What I find funny is… with global illumination, in order to get a non-noisy, non-blotchy animation, you have to have the highest render settings, for a process that does not need that much quality. What is even funnier? In order to make the animation look convincing you have to add the distortion of motion blur, which reduces the quality and adds even more to the render time...

Here is what I am referring to with the global settings...

(BTW - Everything was ON with the ray-tracing group, except the gamma correction.)

Pic 1 = 1:30 sec - Global transparency is OFF and interpolation is at default 20% (Notice the artifacts around the forehead hairline, blotches on the hair and skin, and the dark eyes.)

Pic 2 = 3:04 sec - Global transparency is ON and interpolation is at default 20% (That fixed the forehead artifacts and the dark eyes. But there is still that blotchiness on the skin and  hair)

Pic 3 = 8:12 sec - Global transparency is ON and interpolation is UNCHECKED (I did interpolation values up to 100% and still did not get rid of the blotching, finally had to turn it off)

Any actual suggestions of how to get rid of the blotchiness… because at 8+ min a frame…well you get my drift.

Thanx!

Use 3-point distant lighting (with soft shadows on using 1500 in.) and turn off Global Illumination.  Then see how much faster your renders are.  No ashes either.

Is your photon count still at the default? Increasing the quantity of photons while leaving your interpolation settings low can help tremendously. Mark

I find the 3pt approach does work. Altho, I have yet to try the endless lighting possibiliities. Did unchecking interpolation remove the problem? Looks like it. Interpolation can be a pain. Once you get it right try an irradiance map...so far it does seem to boost render time if the map is made with nothing to render. Then applied.

Thanx for the suggestions and sorry for the delayed response!

Shonner - The 3 point is ok, "no ashes" and faster... not quite the look I want or maybe I am doing it wrong... need more instruction and examples on how to do fake GI with this rig.

Mark - I will experiment with photon count.... first impression is it adds time to the sample lighting calculation witch maybe counter productive for every frame... still working on it.

ren - On the irradiance map...I dont understand what you mean if it is "made with nothing to render"... do you mean that  make one in a blank scene and load it in my current scene or just make one in my current scene then save and load it?

Thanx,

TT

There is a fake GI preset. Have a look at it. You do have to tweak the lights to get them right. You can do a lot with them tho. Distant lights are powerful.

Well the irradiance map appears to work if you do this. Gonna sound odd.

1. Set up your scene lights and make everything invisible.
   2.  Tell it to save a map in the irradiance map area choose static or multi-frame depending (scene or animation basically)
2. Then render with proper settings, but with nothing visible...takes no time.
3. Then go back and make everything visible
4. Then when you go to render choose the use irradiance map option and choose your map.

Should cut render time down 30+%, possibly much higher. If you group items they are easier to turn invisible.