I can't figure out why there is noise when using the Cycles "start" file. There's no noise if I begin with the "finish" fi...

Question

I can't figure out why there is noise when using the Cycles "start" file. There's no noise if I begin with the "finish" file, delete all the nodes, and recreate them. I just can't begin with the "start" file. As soon as I add the PAINT section, the noise is already visible. Are the files different somehow? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Image of 2 renders: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B61Z1wMgyCh9b2JObW5INk9pTFU/view?usp=sharing

Answer 1 · 2016-12-27T15:52:03Z

Kent Trammell replied December 27, 2016 3:52pm

I imagine along the way between the start and finish of the file, I tweaked the render settings to eliminate the noise.

You can learn all about the render settings in this course, especially chapter 3: http://cgcookie.com/course/introduction-to-rendering/

Answer 2 · 2016-12-27T19:50:19Z

n

replied December 27, 2016 7:50pm

Thanks for the reply, Kent. I finally found it, Multiple Importance for each Area Light. Just one other question, I noticed the ColorRamp was adjusted to have the last stopper at "Pos: 0.400". What was the desired effect for that (my eye isn't good enough to tell the difference).