Reflection Noise

[iancofino]

Hey All,

I have a 500+ frame animation I'm going to render (1920x1080):

that is basically just some light emitting objects reflecting in a specular object.

This one took 9 minutes.

Here are my render settings (I have fake shadows on as well):

The issue I'm running into (which you can see in the test render above), is that the reflections are a bit noisy, even at 2k samples. I've tried bumping it up to 4k which really starts to give me diminishing returns, especially since I'm hitting render times of about 18 - 20 minutes there.

Although I don't have a deadline for this, I wondered if anyone has some suggestions on how to cut down on the grain in the reflections and or cut down on render time, otherwise I'll be rendering this for the next month.

Thanks,

- Ian

[bepeg4d]

Hi Ian,
since the kernel settings are quite extreme, have you tried in DL None mode?
the emitter materials have to cast lighting?
ciao beppe

[iancofino]

Hey Beppe,

I have tried the DL None mode, BUT I did not think to turn off cast lighting on the emitters, great idea.

It looks like that did the trick and it cut the render time in half, so I can effectively double the samples for Direct Lighting.

Thanks a lot, that's exactly the suggestion I was looking for!

- Ian

[bepeg4d]

Great to hear that you have solved, and don't forget to share the result with us when done, I'm curious
Happy rendering,
ciao beppe

[iancofino]

Hey, thanks again for your help beppe, here's the finished product:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKiE4Y4AKjC/

edit: As I'm posting that, I realize that the instagram potato quality defeats the purpose of a high sample render, but I'll be using the full HD render for a more longform video project.

[bepeg4d]

Great kaleidoscopic effect
Thanks for sharing, looking forward for the vimeo version
ciao beppe

[slepy8]

Really well done!