Denoiser and HDRI background

[infranea]

Hi

I had some time today to finally test out denoiser, and I need to say I'm really pleased with the results I'm getting. There is just one issue that I cannot solve. I'm using HDRI with detailed clouds in dome light (for lighting and background), and denoiser keep blending them to the point where I just loose too much details and it doesn't look that nice anymore. Can we somehow exclude it from denoiser ?
I tried to put this HDRI in environment and make dome light invisible, but it gives same effect. Changing denoiser parameters to mild helps in case of clouds, but rest of the image gets more noisy. I know I can render this background separately and add in post, but its always a hassle when doing animations and I really want to avoid that.

regards,
Daniel

[Alan Iglesias]

Would it be possible to pre-render your HDRI background image to an .EXR and add it in using the VFB's Image Control/Background Image?

Just in case working in the VFB is easier than an outboard compositor for you...I don't know if you can automate it or not...

-Alan

[Alex_M]

Maybe you can try to render the scene in 2 passes. First render the sky only with no denoising and then render the rest with denoising and combine them in post.

[infranea]

Yes rendering background separately is always a solution, but its just pain in the ass for the production pipeline I have (many animation shots in separate scenes, and of course everything needs to be done by yesterday ). I thought there is a way around, guess I'll post it in wishlist thread.