EricLyman
11-08-2006, 06:40 AM
Hey render know-it-alls:
I'm on a freelance job right now that's going to require rendering about three minutes of animation at HD (1280x720). I'm interested in turning out something looking great, and part of that will require the implementation of Occlusion (of some sort). I have the know-how in that area, but unfortunatly I don't have the computer power to make it happen fast. I'm on a single CPU machine that was new about three years ago. This is all in Maya by the way.
Previously I had used a light dome in my work to get an occlusion-like effect. I did this because I had access to a smallish renderfarm that would render with 'Maya Software' but not Mental Ray. The other reason was simply not knowing the in's of MR :) To clear any confusion up front, my definetion of a light dome is basically a sphere with roughly 80 lights casting shadows around a scene. This sort simulates occlusion... but not really.
I'm basically trying to find a method that will yeild good results without the massive rendertimes. I only have access to either Maya Software or Mental Ray for this work... I'll use MR's occlusion if it comes down to it, but with all the rendering I have, I won't have time for too many revisions. Any suggestions, tips or tricks?
the light dome in question:
http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/4168/domegb8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Here's the result of light dome usage with a quick test scene I made up. Rendered a 1280x720 frame in roughly 3-4 minutes. (the object in the scene has been subdivided quite heavily to simulate a heavy scene file):
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3515/domerenderya2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Here's the same scene, same frame as above, but rendered with MR's Occlusion. As you can see it puts the light dome to shame, but one frame took roughly 7-8 minutes (ouch!):
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6678/occrenderxf6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I've used final gather before as well, but from what I recall the render times are about the same as occlusion. Thanks in advance for any help.
I'm on a freelance job right now that's going to require rendering about three minutes of animation at HD (1280x720). I'm interested in turning out something looking great, and part of that will require the implementation of Occlusion (of some sort). I have the know-how in that area, but unfortunatly I don't have the computer power to make it happen fast. I'm on a single CPU machine that was new about three years ago. This is all in Maya by the way.
Previously I had used a light dome in my work to get an occlusion-like effect. I did this because I had access to a smallish renderfarm that would render with 'Maya Software' but not Mental Ray. The other reason was simply not knowing the in's of MR :) To clear any confusion up front, my definetion of a light dome is basically a sphere with roughly 80 lights casting shadows around a scene. This sort simulates occlusion... but not really.
I'm basically trying to find a method that will yeild good results without the massive rendertimes. I only have access to either Maya Software or Mental Ray for this work... I'll use MR's occlusion if it comes down to it, but with all the rendering I have, I won't have time for too many revisions. Any suggestions, tips or tricks?
the light dome in question:
http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/4168/domegb8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Here's the result of light dome usage with a quick test scene I made up. Rendered a 1280x720 frame in roughly 3-4 minutes. (the object in the scene has been subdivided quite heavily to simulate a heavy scene file):
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3515/domerenderya2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Here's the same scene, same frame as above, but rendered with MR's Occlusion. As you can see it puts the light dome to shame, but one frame took roughly 7-8 minutes (ouch!):
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6678/occrenderxf6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I've used final gather before as well, but from what I recall the render times are about the same as occlusion. Thanks in advance for any help.