Everything, in one list
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Twenty-four entries across five sections, reachable without a dropdown. Each row says what the entry settles.
- №EntrySectionWhat it settles
- 01Noise is a budgetLight TransportA render is noisy because it is estimating an integral with a finite number of rays. Every halving of the noise costs four times the samples, which is why the last few per cent of cleanliness costs more than the whole image before it.
- 02One bounce, two bouncesLight TransportWhat each additional bounce adds, and where the returns stop.
- 03Why interiors are expensiveLight TransportLight that has to find its way in through one window, and the paths that never do.
- 04CausticsLight TransportThe hardest paths to find, and why they are usually faked.
- 05ImportanceLight TransportSending rays where the light actually is rather than uniformly. The single biggest win available.
02 Sampling
- №EntrySectionWhat it settles
- 06The square root problemSamplingError falls with the square root of samples. What that means for a deadline.
- 07FireflySamplingOne absurdly bright sample in a dark region, and the clamp that hides it.
- 08StratificationSamplingSpreading samples evenly instead of randomly, and the noise pattern it produces.
- 09DenoisingSamplingTrading noise for detail, and how to tell which detail went.
- 10Adaptive samplingSamplingSpending the budget where the variance is.
- №EntrySectionWhat it settles
- 11The two ballsReference ObjectsA chrome sphere records where every light is; a grey sphere records what the light does to a matte surface. Together they are the lighting of the set.
- 12The chrome ballReference ObjectsA 360-degree record of the stage in one photograph, distortion and all.
- 13The grey ballReference ObjectsDirection, softness and colour of the key, read off a single object.
- 14Shooting the referenceReference ObjectsSame position, same exposure, before the set changes.
- 15HDRIReference ObjectsBracketing the environment so the bright parts are still numbers rather than white.
04 Colour
- №EntrySectionWhat it settles
- 16The neutral patchColourThe grey square is the important one on the chart. Everything else is a check.
- 17What a chart cannot tell youColourMetamerism, and two surfaces that match under one light and not another.
- 18Linear and displayColourWhere the maths happens versus where you look at it.
- 19White balance is a choiceColourNeutral is a decision about which light source you are calling white.
05 Passes
- №EntrySectionWhat it settles
- 20Taking a frame apartPassesDiffuse, specular, transmission and the rest: what each holds and what recombining them does and does not let you change.
- 21Beauty is the sumPassesThe assembled frame, and the check that the parts add back to it.
- 22The alpha problemPassesPremultiplied or not, and the halo that tells you which.
- 23Depth and motionPassesTwo passes that are data rather than picture.
- 24CryptomattePassesSelecting an object after the render rather than before it.