Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=786498

In case anyone liked the Dino HDRI render it's now in the gallery in it's 1600x1200 size (3,5 hour of rendertime). Still some things I would like to get better but it will have to do for now. Does by the way anyone have any suggestions on what rendersettings to use for test rendering. What I want is a setting that makes stuff such as volumetric materials, focus, light to look as close as possible to the result of the final render while taking as little time as possible to render.

That's a great image. The blur of deep of field it is still a little fuzzy, grainy: i guess what setting (and render time) must be used for a perfect blur.

Actually I could not find anything to turn up any further. All settings are at max so I don't think there is more to do using the render settings. I have recived a tip on trying to turn down bumpmapping on procedural materials so I might try that.

The graniness in the blur will go away only by rendering at a very high quality setting.

HellBorn, I think that the postprocessing procedure you used at first (blur added in After Effects using z-mpa) is the best solution to the blur on dept of field; indeed: * you avoid the software need to calculate the blur, getting a much faster rending * you have -at least i guess- more control on the amount of blur, and you can try and use different settings almost "at flight". I guess if there is somewhere some tutorial or resource with some good tips on how to use at the best z-map in video compositing packages like After Effects. Even though I know the general "workflow" of this tecnique, some good tips and tricks can help for sure...

Orio, everyting is at max allready!

Hellborn - here is what I was talking about yesterday to lower your bump settings. Open the grass material and set the bump to a very low number. Do the same for the palm tree bark. Open all mataerials with the F6 key and you can then edit them individually to minimize the bump. This should also cut down some of the graininess.

Scott

Last week I talked about the z depth channel. Here is the depth channel from a Vue4 rendered window. Load this into the alpha channel of after effects or photoshop and use gaussian blur to do easy depth of field with no grain. This is how the pros do it for animations frame by frame and it works even faster for still images.

Scott

grainess goes away easily in the pro version but at a serious legal tender both private and public.

Thank's again scott. I do understand what you did suggest, I have just not had the time to try it yet ;) I also tried the Alpha trick in one of the first renders and (the second one in the previus tread). Getting the result I got in that picture was however not an automatic Photoshop process. The Z buffer only hold depth information and not really out of focus information(would be greate with a focus channel). This means that the sharpest part in a blurred picture will allways be the closest part witch might not be what you want as when I did the Dino. By playing with the curves or maybe by doing a by color selection in the z buffer and then invert it, it might be possible to use the z buffer so focus appear in the correct part of the image and by doing so even be able to use it for an animation. In my image i did it by composing togeter a blurred image and a sharp one while by hand deleting parts of the sharp so that the blurred one shows trough. If I get some time over I will try to lower the bump setting and maybe play some more with the z buffer.

I'm trying to guess: if i want to isolate some elements -let's say in the foreground- from blur applying the z-dpht channel, maybe i can use the level (CTRL L) of photoshop (or After Effects). Using the sliders related to max output of black and white perhpas it is possible to isolate the exact amount of "gray" (and so depth where you want to apply the effect.

I'm not sure as I have not tried that one ciniacchi but I'. pretty sure it will work using the curves. Using them you could remapp black (closest part) to something brighter as well as darkening the grey where the focus should be.

The idea I had about doing a 'select by color' where I wanted the image to be sharp and the adjust the fuzzines worked very well(image).

At least for stills, the curves could be better for animation.

Overdoing it created a cool effect... I will render a new highres image toningth without any bumpmapping and se what effect that have. If that wont fix it I will redo the highres for Photoshop treatment as well.

Yes in photoshop use the levels slider to exaggerate the grays into black and white. This will give you more of a selective blur alpha channel. It takes some tweaking. Basically black is no effect and white is full effect of the blur, so if the dino looks mostly black he will be in relative focus. If not invert the alpha channel and everything should be right. Did you try reducing the bump too? Scott

And yes - curves give you even more control. Other than the time spent creating the custom alpha - see how much faster you can do this AFTER the render and look how much more control you have. That first one using curves looks excellent - like a real lens with a low F-stop. Glad I could help. Scott : )

Thank's Scott. I have not yet tried the less bump solution. I have prepared the scene but will wait to render until I go to bed as I currently need the computer.

Good idea. You're welcome - hehe - its just noon here in Colorado. Scott

OK Scott. The upper image is from the old 1600x1200 and the lower is rendered with all bumpmapping removed from all materials except the Dino.

I can't se much of a differens (maybe because bupsettings where pretty low to beggin with)?

Rendertime did however drop an hour compared to the 1600x1200 so it took 2.5hours.

The lower image does look cleaner, but the grain is still there. Yeah less bump means less render time - always. Also since this is HDRI you are going to get some artifacts from that too unless you set those samples higher as well. I don't have Vue5, but I am patiently waiting for them to upgrade Vue pro with these features. I'd take a crack at your scenefile, but I don't have Vue5. Usually more samples fixes the grain - doesn't seem so this time. What if you just light it with the sun and no HDRI - do you still get all that grain for the same settings?

Yeah, could be nice to know if the HDRI is the reason for the grain. So if I get some time to kill....