Rendering can be very time-consuming. Even more on a resolution of 2k upwards and much even more without a descent renderfarm and just having a medium home computer.
Sometimes some small configurations can save your life without losing too much quality. You have to think like doing graphics for Computer Games. A lot of production techniques for Games can be used for Fulldome, too. This means more work on constructing things, but you save a lot of rendertime which is worth the afford!
Here is a (incomplete) list with tips and tutorials (Besides this, always RTFM (Read the fucking manual)!
- Deactivate Antialiasing or reduce it to a minimum
The Projection will blur your image anyway. So don't waste your time doing this upfront. But be aware, depend on your scene antialiasing (on a low amount) can be necessary to get small details in a proper quality.
Depend on your Renderer:
- Put off Antialiasing setting or set it to a small amount (1 per pixel)
- Reduce Imagefiltering (Filtermethod: Box - Samples 1 per pixel
- If you have mental ray (until 3D Max 2013) set your Sampling Quality to:
Minimum: 1/4, Maximum: 1. Filter type: Box, w/h: 1,0
If you have 3D Max 2014 and above change the renderer sampling method to classic/ raytraced
- for 3D Max 2014 and Above and using Unified/Raytraced watch the first tutorial (but I recommend classic settings)
- Tutorials
- Effective Lighting
- Stick with standard lights (omni, spot, directed)
- Avoid Area Lights and Photometric Lights
- Use Ambient Occlusion Maps
- Use advanced lighting like IBL / HDRI (Image based Lighting), Global Illumination, Area Lights, Skylights and Sunlight only for baking texture maps
- Tutorials
- Reduce Geometry
- model clean and efficient, avoid unnecessary geometry
- use bump / normal mapping for creating details instead of modelling every detail
- use for complex geometry Normal map baking
- if you use sculpt modeling techniques you also should use geometry baking
- Tutorials
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybiHIUWPZnc
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFSXtjFI9ig
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_YIHLcpwMU
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw-Efh38BZg
- http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/15/ENU/3ds-Max-Help/index.html?url=files/GUID-76F1E8AE-9E8F-40A7-A948-471D17E09DA9.htm,topicNumber=d30e439301
- Collapse your modifiers (3D Max)
- before Rendering, collapse your unnecessary modifiers (saves a lot of memory)
- Exceptions are animated modifiers (skin, morpher, etc.)
- Be careful with displacement-maps
- don't use displacement maps for creating geometry at rendering
- displacement maps should be used with modifiers which change your geometry before rendering
- use displacement maps only, if they are really necessary (e.g. for creating landscapes)
- Effective Use of Materials
- use complex materials only if really necessary, start low
- Prove are Arch & Design Mat's or SSS-Maps really necessary
- try to achieve your look with standard maps for the above mat's
- if you need advanced materials, try to bake materials to texture
- Tutorials
- see for normal map baking tutorials