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Having watched it without subtitles first and then again now with the subtitles, I found it quite a nice piece of visual storytelling which still works well even without the dialog. I especially loved that trance-like tunnel sequence and connection between visual connection the two worlds - showing the former boyfriend as a slimy worm in prison garb chasing its own tail was a funny touch!
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Very nice short film, although I could not understand a word. (Maybe a handful out of the context).
Why did you choose a static Cycles Seed though? That looks odd, maybe an animated seed would have been better? The noise would be there anyway, but it would not look so static, as if you look through a window.
rontarrant: There are subtitles. Just click the ‘CC’ button in the lower right.
DingTo: The reason why we did that is because it looks better in stereoscopic 3D (this is only the 2D version). Noise in general is problematic for the 3D effect to work well, and if it animates it looks weirder.
But you are right that if it were only 2D, animated noise would probably be nicer. It’s a tradeoff though. Noise with animated seed is more noticeable, but also more ‘correct’.
We used the branched path tracer. I found that it is almost impossible to get close to clean results from the SSS shader med regular path tracing. Same goes for volumes and DOF.
Ammount of samples varied a lot - we tried to get a somewhat consistent noise level (though it still does vary), and noise varies even when using the same amount of samples. Factors such as # of bounces, # of lights, indoor/outdoor situations have a huge influence on the amount of samples needed.
Our strategy we ended up using is to start setting the AA samples based on the size of the DOF bokeh. Then bump up the samples for the SSS and volume samples until it starts looking ok. The branched path tracer took a while to get used to, but you can save loads of render time with it, and also lowering bounces to 1 or zero.