HtoA: Denoising AOVs with the Arnold Denoiser


HtoA lets you edit the layer names, and that’s how to generate the variance AOVs for denoising.

  • Add two AOVs with the same name (I used “custom” here), but give the second one a “_variance” layer name (“custom_variance).
  • Change the Pixel Filter to variance.
  • Render some EXRs (in my screenshot below, I should the part of the Arnold log that tells you that the variance AOV was rendered too)
  • In the Arnold Denoiser, put the AOV names in the Light Group AOVs text box.

[MtoA] Denoising AOVs with the Arnold Denoiser


To denoise AOVs, you need to add variance AOVs:

  1. Enable Output Denoising AOVs
  2. Add a new output driver to the AOVs, and set the filter to variance
  3. Tell noice to denoise the AOVs: enter the AOV names in the Light Group AOVs text box (or, if you’re using the command-line, add -l flags for each AOV)

When you denoise the AOVs, you’ll see something like this in the Arnold Denoiser log:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Arnold\maya2020\bin\noice -i C:/project/images/denoiser_test.0002.exr -o C:/project/images/denoiser_test.0002_denoised.exr -ef 0 -sr 9 -pr 3 -v 0.5 -l diffuse -l direct -l indirect -l specular 

Denoising image C:/project/images/denoiser_test.0002.exr 
------------------------ (1/1)
noice 6.2.0.1 [903992ac] - the Arnold denoiser
Using 48 threads.
Loading images...
Loading file "C:/project/images/denoiser_test.0002.exr".
Using feature AOV 'diffuse_albedo' with filter 'gaussian_filter'
Using feature AOV 'N' with filter 'gaussian_filter'
Using feature AOV 'Z' with filter 'gaussian_filter'
Working with 1 frame at 960x540
Will denoise AOV "RGBA", using associated variance
   Output file will be "C:/project/images/denoiser_test.0002_denoised.exr"
Will denoise AOV "diffuse", using associated variance
   Output file will be "C:/project/images/denoiser_test.0002_denoised.exr"
Will denoise AOV "direct", using associated variance
   Output file will be "C:/project/images/denoiser_test.0002_denoised.exr"
Will denoise AOV "indirect", using associated variance
   Output file will be "C:/project/images/denoiser_test.0002_denoised.exr"
Will denoise AOV "specular", using associated variance
   Output file will be "C:/project/images/denoiser_test.0002_denoised.exr"
Start denoising (patch radius 3, search radius 9, variance 0.5)
Denoising RGBA
Denoising diffuse
Denoising direct
Denoising indirect
Denoising specular
Finished denoising
Saving image C:/project/images/denoiser_test.0002_denoised.exr (960 x 540 x 16)