Help

Messages

Each message ShutterPilot shows, and what to do about it.

“The scene has no active camera.”

Add a camera, or set one as Camera in Properties > Scene. ShutterPilot renders through the scene’s camera.

“This camera is not the scene’s active camera.”

The panel shows the settings of the camera you selected, but a long exposure renders through the scene’s camera. Set this camera in Properties > Scene, or select the scene’s camera.

“Long exposures render with Cycles or EEVEE.”

Set Render Engine to Cycles or EEVEE in Properties > Render. Workbench has no render samples to share over the moments.

“A render is running.”

Wait for the render to finish, or press Esc to stop it, then click Render Long Exposure again.

“Fast motion wanted … moments, so copies of the fastest lights may show gaps.”

The motion in your scene asked for more than the 1,024 moments a run renders. Lower Smoothness or the Time, or slow the fastest object down.

“Moment … wrote no picture.” or “ShutterPilot could not make a folder for the moments.”

ShutterPilot writes each moment to Blender’s temporary folder for a moment and then deletes it. Free space on the disk, or pick another folder in Edit > Preferences > File Paths > Temporary Files.

“The picture size changed at moment …”

The resolution changed while the long exposure rendered. Leave Properties > Output as it is during a run, then render again.

“Saving it to … failed.”

Save to Output could not write the file. The picture is still in the Image Editor. Set an Output folder you can write to in Properties > Output, or save the picture with Image > Save As.

“The render of a moment did not start.”

Blender did not start rendering within 30 seconds. Look in the Info editor for Blender’s own message, then render again.

“Stopped after … of … moments.”

You pressed Esc. The picture holds the moments that finished, so a run stopped halfway shows half the exposure.

Any other message

If ShutterPilot names something that failed and asks you to use Report a Problem, please do: see Report a Problem.

Questions

How long does a long exposure take?

About as long as one still with the same render samples, plus a little for each moment. After a first run, Render Time in the panel says how long the next one takes. On an RTX 4070 Ti, the test street’s 2-second exposure at 960 by 540 took about 5 minutes in Cycles at 1,536 samples and about 75 seconds in EEVEE.

Why is my picture noisier than a still?

It should not be noisier where nothing moves. If it is, check that Denoise is on in Properties > Render for Cycles, and give the scene the samples you would give a still.

Do I need motion blur on?

No. ShutterPilot adds moments where things move fast, so the trails are smooth without it. Motion blur stays as you set it; with it on, each moment takes longer to render.

Can I render an animation of long exposures?

Not in this version. ShutterPilot renders one picture at the current frame.

Does it work with my compositor?

Yes. Your compositor runs once on the finished picture, with the passes it reads averaged over the moments.

Words

• Moment: one render of the scene at one point in time while the shutter is open.
• Exposure time: how long the shutter stays open, in seconds or frames.
• Look: how the moments become one picture: Average, Brightest or Stacked.

Report a Problem

Click the ? in the Long Exposure panel’s header, then Report a Problem. Write what you did and what went wrong, and click Send. The report holds your words, the versions of Blender, ShutterPilot and your system, the long exposure settings and the last error. With Blender’s Allow Online Access off, ShutterPilot saves the report as a zip instead; email it to mfreytag.studio@gmail.com. What is sent and what happens to it is in the privacy policy.

Getting help

Write to mfreytag.studio@gmail.com with what you tried and a picture if you can.

Licence

ShutterPilot’s code is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later.