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Render with ultra high resolution

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  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 40,941
    edited November 2017

    ...I'm looking to create high quality art prints which requires rendering in large format and reducing them slightly before printing to tighten details.  I used to paint in oils on canvases that were measured in feet instead of inches. Chronic bone and joint arthritis has taken that away from me so I need to get as much out of this media as I can.  Nothing will ever be an "original" but I am more into it for for showing the visions I have in a tangible physical format rather than making a living off this. If it just offsets the cost of the printing process, framing, and hanging fees, I'll be satisfied.

    Same for the stories I have to tell.(which will also be illustrated). 

    Post edited by kyoto kid on
  • PadonePadone Posts: 3,610

    @bluejaunte @Mattymanx

    Thank you very much for the tips. Both the lens shift and the spot render seem to work fine for the purpose. Both are somewhat hard to control though. But these are usable alternatives to a tile-based approach. I would call it "manual tiling". Also the spot render may be very useful to refine critical parts of the image such as character faces, while leaving the rest to a medium quality. And then using a denoiser in GIMP mixes them all in a good final.

  • fastbike1fastbike1 Posts: 4,077
    edited November 2017

    @Padone "Iray is not designed for print resolution images"

    Not even close to being true. Latest dDLRs have resolutions 7952x5304 to 8256x5504. Previous were ~6000x4000, before that ~4288x2848.

    All can print 17x22 without artifacts or issues.

    @mattymanx "As an alternate option, you can try this software which is designed for blowing up images for large print - https://www.alienskin.com/blowup/ - It is not freeware"

    FWIW, that capability is now included in several photo editing packages.

     

    Post edited by fastbike1 on
  • PadonePadone Posts: 3,610
    edited November 2017

    @fastbike1

    It's clear to me that any rendering engine that's not tile based, including iray, does not fit print resolution images. That's beacuse a tile based engine doesn't need more ram when the resolution gets higher. So it's optimized for high resolution images. While iray is not. If this is not clear to you then we just don't agree. You are free to have your own opinion.

    Post edited by Padone on
  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 40,941

    ...this is why I have Carrara. High quality plus tiles.

  • PadonePadone Posts: 3,610
    edited November 2017

    I can't delete this post.

    Post edited by Padone on
  • TheKDTheKD Posts: 2,677
    edited November 2017
    Mattymanx said:

    As stated above, unlock the limits and set your size.  During test renders, render smaller so its easy on your system.  Make sure the aspect ration is locked.

    When you are ready to render big, click on the Spot Render Tool.  Open the Tool Tab.  Check the option to "render to new window"

    Now you can spot render different areas of the image without having to move a camera around.  Iray will render small areas faster.  I do not know if rendering this way will reduce memory consumption or be any differnt from rendering the entire scene in one shot.

     

    As an alternate option, you can try this software which is designed for blowing up images for large print - https://www.alienskin.com/blowup/ - It is not freeware.

    Wow, this is a total game changer for me. I usually render as large as my GPU allows, then use photozoom to get me the rest of the way. Photozoom is really good at it, but you always always lose details, and some stuff gets distorted. Using the tiling method, I can just render it out in pieces at full size. O.O

    I will have to figure out good render settings I think. Cranking everything up absurdly high then stopping when I think it looks good might not work too well. I am thinking tiles will need to all be cooked the same or there might be seam issues in the "tiles." Also, it don't save canvas passes, so if you use that a lot it's not an option.  Nevermind, I added canvases, and forgot to check the box. It does save canvas pass for the tiles!

    A protip for tiling, use the "show thirds guide" in the viewport settings to use as pseudo guides for "tiles" edges.  This is sooooo cooooool!

    Post edited by TheKD on
  • TheKDTheKD Posts: 2,677
    edited November 2017

    As a test, I took a scene I just rendered out, and doubled the resolution. It's taking about 5 minutes per tile, cut into 9 tiles, thats about 45 minutes, say 50 with the stitching. That's about how long it took to render it at half the resolution as one whole image. Wow. Thanks so much for the tip! Also I started with the most difficult tiles, the ones with the eyes and hair in them, I bet the other tiles will be lass than 5 minutes :)

    RAM usage maxed out around 16GB too, so not bad at all(I got 32GB on this machine).

    Post edited by TheKD on
  • wizwiz Posts: 1,100
    fastbike1 said:

    @Padone "Iray is not designed for print resolution images"

    Not even close to being true. Latest dDLRs have resolutions 7952x5304 to 8256x5504. Previous were ~6000x4000, before that ~4288x2848.

    All can print 17x22 without artifacts or issues.

    6000x4000 is a little low for a 17x22. 4000/17 leavs you with 235dpi. Even 8256x5504 is just a touch low. I usually run 360dpi for a gallery quality print on a big Epson, although there's a certain visible  "snap" at 720dpi.

    fastbike1 said:

    @mattymanx "As an alternate option, you can try this software which is designed for blowing up images for large print - https://www.alienskin.com/blowup/ - It is not freeware"

    FWIW, that capability is now included in several photo editing packages.

    You can't make detail where it doesn't already exist. Although one might argue that there's not enough detail in any texture to deliver the OP's desired 16,000 x 16,000 in the first place, so all the detail is interpolated anyway.

  • TheKDTheKD Posts: 2,677

    OK I tried it on an actual project render, it doesn't work as well as I hoped. Stuff close to the camera, textures got pixelated, and geometry showed issues. Like far away plants looked normal, but the close up ones, the straight lines of polygons because very apparent. For paintovers this is not really an issue, I can fix all that easy enough, but for raw render works, it's not so good. Going to try it on a few different project scenes though, it could vary a lot depending on the scene used. I might have just chosen one that don't play well with the tequnique.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 99,449

    SubD should help with the geometry, if the model converts successfully.

  • TheKDTheKD Posts: 2,677

    Yeah I was thingking about trying that, or a smoothing modifier if I ever need to use that scene or plants from it again.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 99,449

    A smoothing modifier won't add any divisions, so it probably won't help

  • TheKDTheKD Posts: 2,677
    edited November 2017

    Good to know. Now that I actually opened the EXR canvas passes, there seems to be something wrong. No matter if I import transpareny as transparency, or alpha, it comes in with a black backround, instead of transparent like the 8 bit render slices have. Makes this method not viable if you use render passes :(   Well, it's doable, but makes it way more difficult. Instead of being able to put all the 32bit slices together and tonemapping as one, you have to tonemap each piece seperately, then cut the slice out, then put together. It's possible, but a lot more work, especially if you like to take a few different exposure levels to layer together.

    Top is the 8bit "slice", bottom is the 32bit "slice" from the same render.

     

    compare.png
    670 x 1073 - 180K
    Post edited by TheKD on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 99,449

    Which pass is that, and which editor?

  • TheKDTheKD Posts: 2,677

    That was a beauty pass and in photoshop cc

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 99,449
    edited November 2017

    Did you have Alpha checked for the canvas? Also note that, at least in PS CS6, HDR Toning will flaten the image and so discard transparency.

    Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
  • TheKDTheKD Posts: 2,677
    edited November 2017

    I think I did, I can run another slice pass to see for sure. I hope it's an easy fix like that. Stay tuned :)

    Ah yes, that seems to have been my error, now inporting alpha as transparency does work! Good call dude.

    Some passes don't have the alpha check box, like depth and materialID, but I don't really use them much myself, so not a problem for me.

    Post edited by TheKD on
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