Some observations for later consideration

We use V-Ray as our primary render engine here at Neoscape, which is great because it's allowing to me to get a much closer look at the ins and outs of how it works in production. I've noticed that some seemingly very small changes can make the difference between a 30 minute render and a 16 hour render (no joke). With that in mind, it would be interesting to do some tests that separate out some individual controls to see how each one specifically effects the render time and quality.

Specifically:
- Color Threshold
- Noise Threshold
- Min/Max Samples
- Adaptive Amount

Some "Beary" Collectible Rockwells

So as I was unpacking a box of trinkets and knick-knacks, I came across this lovely little Boyd's Bear collectible figurine I've had for years. He's a little hockey player done in classic Boyd's style - with torn up clothing and a beat up wooden stick, and very endearing. As I was taking in all the little details, I realized he was an excellent visual reference for the style I'm attempting to achieve - perhaps a little more stylized and exaggerated, but still good reference nonetheless.

Further pondering made me realize I was drawn to the style of the sculpture because it reminded me so much of Rockwell, so much that I began to wonder if perhaps all of the Boyd's Bears were actually inspired by Norman Rockwell's style. A little bit of research and I couldn't find any correlation, at least none that was mentioned. However - I did find that at least three Rockwell tribute bears were created, and you can see in the side by sides how well the two styles work together.

Grandpa's Little Ballerina

Before the Shot/At the Doctor

Doctor and the Doll

Academic Paper Resource

Found this page with links to a good list of papers/dissertations/etc relating to rendering and sampling algorithms, etc.

http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/Papers

I was actually specifically looking for a paper by Eric Veach, his 1997 Stanford dissertation Robust Monte Carlo Methods for Light Transport Simulation, for which he was honored by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (3rd link on the page under "Books"). Interesting tidbit, Veach was also recently honored by the Academy for his work with deep shadow maps that he did at Pixar - nearly 14 years ago!