Best way to genereate Irr Map for Animations

[Matt Furedy]

Whoa, sorry guys, really crazy last couple of days, trying to handle all of my business. Anyway, I am back!

Brian - I'm glad that I haven't messed any of my settings up too terribly. I will definitely turn down the DMC samples a bit, I hadn't really thought about how high 15 really was. I had sort of planned on trying Low IR settings, especially since this is an exterior scene. With a little deadline extension, tho, I may reconsider. I figured I would try it on medium for the first, say, 10 nth frames, see if its manageable, then make my final decision. I have a couple of hours to dedicate to that. As long as I am at it, I will go ahead and render out those final images to be sure that I have enough samples for the low like you suggested.

Thanks a ton for your very valuable input!


Chad - I went for the 5 year MArch, even though I am really further from a license now than I was when I graduated almost four years ago. Its ok tho, I have mostly survived the recession and am making enough money to live! Can't ask for much more than that.

[AdriaaN van Jaarsveld]

Have you tried the "Use Camera Path" option??

Turn it on for you IR and LC calculation, and save both maps when calculating

Then render ONLY the first frame (yes only one frame). Once that render is done (the lightmap calculation) you can render any frame from using just the IR map, turn of the LC method.

To what I have seen this way is much much faster, don't get me wrong, that one frame is still gonna take some time but set you're time line on 200 frames to try it out first.

A

[Matt Furedy]

- Hey Koper, I didn't even think of using that option. I have already started on my irrmap calculations, and I dont really have time to experiment with something that I havent tried before. I will keep it in mind for next time.

Also, for anyone wondering just how different Low and Medium settings are, I figured I would pass on my own experiences.

First of all, I used essentially the same settings that I posted up a few days ago. I did make a couple of changes that problably don't matter much for this discussion [mostly advice from Brian], but I will post up my settings in a little while anyway. I started two simultaneous jobs, one with the IrrMap settings to Low and one set to Medium, every 10th frame, on two identical slaves. They both had all the other settings exactly the same. Check out the time differences:

Frame.......Low setting.........Medium Setting
...0 .............13:03..................25:13
..20...............7:07..................16:24
..50.............. 5:19..................13:14
.100..............4:44..................10:36
.200..............4:30..................15:21
.300..............3:23..................11:30
.400............. 3:35..................12:25
.500..............5:15..................17:07
.600..............6:10..................22:04
.700..............3:14..................18:18

Starting at almost exactly the same time, the Low settings are currently about 65% done with an average task time of 6:02. The Medium is only about 23% done, with an average task time of 15:43. In a few hours tonight I will do a couple of tests and see if I can see much difference between the two GI calculations at 1280 x 720. Ill do an update then including my render settings.

[David Hansen]

1:56 camera path, ouch!!!... you should check out some of the big viz studios films and see how they edit..

[Matt Furedy]

Hey Dave -

Yeah, I have a client who wants to play Orson Welles and is trying to use us as his film studio. He insists on the shot being unbroken, "so we get the full sense of the project." He doesn't seem to want to listen to our arguments against a shot like this. That, and I haven't found the stones to stand up to him. Mostly because I'm living on mac and cheese, dodging calls from the credit card company, and need some cash desperately. So I do what I can, hope he likes it, and puts the bill on the fast track.

Oh, and the renderings are going really well by the way. Ill post my overall thoughts when I am done with the project this next week sometime.

[David Hansen]

Hey Dave -

Yeah, I have a client who wants to play Orson Welles and is trying to use us as his film studio. He insists on the shot being unbroken, "so we get the full sense of the project." He doesn't seem to want to listen to our arguments against a shot like this. That, and I haven't found the stones to stand up to him. Mostly because I'm living on mac and cheese, dodging calls from the credit card company, and need some cash desperately. So I do what I can, hope he likes it, and puts the bill on the fast track.

Oh, and the renderings are going really well by the way. Ill post my overall thoughts when I am done with the project this next week sometime.

Ah, in your case then I love the camera move=($$$$$) I'm a big fan of $$

FYI--my 3yr old LOVES mac and chesse, as do all kids..not sure why, it's pretty nasty...

congrats on getting your renderings looking good..cant wait to see the final