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Standard Rendered Still Image Size


Shane Gee
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Hi

 

Some new clients we are working with have requested I produce interior images at 8000 x 6000. They are quite a large construction client and deal with a lot of different CG companies. They say this is the standard size they get from other CG companies. We normally produce images at 4500.

 

Are they correct in saying the standard is now 8000 for an interior image?

 

Shane

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For me, 8k hasn´t been available as my clients are not that quality hungry yet so they don´t pay enough to justify the much longer render times (or extra farm money) needed. I use mostly 4K, but would like to render in higher resolution. I would then have to use renderfarm as I have only one computer and waiting for 2 or 3 days for an image is just not possible. I guess many (or most) of my textures would need a replacement with higher resolution ones too.

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I usually work between 2.5K and 3.2K My style works best in that range. I also use as close to zero maps as I can, prefer to build surfaces from non-repeating native noise.

 

8K? Sure, why not. As others have said, when I get a call asking for 'the high-res version' I just up-scale in Photoshop and resend.

 

2.5 - 3.2k is unprintable for larger format though. I guess maybe youre different as your style leans toward NPR.

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"unprintable"

 

Define unprintable. You have to determine your final presentation method, viewing distance and acceptable print quality. Just because the print company tells you they need their images submitted at 300dpi, that is just a standard number they throw out there. On that note, "DPI" being used as an image size is laughable because DPI refers to Dots of ink Per Inch, which is extremely low. We use "PPI" (Pixels Per Inch). Anyway, that's off topic.

 

I read a book years ago that showed the difference between two identical images printed on the same page. One of the images was 300ppi, the other was 200ppi. You could not tell a difference, at all. Now, if the page was printed on a museum quality printer, you could probably tell the difference. But only if you were less than a foot away. After I read that book, I started rendering all of my images out at 200ppi. Once I started rendering images out for 24x36" prints, I realized my computer wasn't fast enough to render out the quality of images I was after, so I stepped down to 150ppi. Guess what - NO ONE NOTICED the reduction in print quality.

 

I rendered an image for a billboard once. The final image I submitted to the print company was something like 50-75ppi. It looked fantastic from my car zipping down the highway.

 

With so many presentations being made digitally nowadays, I've been rendering out images at 1920x1080. As 4k screens become more common, I'll probably have to increase my output size. If I know up-front I'll be printing the images, I'll adjust the output accordingly, but 300ppi is never my goal. I'm quite happy with 200ppi. Especially since most of my prints are on an 11x17 laser, which can't compete with the DPI output of a good inkjet printer. My .02 cents.

 

Edited to add - the 8000x6000 image size requested in the original post may be dictated by large format prints they display on their construction sites. If they have a print company that they regularly send their work to, the print company may have determined that resolution works best for their particular final print sizes and gave them that size to use as a standard when hiring their CG resource(s). I wouldn't necessarily take their request to mean it's the new industry standard.

Edited by Eric
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2.5 - 3.2k is unprintable for larger format though. I guess maybe youre different as your style leans toward NPR.

 

Is too printable! Yeah, whatever, I find that higher resolution only detracts from my work. So I up-res later if someone screams. The reality is that printer drivers do scaling very well. Thought experiment : Imagine you had to produce a 300 foot long banner that was all red. How many pixels do you need? Answer - one. Printing handles scaling, and the factor to consider is not dpi but arc-angle, meaning what percentage of the visual arc is filled and then the limits of human sight.

 

But really, somewhere around 4K is probably fine for most projects.

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