@trekkiegrrl: yeah. Except that I would use sync instead of box for Post Filter Type, and I don't use Tone mapping / Exposure adjustment in most cases - certainly not on top of Gamma Correction. You don't do Depth of Field (focal blur)?

Suggestion: my site containt some tuts on Render Passes (e.g. Depth of Field in post) and on Gamma / Exposure Correction which might have some info / ideas as well: http://www.book.artbeeweb.nl/?book=poser-rendering

@ghostship2: hair, especially in this volume, presents a complete "area of interest" indeed which smears well over multiple threads; one does not want to concentrate all that in one or two buckets. As usual, getting quality takes time and resources, and IDL / Hair is not a fine combination. Perhaps we can make a new thread for that, and see what the (other) gurus think about it. Maybe some additional AO for more depth when we exclude it from IDL.

My main tut on rendering, lighting, camera, atmosphere and background will be published on my site by say the end of this month. I'll do some research on the hair-thing before that myself :-)

Edit @stewer

1. I was discussing final rendering, ideal settings, no quality loss. These are not my favorites during drafts and test runs.

2. feel free to trade quality for time and resources in all cases. But when one wants to increase quality somewhat, it helps to know which slider does what instead of pushing them at sort of random, hoping for the best, and turning Render Settings into a casino. Advice generally is something to be ignored, but it'd better be for a reason :) IMO that is.

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Usually I'm wrong. But to be effective and efficient, I don't need to be correct or accurate.

visit www.aRtBeeWeb.nl (works) or Missing Manuals (tutorials & reviews) - both need an update though