How do I render low-key/dark scenes? (Iray)

silveralcid

I'm getting so much grain in my renders. I've spent hours trying to figure it out myself but I'm at a loss. Any help would be appreciated!

Oh, also, how do I get a 16:9 camera? I know you can render out with those dimensions, but it looks like the render's actual pixels are following the camera ratio...

mwasielewski1990

silveralcid said:

I'm getting so much grain in my renders. I've spent hours trying to figure it out myself but I'm at a loss. Any help would be appreciated!

Oh, also, how do I get a 16:9 camera? I know you can render out with those dimensions, but it looks like the render's actual pixels are following the camera ratio...

Ad 1) Buy a better GPU, or be more patient :)

Ad 2) Not sure what you mean. Can you elaborate?

skinklizzard

I would suggest lighting the entire scene brighter and tone mapping down (Iray renders faster with more light to bounce around and if you increase all your lights equally and reduce the exposure later it should give mostly the same result), you could also look for a youtube video by sickleyield on lighting night scenes.

you could also use canvases to take advantage of the 32 bit beauty canvas .exr to adjust exposure and gama to your desired low key lighting in post.

fastbike1

@silveralcid "Oh, also, how do I get a 16:9 camera"

You can add a local to dimension to the camera via the Parameter tab > Camera>

I'm not sure what you mean by "I know you can render out with those dimensions, but it looks like the render's actual pixels are following the camera ratio..." . If you pick a 16:9 ration, that's what you get. It may look like you get the entire viewport if you don't enable the Aspect Ratio viewframe, but the camera will only render what is inside the aspect ratio you pick, give position and camera zoom.