Quote - > Quote - > Quote - Indeed Boom you were there when I started and i too was complaining about render times LOL Ho whata difference a few months can make. I know i still cheat using PS... This too will most likely come to pass with more time..

Without picking on you or your PS preferences, the thing I've noticed since trying to do as much as I can in-render is that it makes you a better artist. You learn the program for what it can really do (which is quite a lot!). Absolutely, do what works best for you, and from time to time, something will inevitiably pop up that you might have missed before it rendered 10 hours. Happens to us all!

My advice, just slowly work it into your routine or try it once to do an all-render image without the expectation of fixing something in post, outside of like a signature or some lettering. You'll figure out how to do things in-render that might have been a post-only fix before, like a smoke effect, or a fire, or a background of a building, whatever.

The advantage of doing it this way, aside from looks, is that it will have correct lighting and shadows, and make you better at the same time. Win Win!

 

I think you missunderstand what I do in PS. It has nothing to do with lighting.  I render the full scene in LUX. Its only minor stuff like filling those annoying splotches in facial areas and the odd poke through and smooth out something here and there... Very subtle stuff

I get that. Truth be told, I added a leg strap that I goofed in Studio and let render in Lux just last week. It wasn't plainly visible in Studio, but Lux made it very apparent. So, yes, I (Gasp!) fixed the strap in post. Which is fine and dandy.

What I was alluding to is that noise is very relavant to what you can fix in-render with light. Where your light is, how natural it is, how the shadows fall and your material settings greatly affects how the render plays out. Point being, learning how all this plays together makes your renders not only more life-like, but by learning how to combat these pesky dots will by happenstance make you a better renderer. Experience comes with time, yes, but in the mean time, learning can only make you better, so playing with some settings at your own speed will get you where you want to be. Maybe your next image won't need as much correction, and the one after that even less. Eventually you'll get to a point with all the accrued knowledge that you can let one render for fifteen minutes and get a very acceptable image that needs no post correction at all. 

I hasten to call this the 'purist' mindset, but the mark of accomplishment. Mastering Lux is part of the challenge--and the fun--of rendering too! Its why we do what we do. 

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