OK, I just need a little reality check. I'm curious as to what size folks are doing when they do a "serious" render. In the past, from my photo-illustration days I've done renders at three levels: FA (printed for wall)@ 600dpi 3000x?. Publication (magazine/newspaper) 300dpi 3000x?. And finally, web I'll resize down to 100dpi by whatever size I need. So far in CGI I've tried to follow about the same parameters. Just thinking about it while I wait for a long Poser render...and wondering if its worth it. Any thoughts/perspectives appreciated. TIA! -jay

DPI settings in general are mostly irrelevant for images intended for viewing on a computer monitor, given that the image resolution (pixel dimensions) either will or won't fit completely on someone's monitor and hence require scaling or window scrolling to view. 72dpi is the "standard" monitor pixel density, but resolution switching monitors may have 120dpi (or more?) on their higher resolution modes. As soon as you start talking about print media and computer proofing, dpi takes on some significance. My understanding is that it's all about the tradeoff between physical image size and viewing distance. As soon as the pixel dimensions subtend an angle smaller than the human eye can discriminate at a particular viewing distance, further detail or dpi is completely irrelevant. For CGI, anti-aliasing can give the illusion of more detail by eliminating jagged edges defined by pixel colour boundaries.

I usually render to 1024x768. I don't print my images and I rarely do post work so it works for me.

I render to 4000X3000@300 sometimes 3200X2400 or as much as my machine can take. I find that doing postwork on a 4000X3000 image is easier than on a 1024X768 image. I've also printed some of my images.

I generally render at 900x900, since nothing I do will ever end up in print.

I still see value in renders that are larger that the visible screen area as there is then detail available to be zoomed in on (to the point where pixellation becomes evident), though DPI settings are still irrelevant here. Another catch with print media DPI is whether or not the printer driver or printer is halftoning or dithering an image to achieve the available colour gamut. In this case, the image pixel DPI may be significantly less than the DPI the printer actually renders onto the page to give the optical illusion of the required pixel colour/shade.