Octane Render/Blender: Can you save a series of previews instead of 'real' renders?

Is there a way to save an animated sequence in preview render-quality, instead of ‘real’ renders?

I’m using Octane Render, but I assume (I may be wrong) that it would work the same way with Cycles.

For some purposes, hair for instance, I prefer the look of the previews. And they’re obviously way faster, too.

I should add that I’m not trying to save OpenGL previews.

Also, I’m not trying to double-post here - I posted this in Animation and Rigging first because I want to save an animated sequence (not just a still), but two users recommended another sub-forum, so…

I think you haven’t gotten an answer yet because your question is a bit nebulous. :slight_smile: The preview is exactly the same as the final render, the only difference is in the default number of samples per pixel. The preview will feel faster only because it’s only going to 100 samp/pix instead of the final render default of 500 samp/pix. It is set this way so that you get a fast real time viewport. You can always set the final render default to 100 samp/pix if you like, but you really need to tune it for your project. A darker environment with more indirect light will need more samples to keep the noise down for example.

See, this is why I explicitly mention Octane Render. :slight_smile:

Octane Render previews are nothing like the final renders - and there is no way you can emulate their character.

The good news is that there’s usually no reason why you would want to emulate the way they look.

But when rendering hair, it’s another story:

Octane Render previews are softer, more blurry, in a way that makes hair look more fluffy. And that effect would come in handy for what I do. Which is why I would love being able to save them.

And I still have a vague feeling that it might be possible…

Then the difference might be in how the camera is setup? You might get the result you want by adjusting the final render camera so that it matches the preview camera.

Thank you again, Grimm.

I doubt it’s the camera - I’ll check into that now, though - but its very character is different. It is, for instance, not a matter of DOF, or aperture settings, or real blur (though you perhaps got that impression from what I said before).

Also, a ‘real’ render takes 2-3 x more time than live previews, though preview and actual render samples both are set to 100. Camera settings don’t have that influence on render times.

In my most desperate moments, I’ve actually considered manually saved screenshots. :slight_smile: But I don’t really like the idea of taking 1,000 screenshots…

Very strange, I haven’t seen any difference before, but I haven’t played around with hair very much. You might want to check the post processing as well?

Edited to add: Just thinking a bit more on your issue. Could it simply be difference in resolution?

Thank you, good thinking, and a good suggestion. I tried, but it just results in a smaller image, and pixelation when you enlarge.

Here are two .jpeg’s: The left, slightly blurry one is the Preview. The other is the ‘real’ render, both @ 100 samples:



It may be a bit hard to imagine from these samples, but the full version of the left image does look fluffy and hairy, while the render looks more like a haystack.

EDIT: It would, of course, be possible to make the real render more fluffy by decreasing hair sizes. But the project is about one GB already, and again; the previews are fast and they do have the right look, so it would be great if it were possible to save them…

No clue on that. :? It almost looks like a antialiasing issue?

Yes, the previews seem to cheat somehow in order to work faster. And in this case, they actually produce a more realistic, or at least more desirable, end result.

Again, I can’t help thinking there must be a way to save them…

Are you sure this is not caused by the preview simply using the viewport settings for the particles vs. using the render settings in the final render?

That sounds interesting - which settings do you mean?

Are there any other viewport-specific particle settings available than the number of children/parents? Am I completely missing something here? :slight_smile: