Is it possible to use PMC for animation?

[vinz]

Sorry adding one time again this subject... but i didn't find any usefull informations.
i've to animate a rotating object move.

-> all my result are flickering.

i already had to deal several time with this problem and the only way i found is to use direct or pathtracing.
but this time i would like to use pmc ! is it possible to render a non flickering animation with pmc?

some tips?

Thanks for your help
Vinz

[jmfowler]

its hard to answer your question without any images or further detail, but I only use PMC for all my renderings, which recently includes 2 minutes of full HD interior animation.

PMC is the only viable kernel to use to avoid flickering with various assortments of architectural settings, hence why I have so many graphics cards. PT and DL often fail to clean up all the speckles in a time shorter than PMC and using the firefly removal slider is a complete FAIL in my opinion - it just adds a nasty blur.

try using PMC with max rejects set to 100, and caustic blur at 0.2, then pick an acceptable sample level IE 4000-8000 depending on how much time you have to render the project out.

Regards,
Jonathan.

[Elvissuperstar007]

http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=25831

[vinz]

Hi Guys,

thx for your interest. i don't have the time to make a more obvious example, my cg is currently burning.

here a simple rotating knob as example .

jmfowler, i've used your parameters,@3000 sample, and the overall light is still flickering even if there are some noise we can see it.
few days ago i've made the same test at 16000 samples the result was also flickering.

i dunno if i do something wrong, but every time i try rendering animating objects using pmc, the result is flickering.

here a zip file that contain 18 pics of the rotating knobs to have better overview.

[vinz]

ok, here i've rendered frame 1 and 10 at 16000 samples.
it's much better but the flicker is still there.

obviously 16000 is too much to be used in a pratical way for me.

Vinz

Edit: i've made a substraction between the two frame and the flicker come from my eyes, the result seems correct at this sample level

[jmfowler]

wow thats unusual to have fireflies at such high sample settings, I would check through the usual suspects list

scene scale - incorrect settings can create all sorts of bad or weird renders. try changing it.
some HDR images used for lighting give off bad fireflies - try using another form of lighting to see what the difference is.
check for pure white - 255 setting values on shaders - this can cause bright spots.

[vinz]

Hi jmfowler

Hahaha! these are not fireflies, that yu are seeing these are scratches on the metal knob surface
the result is prety clean and the light difference between these two frame is very small , but it's ok ! ... i need to investigate more with a complete animation
when i will have the time.

anyway i cannot make animation at such sample regarding the current projec i will use pathtracing as usually.
i can use it and get rid of fireflies by bluring my hdr map environnement. it also blur metals reflections , so i've to cheat to keep clean reflections;)
but the result is fine, maybe one day octane will accept smart Ibl ...

anyway,it seems that maxReject at 100 improve a lot the result. thanks for the tip

but if u have any advice to render with PMC and less sample to avoid flickering any idea is welcome.

[Refracty]

I love octane for stills.
For animation there need to be some small optimisations (black line problems, flickering, motion blur).

[jmfowler]

thats weird, I used to have flickering in one scene a long time ago because of lights turning off randomly in random frames - but I haven't had that problem in any of my animations for ages - at least 2 months of rendering animations non stop.
I've never had black lines though!

[vinz]

jmfowler, please could you tell me at what max sample are you rendering your animations? do you use any hdr images on your scenes ?