Hello, i'm making small ( the 300 something X option) movies, using User Defined settings, with some stuff unchecked..with Optimize last frame checked. then on the advanced animation settings button: with flicker reduction checked... but still when i make my clips: i see alot of graininess and then flickering on the tree leaves, etc..flickering on the ocean shaded( and animated)terrain... well why so much flicker, so there is nothing i can do..?? is the only option using the Ultra render setting? Sheesh, .. thanks

No... in User settings, you can reduce flickering by playing with Antialiasing options. You can control the amount of Object and Texture aliasing in a more precise way than what you get with Ultra. Same thing with advaced rendering options such as Min and Max number of rays, and quality settings. Actually, the end of the manual has several tips about how to improve image quality, in particular with animations. Maybe you could check that out too.

If you are animating, use texture bitmaps in materials whenever you can, instead of procedurals.

Also, uncheck optimize last render pass, this can give poor results, this option speeds up render times, but can yield to poor resulst, quality wise.

ohhh i see. thanks for the info everyone. by the way i did an awesome fast animation with poser characters and a bricked floor and it didn't look any flicker. it's just trees and terrains/floors and water. then another time recently i used the baking option in the advanced options, and for some reason i didn't see any flickering in trees. I'm experimenting^_^ i'll tell you guys, if i find my solution thanks

still no luck any of you guys , have you done animations that have no flicker? i'm playing with all the settings and most tries i make, seem pretty much the same

Do you use global illumination? If so, you might want to check the Advanced Effects Options , in the render tab, when clicking the edit button of the Advanced effects quality. If you check the Custom indirect lighting settings, check the jittering option and choose "reduced pulsation". That's what it says in the manual. Hope this helped.

From the manual it states to avoid using detailed procedurals and opt to use texture maps where ever possible. Also disabling Soft Shadows. That explains (in part) why so many people are getting the graininess in their renders.

Of course those two options can do allot to reduce the overall image quality if your animations are over expansive terrain. Perhaps the unavoidable conclusion is that ultra settings combined with the options above are possibly the best if not only way to eliminate the grain.

richcz3

Message edited on: 05/14/2005 21:43

Guys Great news!!! I GOT IT.. i finally figured out a way to reduce render times. I went from render time 1 frame at about 1 minute, to now 24 to 30 seconds:) at a 720 X size.. All i did is, instead of using the normal atmosphere i did environmental mapping and in effects i loaded one of my pictures JPGs, and it looks quite ok, say if i'm in a forest scene, the image will be a forest. Then , I create a terrain, i create a few trees a few plants( but not as many as in the ecosystem) and There you go. it looked awefully unflickering, and also super high quality, i don't know how i managed to do it, but now it's fast and awesome, even if i don't have all the detail of a full Ecosystem. well, :) Thanks to all who helped. Today i had this goal to arrive at some nice rendering setup, and finally i did.