THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT APROACHS TO REDUCE FLICKERING AND VISIBLE STEPS (CALLED JAGGIES) IN RENDERED IMAGES.

RENDERING AT DOUBLE SIZE

ONE OF THE BEST WAYS (IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH DISKSPACE) IS IMHO TO RENDER AT DOUBLE+ RESOLUTION AND RESIZE IT WITH A COMPOSITION TOOL LIKE AFTER EFFECTS OR DIGITAL FUSION.

YOU CAN USE THIS SETTINGS FOR NTSC VIDEO:

RESIZE IT TO ORIGINAL NTSC 640*480 USING THE MITCHELL ALGORYTHM (IF YOUR COMPOSITION TOOL SUPPORTS IT). IF YOU ARE USING THE MENTAL RAY TOON SHADER OR SHADOWING AREALIGHTS (WHICH COULD USE LOW SAMPLING RATES), THIS TECHNIQUE WILL GIVE YOU THE BEST RESULTS.



RENDERING WITH HIGH ANTIALIASING SETTINGS

IF YOU DON`T NEED THAT MUCH CONTROL OVER YOUR IMAGES, OR YOU DON`T HAVE ENOUGH SPACE TO HOLD DOUBLESIZED FRAMES YOU COULD SIMPLE USE THE BUILD IN ANTIALIASING
CONTROLS. THERE ARE THREE DIFFERENT DIALOGOPTIONS:

MIN/MAX

FOR BEST QUALITY USE 1/2, THIS SETTING MEANS: ON SOLID AREAS OF THE SCENE MENTAL RAY USES 1 (4 RAYS PER PIXEL), ON MORE CONTRAST AREAS IT USES 16 RAYS PER PIXEL.

FILTER

ONE WAY TO INCREASE THE QUALITY AND RENDERING TIMES. GAUSSIAN WILL GIVE YOU THE BEST RESULTS FOR PURE CGI IMAGES. I NEVER USED VALUES HIGHER THAN 3/3, BECAUSE RENDERING TIME INCREASES SIGNIFICANT, AND 3,3 IS HIGH ENOUGH TO ELEMINATE UNWANTED ALIASING ARTIFACTS.

SUPERSAMPLING

CONTROLS THE CONTRAST VALUES OF "MIN, MAX". LOWER VALUES WILL GIVE YOU BETTER RESULTS,

A VALUE OF 2 FOR EXAMPLE MEANS: THE PIXEL WILL SUBDIVIDED IN 16 "SUBPIXELS" AND MENTAL RAY CALCULATES THE AVERAGE COLOR VALUE.

THERE ARE 3 DIFFERENT SOLUTIONS OF MOTION BLUR. MENTAL RAYS 2D AND 3D MOTION BLUR,
AND MB IN POST.

MENTAL RAY`S 2D MOTION BLUR

THE FASTEST APROACH TO GET MOTION BLURRED IMAGES. MENTAL RAY USES MOTION VECTORS TO CREATE THIS "FAKED" MOTION BLUR. SHADOWS AND REFLECTIONS DON`T GET BLURRED.

* AMOUNT MEANS THAT HOW MANY FRAMES WILL CONSIDERED FOR THE CALCULATION. ( IF YOU WANT REALISTIC RESULTS DON`T SET IT HIGHER THAN 1. )

UNIFORM MEANS ACTUAL NO FALLOFF	LINEAR FALLOFF	GAUSSIAN FALLOFF

SAMPLING: 1	SAMPLING: 5	SAMPLING: 10

MENTAL RAY`S 3D MOTION BLUR

THE BEST BUT MOST RENDER INTENSIVE MOTION BLUR CALCULATION. SHADOWS AND REFLECTION GET BLURRED, TOO. SETTINGS: LOWER VALUES MEANS BETTER QUALITY. IF YOU WANT TO USE HIGHER VALUES AND WANT TO ARCHIVE NEARLY THE SAME RESULTS OF HIGHER VALUES, YOU HAVE TO INCREASE YOUR ANTIALIASING. IN SOME CASES 1,0/1,0/1,0/1,0 COULD BE ENOUGH IF THE AA IS SET TO 2/3 OR 3/4 WITH GAUSSIAN FILTER TURNED ON. YOU CAN OPTIMIZE YOUR RENDERING TIME IN ADJUSTING THE ALPHA VALUE OF THE QUALITY SLIDERS, IF YOU DON`T NEED IT.

1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0	0.1 / 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.1

POST MOTION BLUR

THERE ARE SOME VERY INTERESTING TOOLS OUT THERE WHICH CALCULATE MOTION BLUR AFTER RENDERING THE ACTUAL FRAMES. I DON`T MEAN THE BUGGY CRAP COMMAND LINE TOOL "MB" FROM SOFTIMAGE.

5D MONSTERPLUGINS
REELSMART MOTIONBLUR
SPARKS IN FLAME/INFERNO

THIS SOLUTION WORKS VERY WELL FOR STANDART ANIMATIONS. IF YOU DON`T HAVE MANY ROTATING ELEMENTS, YOU COULD USE THESE TOOLS/PLUGINS TO GET VERY HIGH QUALITY MOTION BLUR.

HERE ARE THE 3 TECHNIQUES, ON THE SAME SCENE. PLEASE NOTICE THAT THE POST EFFECT DOESN`T HAVE THE SAME AMOUNT OF BLUR, BECAUSE AT HIGHER VALUES IT LOOKED TERRIBLE.

2D MOTIONBLUR	3D MOTIONBLUR	POST MOTIONBLUR

YOU WILL NOTICE THAT NONE OF THIS PICTURES REPRESENT ACCURATE MOTIONBLUR. THE PROBLEM IS THAT MENTAL RAY ONLY SUPPORTS ONE SEGMENT MOTIONBLUR. RENDERER LIKE PHOTOREALISTIC RENDERMAN SUPPORT MULTI SEGMENT MB WHICH WOULD SOLVE THIS PROBLEM.

www.pixar.com

THERE IS ONE TECHNIQUE LEFT, I CALL IT "MANUAL MOTION BLUR" :-> MEANS: IF YOU HAVE A 100 FRAMES SEQUENCE, SIMPLE STRECH IT IN SOFTIMAGE TO 400 FRAMES, AND USE ONE OF DOZENS TOOLS WHICH INTERPOLATE BETWEEN THEM AND CREATES MOTION BLUR. IT`S VERY ACCURATE BUT IF YOU HAVE FAST MOTIONS YOU WOULD HAVE TO RENDER 10 TIMES MORE FRAMES THAN NEEDED TO CREATE A SOFT BLUR.