AV1@Scale: Film Grain Synthesis, The Awakening

> This grain, formed from tiny particles during the film’s development, is more than just a visual effect. It plays a key role in storytelling by enhancing the film’s depth and contributing to its realism.

I never understood the “grain = realism” thing. my real eyes don’t have grain. I do appreciate the role of grain as an artistic tool though, so this is still cool tech

The way I see it is that grain makes the film look more detailed than it really is, it can also hide compression artefacts and blurriness.

I don't know the psychovisuals behind that. Maybe it adds some high frequencies that compression often washes out, or maybe acts like some kind of dithering.

As for your eyes, I am pretty sure that they have grain, that's how quantum physics work, you just don't perceive it because your brain filters it out. But again, I don't know how it interacts with film grain.