COMPUTER ART: INTEGRATION

TEAM RENDER

Please remove jobs after you have completed the render and downloaded the results. Delete jobs one at a time - there is a bug that can cause an immediate crash of the server if multiple jobs are deleted at once.

In the Save Settings, set the save name only (do not use a save location!) and use a PNG sequence:

Still Images
Team Render is very inefficient for rendering a single frame. If a single image is needed, always render a two frame sequence (a mini-animation like frames 0 and 1). Team Render is optimized for animation and it will actually render the two frames faster than it will render just one and it will produce less errors.

 

C4D RENDER SETTINGS FOR ANIMATION

Render as PNG sequences. PNG sequences are easy to edit, easy to manipulate in AE, and work well with Team Render.

Speed-ups for any Render

In render Options, set the ray depth to 6-8; reflection depth to 2; shadow depth to match ray depth:

For Standard Renders, set the Anti-aliasing to 1x1/2x2 and Animation Filter:
 

PHYSICAL RENDER

- Adaptive Automatic 10-12% (if you go higher (13-15%, it will render faster but be noisier); some renders need to go lower but do not go below 6%.
- Blur max - 4 (very blurry scenes might bump this up to 5 to avoid noise; diagram below is set to 2)
- Shadow max - 2
- Amb Occ max - 2 
- SSS max - 4 (or 1 if SSS is very mild)
Be sure to set the anti-aliasing to Animation filter, as with Standard rendering.

ARNOLD

Main Render settings:
* Camera 3-4. Remember this multiplies with the values beneath.
* Diffuse 2-3 (maybe as high as 4 if a lot of high detail photo textures are used).
* Specular, Transmission, SSS, Volume Indirect all to 1 for default and test - increasing up to 3, if necessary. Increase values based on materials -- if lots of transparency is used, increase Transmission.
* Enable Adaptive Sampling. Start with 6 and test for speed/quality. Gradually increase. (max 10?).
Adaptive Sampling 'smart' overrides the Camera AA when higer values are needed, so the example below would use 3 (Camera AA) for 'easy' areas and go as high as 8 (AA samples max) for 'complex' areas: 

* Check lights: Shadow samples 2 (maybe 3 for "hero" lighting).
* Ray Depth settings:
Diffuse 1. If a very realistic interior lighting scene is desired, 2-3 may look more realistic (3 can take a long time to render, depending on lights). 
If a scene has a lot of layers of transparency/glass, Transparency depth will have to be increased (15?). 

Team Rendering with Arnold:

Team Render clients sometimes "error out" if image files are not pre-converted to .tx files.
1. Use the Arnold TX manager:

2. Select all of the materials and use the "Create" button to convert PNG/PSD/TIF/JPG/etc to TX files. Be sure to use the "replace" option.

3. Open a few materials to verify that the original picture files have been replaced by TX files.

4. Save with Assets. Upload all TX files from the "tex" folder as any normal picture file.