What am I missing here? (Denoise Animation Workflow)

[bernhard]

How do you denoise an animation sequence with the standalone denoiser after comping?

a) Image sequence was rendered with all necessary render elements, including the Denoiser (Denoiser element in render elements only)

Option #1:
I load all my render elements into my comping tool (Fusion)
I do my comping, and I am going to render the sequence as a 32bit .exr out of Fusion

How can I use on those exported .exr files from Fusion the Standalone Denoiser?
When I try to load the denoiser on those frames, I get the error message:
error: Input image does not contain a noise level render element; use the -threshold option to manually specify average image noise level

It makes sense, that the Denoise wants to read the data of the Noise Level Render Element.
But how can you make sure, the Standalone Denoiser can find or pull that data?
Do I have to use a different command in my cmd box?


Option #2:
I load the .exr files into the Standalone Denoiser and start the Denoise process
The output are single 32bit images that contain no other channels then the final denoised RGB beauty pass.

With that, I can not comp, because I do need all the necessary render elements.


So both options fail to use the Denoiser for Animation and Comping.

What the heck am I missing here?
And how can you use the Standalone Denoiser when you want to comp all your render Elements.

I know that Nuke has the Denoiser Feature for Animation - but I don't use Nuke and I have to get it done with Fusion.

so to speak:
First you comp with the un-denoised render elements, and after you Denoise?
or
First you Denoise all your render-elements, and you comp with all denoised render-elements?

Thanks a lot for any little help,
appreciate it!

[joconnell]

Check out the type drop down in the advanced denoiser settings in the vray denoiser render element, you can tell it to denoise your render elements instead of just your rgb - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...C+VRayDenoiser

The vdenoise command line has an option (-elements=1) which'll denoise your elements too, otherwise you could also look at the neat video plugin for fusion if you want to keep it all in comp. It's 249 bucks but if you can run cheaper renders for every job and clean them up in a gpu accelerated filter in a few seconds then it's kinda worth it

[vlado]

We have a free denoiser plugin for Nuke as well, which you can use as the last operator on the image after you've done the rest of the compositing. It's available here:
https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...epluginforNuke

Best regards,
Vlado

[bernhard]

yeah thanks.. good for nukers.. but I moved away from The Foundry... they are killing us with their license pricing...

[Neilg]

I was about to start a similar thread - i have a personal project that takes 6+ hours a frame to clean up but looks good denoised at 20m a frame.

you could also look at the neat video plugin for fusion if you want to keep it all in comp. It's 249 bucks but if you can run cheaper renders for every job and clean them up in a gpu accelerated filter in a few seconds then it's kinda worth it

Do you know if there are major feature difference between the AE & openfx versions? I would be ok bringing my finished sequence into AE to denoise if they have the same features...

[joconnell]

I do not, I'm using neat in nuke which must be the open fx version - works great. No idea on after effects. I haven't opened that in years!

[squintnic]

I use Neat Video (ofx) in Fusion extensively and it does a pretty nice job.

[Neilg]

Separate question for vlado - is there any way to use the Nvidia Ai denoiser in post?

It does a pretty good job, I have to turn the settings up higher to get the vray denoiser to really kick in - it leaves some areas noisy if there arent enough samples for it to go off.
Would be good to be able to render to exr and figure out my denoising in post, the nvidia one forcing you to bake it into the image with the glows is risky.