Render help on interior, darkish scene

[Whithers]

Hi all,

I know there's a lot of resources and posts on this topic, but I'm still miffed by the noise I'm getting--in the shadows/poorly lit areas of my scene, especially--from my all my render attempts...

The first question I have, really, is this: what would you recommend using for a dark interior scene with harsh and softer lights, both (to give you an idea, it's a theater scene with footlights and a few spot lights). Would it be easiest to go PBR...?

I'm gonna put up a render in a bit, but I'd bet you guys know what ignorant thing I'm doing without even looking ^^

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Ok, I'm to the point where adding light fixes the problem... But obviously I don't want to add more light. Probably a really dumb answer to my woes, but, heheh, don't know what it is ^^

Edited March 13, 2012 by Whithers

[Whithers]

Gamma.

Changing the gamma at least hides it...

[edward]

Mantra will render out pictures in linear. So if you're not looking at it with a gamma correction tuned to your monitor, it will be wrong. The easy gamma cheat is to look at it in mplay with gamma set to 2.2.

In that past, I found that I could still tweak things without it for micropolygon renders. However, for PBR renders, it's absolutely crucial that you do it right.

[paul]

ok - some points:

- ensure that mantra rop/shading/colour space is set to Gamma 2.2 - so that variance is working most in "eye" colour space. ie, smoothing out the dark bits

- use portal lights

- make use of photon maps (indirect light). reduces noise.

sidefx *really* should have a "best practice" selection of demo hip files which have all these settings tweaked to production perfection.

-paul

[Whithers]

Thanks a lot, guys!

Photon maps and gamma advice = win.