Rendering an animation

[lukas_kostka]

Hi, I am about to render my first animation project, I would just like to ask if anyone has some general advice on the best workflow. I have my renders tested and I have few basic adjustment layers added in VFB (exposure, white balance, LUT).
I have two options: render raw files and then apply adjustments in AE (or else). However, I can't replicate exactly the same result. Even the same LUT file won't give me the same look (tested in AE). However, I assume this will give me more freedom to work with the video afterward.
Or should I just render all and apply VFB corrections to the frames?
Thank you!

[Nejc Kilar]

I'd say both approaches are fine but as you noted, getting a linear output (aka no corrections and in 32 bits) will give you more leeway to change your mind in post-production. Especially if you want to change the exposure a bit and or mess with the color grading more intensely.

That said,. I still tend to render most of my animations with all the VFB corrections applied. Typically in a 16bit PNG format. Just seems like less work cobbling everything together later on especially if I've already spent a lot of time working on the grading inside the VFB.

Always do test renders of the animation first would be my next suggestion. It is quite heartbreaking to download everything from the render farm (local or online) just to notice one of the LUTs didn't get transferred over to the render nodes (hence why linear outputs might be preferred because you can then fix that in post just fine) or a piece of geometry is sticking out through another piece of geometry.

Ultimately it comes down to what you feel more comfortable with I guess

[lukas_kostka]

nkilar Thank you very much for your answer!
One more question - is there a possibility to render - at once - the image channel without the VFB corrections and then corrections as well? Because when I set my render, I get few channels automatically - but only bump normals, denoiser and glare effects are rendered in the separate layers (channels). Other VFB corrections (exposure, LUT, white balance)are baked in one image. It would be nice if I could set up one sequence of image without any corrections and the other with all VFB corrections applied.

[sirio76]

This is my workflow for animation:
-render to multilayer vrimg frames
-denoise using the standalone denoiser
-if needed use the VFB batch image processing to apply correction
-load single frames to your compositing software to assemble the animation and add DOF, motion blur etc

[aleksandar.kasabov]

Edit: sirio76 got me there

Hello lukas_kostka,

You could also render your images without any corrections and then perform batch image processing using a VFB layer tree preset. Keep in mind that this only works with .exr or .vrimg file formats.

[lukas_kostka]

sirio76, aleksandar.kasabov


Thank you both! Very useful tips.
I save as vrimg sometimes when I have renderings, but those are usually very large files (but maybe it is because of lightmix?) so if I have 1000 frames of an animation, it would take up very much space, no?

Thanks!