Incomplete Bokeh shapes

[kosso_olli]

Hey guys,
we got a small problem here with an animation we are rendering. Some of the Bokeh shapes created by little highlights in DOF seem to be incomplete. What I would expect is a nice round shape around the highlight in DOF. However, on some parts of the image, the Bokeh shape seems to be a fraction of a full circle. This is something I can not explain, because even if the highlight is partly blocked, the resulting shape should still be a full circle, not a segment of a circle. It looks even stranger when in motion, because the shape somehow "slithers" along the DOF.

[kosso_olli]

Just tested a render with progressive, Max AA subdivs 512. The result looks nearly identical, so it is not a case of too few samples while rendering. Still, I would expect round bokeh shapes all across the images, I have never seen anything else.

[kosso_olli]

However, it must be some kind of artefact. Here is a crop without DOF. I do not know what would cause such an issue.

[kosso_olli]

Nobody has an idea?

[Morne]

not the denoiser maybe?

[kosso_olli]

We do not use the denoiser for production.

[M.Max]

Just as a long shot.
Have you tried increasing the min subdivs under image sampler? That solvedfor me few issues in the past that lowering noise threshold couldn't.

[kosso_olli]

Yes, I did. Minimum AA samples is 4, Maximum AA is 256.

[Joelaff]

That is an interesting one. Can you post a comparison of that same area with the artifacts with and without DOF? (I see the last out of focus shot matches up with part of the sharp one)

Is there anything between the camera and the subject? (Particles? anything at all?) Or between the light source and the subject?

Are you able to narrow it down to a reflection or a refraction?

Could it actually be something that is refracted and brought into sharper focus by the refraction itself? You see this a lot in real photos.

I wonder if it has something to do with the fiber looking texture (bump or displacement) on the label. ??

You tried the bucket render as well?

[kosso_olli]

Still need to render a version without DOF as animation.
No particles or anything between camera and subjects. Only the bottle with water droplets and some pieces of ice.
It is a mix of refraction and reflection.
This is bucket already.

[^Lele^]

You may need higher than 4 for min subdivs.
In fact, if you're rendering moblurred and DoFed shots, you're likely much better off with a render which is essentially fixed, and that only very very late in the game adapts to ensure no part is above a noise level (while many others, this way, may be below it. be warned, you'll oversample.).

[kosso_olli]

Hey guys,
here is a crop from the animation. You can see the bokeh shapes appearing at the top, looking like artifacts. A version without DOF is rendering, to see what's going on.

[^Lele^]

I'd chalk that to scene setup: they are awfully steady to be simple artefacts.
Can you share a piece of the scene which exhibits the issue?

[kosso_olli]

Scene was sent!

[fixeighted]

That is weird but I had a thought....does it happen if you hide the lump/s of ice?
What I mean is that the 'artifacts' seem to travel around the few water drops that I can see it happening on, so thought it may be
some odd reflection from the rough ice.