I'll definitely try it with a boost of None if -1.0 with Ignore Indirect Lighting on Plants is not satisfactory.

No, but when you abort your render, it asks you if you want to save all the frames already rendered. You then just have to render out a sequence next time you render...tell it to start at a specific frame and end at one.

Also...still wanna hear CC and possible alternate solutions. X number of heads is better than 1.

A new version will appear sometime tomorrow night as I have to use my farm to render out a quick animation for my job until then. More to come...

TEST 2 - INCREASE GI'S EFFECT

In this test, I increased GI from -1.0 to +1.0 to decrease the amount of flickering on the leaves. As you can see, this helped the overall problem, but it's still not as spot on as I'd like to see. Also, this helped, but at what cost? Render time doubled from around 5 minutes a frame to 11 minutes a frame.

As a side note, I also increased breeze to 40% which I like a bit better overall.

At this point, I'd possibly avoid GI for renderings with vegetation, but I want to run a test with Ignore Indirect Lighting on Plants checked to see what effect that may have on the animation.

http://www.vuerealism.com/renderchallenge01/tree02.wmv (2 MB)

GI Lighting (+0.40, 55%, 50%)
Quality boost = +1.0
Ambience: .30 Sky Dome Gain: .85

User settings
OAA (9,9) = 69%
TAA (4,16) = 85%
Adv Efx Qual: 46%

Wind Disabled
Breeze enabled (40% intensity)
Ignore Indirect Lighting on Plants Unchecked
TGA Sequence

15fps = 150 frames = 13hrs 40mins (11 minutes per frame)
2 Computers Rendering

Message edited on: 03/22/2006 08:34

Hey Peggy. I actually have that printed and next to my desk. :) Great resource btw. This is more of what we need as tuts/books are minimal at this point.

Actually, I tried his suggestion and it didn't help. I think it's more of a guideline for objects than it is vegetation. Texture AA might be off simply for speed reasons...but maybe not. It may make a difference. As for the OAA, I dont think it's that really...because it's the surface of the leaves that's the issue. If I were getting flickering of edges and the trunk I think it might be that. I think the problem is there are diff types of flickering with diff causes. Mine might be GI. On non GI, it may be OAA. Maybe it's the TAA. Tus, this is the purpose of this RC...elimination of flickering with GI animations. :)

Too much time has gone by for me to edit a post??? Anways.... EDIT: Come to think of it, having "Ignore Indirect Lighting on Plants" could have a MAJOR impact on this as well. I'm currently running a 6 second animation at 15fps with simply a GI boost. This will come next if not remedied.

Responding to my own post.... I believe my current issue has to do with my GI boost being at -1.0. Maybe a change in this will result in less flickering, yet unfortunately yields much slower results. I think I'll shorten the animation length this next session to just the part dealing with the flickering and not the last 4 seconds. Breeze looks like it make have to be higher than 30% to simulate your average day IMO. Any other ideas other than increasing GI? I have a feeling GI may not be the greatest solution for animation unless you have a big budget and a loooong time.

Haha...OT but dburdick...I like that phrase.."It is like putting cool whip on top of mud and calling it food"... I prefer "When you combine 5 gallons of ice cream and 5 gallons of manure, you get 10 gallons of manure." myself...

How odd it works today! Much thanks!

Any other tips you can give me since you seem to create some of the best Vue animation work? So Texture AA causes flickering? I thought it'd be the other way around...

Change the density to 100% in the Density tab in the ecosystem. Be warned, it does not follow edges well, thus isn't ideal for a lawn but is ok for a grassy hill w/ no edge.

I got it now. Did it in Photoshop. Thanks tho.

I suggest that you create a surface of that shape in MS, export that to AutoCAD then then to 3DS. That process has always worked for me. That's what I do though. So if ACAD users dont use splines in 3ds, what do they use for smooth curves?