Hello! I need some advice about render setting which will render my final render. The screenshot below is my project which is almost complete. You can see a bit of noise on the lighting bolts.
In the 2nd and 3rd screenshots you can see my render settings.
I’ve been thinking about doubling or tripling some settings like the samples; is this a good idea? It’ll take a long time to render but I want everything to be as good as possible.
What do you recommend my settings should be? Also OpenEXR is the best format which keeps all the color data right?
Visual range of colors per channel is 0-1 where 0 is black and 1 is white. If you save the result as .png, you’re not losing any information in that range like you do when saving as .jpg. Openexr can save values that are out of 0-1 range, which is valuable if you want to do adjustments in post-processing and have all of the information available, or if you want to save other information in image format.
Multilayer openexr saves all information from all render layers. As far as I know, render result is in multilayer openexr format already.
Can’t advise with cycles but if you just want good images for web display then .png is your man. OpenEXR half type will likely yield a smaller file size than .png 16 bits but can’t be displayed on the web. OpenEXR gives you several different compression algorithms to choose from so you need to find out which each is suited for via OpenEXR documentation:
Anything over 16 bits per channel , for VFX work, is more academic than anything else because most imaging devices can’t even come close to displaying their true color depth. Basically a broader color palette will allow you to do a wider range of image adjustments such as levels without causing banding in the image. Ultimately the format you choose should be determined by what you intend to do with the image after rendering. Final format should be chosen after all post processing is completed.
For the type of render that you’ve done I’d say you already have the right format chosen. That’s why it’s Blender’s default…it works well in a wide range of scenarios.
All images in Blender run through the OpenEXR Full Float pipeline which is hard wired into Blender. Any conversion happens after that, i.e. > 8 bits .jpg image texture > convert to full float OpenEXR > save out 16 bits .png. I think this is because OpenEXR is coded to work with just about every imaging scheme under the sun. I think it does this through the ImageMagick library.
I have a feeling that sampling is only one factor here. You didn’t include the texture maps, so I had to improvise (see attached image).
That’s Blender 2.69, pathtracing, 1.000 samples. Materials have been slightly revised (deleted unconnected nodes / deleted nodes that were connected, but had no visible effect etc. - main reason for this was the instability of that scene: My Blender 2.69 crashed on any manipulation of the material nodes with preview rendering enabled…) and I added a HDR for the background, to increase background lighting and hence light up the formerly “pitch black” shadow areas. That alone solved the noise issue in the shadows.
The increased brightness might not be the look you wanted, though.
Looks nice! So you’ve added some more light and used progressive samples set to 1000? I like how the eagle and banners are a tad glossy… did you decrease the roughness or add more light?
The background I want to be that cloudy dark but I want the objects to be a bit more bright.
edit: You used a HDR background which emits its own light?
Yes, it’s an HDR of a studio lighting setup that emits it’s own light and provides a tiny bit of reflection for the reflective surfaces - according to the principle “give reflective surfaces something to reflect”. I did not tough the other lights in the scene.
In some of your materials you had glossy components, but their setup made them look diffuse anyway. Yes, maxed out glossy roughness was one of the factors in that. Or take e. g. the font: The 100 % black in the glossy color supresses most of the reflectivity. Push it a tiny tad off black and you will start to see the specular highlights.
BTW: The left dog tag has a different material - on purpose? And that dog tag is still set to flat shading, at least in the blend file you posted…
Left dog tag different material? When I open that blend file and click on the two a few times it shows two different shades of colors and then they both go bright purple for some reason O_O Since I posted this file I’ve worked some more on it and they’re both the same now.
I’d like to make a HDR background with the image below which is the backdrop in my render. I like the effect that you’ve give, can you give me a quick run down on how to do this or recommend a good tutorial?
Also did you use progressive samples set to 1000 in your render?
