all I see is SHARP shadows exactly like they would be produced by a vanilla shadowbuffer spot.
Do you live in a room with one very bright light? All of the shadows in my apartment are soft (or sharp and then degrading to soft).
i like grain, but i thought modron’s non-participating entry for wc97 (ruins) was WAY too grainy…
yes, effects such as grain and lens flares should be used SPARINGLY (you know, like the top of the food pyramid)
is what i do for grain in blender is to add a plane right up in front of the camera, add a cloud texture and set the noisesize to 0, turn alpha to 0, make the texture affect the alpha, and change Var for a different amount of grain. Also, a dark grey color usually is good; depending on the pic. Also, you can change the Contrast of the texture to suit your needs.
(Oh, for an animation, set the NoiseSize to something a LITTLE above 0, or else it will flicker like a noise texture)
intrr your are cool! did you attended any physic classes explaining the principle of light? light always has soft shadows. depeding on the light type shadow casting object and shadow recieving object and the position in space the shadow might be different.
you must be kidding or i just drank to much banan juce with Weizen beer. jam that tasts good.
anyway i give you a small assigment: take a pen take a lamp put the lamp behind the pen and palce the pen touching the ground perpendicular to the ground. tada you see soft shadows.
but to comment your statement about bad photography. CG grafik looks often to perfect. like raytraced refelctions look to perfect. a reason why they also intorduced blured relfections to make them look more natural. and also if you scan in a print or a negative you see grain as well. and in CG most tiem you have no grain. even your eyes see grain. so seeing non grain images might tell the viewer that they look to perfect.
but its also a question of taste and opinion. i dont like to use grain everywhere.
claas
wow thankx for all the advice guys.
ok here my first expirament…would this be considered grain?
the only reason i need to know this is becasue one of my friends didnt think blender had all of the “awesome stuff that other cg programs have”
and so far i have proved him wrong in about 19 ways.
and this is one of the last things he said that blender “doesnt have”
so if this is “grain” then i have accomplinshed for the 20th time.
<EDIT> i used the "put a plane in front of the camera method that blendergetic said to use.
and this…
but i thought it was a little too much… 
who calls grain a top cg app feature?
blender does not have a lot from the high end apps. how even could it?
no fluidsy dynamics crazy paricle system perfect hair creation internal uv painting module huh
but for my needs its cool and i only whish it would have color bleeding dept of field aniso specular shader and of course faster renderer
claas
It’s of course totally great and a sign of a great application if it produces noisy output, and the most important part of peoples’ life should be to please people who are totally clueless, i.e. those who think that the more noise a renderer produces, the better it is…
And of course, Cehkuhnen, you totally need all those features, because you are a total pro.
Can you show any of your work? Just curious
i did not say i am a total pro. most work i cannot show because it would violate copyrights.
as i mentioned for my needs blender is awesome because i dont neet the kick ass tool maya provide for example. that is what i ment to say.
“It’s of course totally great and a sign of a great application if it produces noisy output, and the most important part of peoples’ life should be to please people who are totally clueless, i.e. those who think that the more noise a renderer produces, the better it is…” i dont know but your post sounds a bit offending to me.