I know in animation we usually add some noise as a final step make it less perfect and fake. Would it make sense to NOT denoise to begin with? Or is it best to have a noise-free image, and then stylize?
Unfortunately, render noise looks pretty different from camera noise or film grain (it’s much more sharp, harsh, and in the wrong places), so it’s usually preferred to denoise the render and then add in some fake noise in post that better mimics real grain. That also helps with getting all layers of the final shot to match if you’re doing some compositing with film or multiple renders.
