CGTalk - Depth of field

chudofsinister

09-05-2002, 01:29 PM

Does anyone have tips on creating good depth of field in max without using a 3rd party renderer. I downloaded the blur script which will create a black and white image sort of based on distance , but then what do I do with that. I have played around with the video post effects but you always get those jaggys if you want a severe effect, and the multipass render doesn't seem to let you do subtle things. I wish there was a way to import real world data like f-stop and focal length. thanks for any help.

RealThing

09-05-2002, 01:52 PM

Well the method you are describing is a post process blur. The settings that you have available to you there would depend on the plugin you're using to do the blurring itself. I'm not sure if any have F-Stop settings but they certainly allow you to set the area that's in focus. Now one thing to keep in mind when doing a post blur using z-depth is that you typically don't want to have an anti-aliased Z channel b/c this puts pixels in z space where no object exists. This is the reason that the Z channel in an RLA and RPF file is not anti-aliased. There's also a script that does a really nice dof called Amuze DOF but it's not the fastest thing in the world. It can be found on http:\\www.scriptspot.com\

chudofsinister

09-05-2002, 02:09 PM

thanks for the reply, Amuze DOF was written for max 3, I dont know if it works with 4 but I just tried it with Max 5 and it defintely doesn't work there. The blur script I was using is called Atmpass, I dont know if this is what you are refering to. If there is a different one please let me know. It renders out a black and white image like I said but if I take it in to Aftereffects I dont think there is an option where I can use a map for depth of field data, which if it does again let me know that would be super cool. If you could do like in photoshop using an image to displace an image only instead blur parts of it .

chudofsinister

09-05-2002, 05:49 PM

Ok I am a retard. I figured out how to do what I need to do in AfterEffects. Take my black and white render, make an adjustment layer and throw a gaussian blur on it. then use the black and white layer as a tracking mask for the color rendered layer on the bottom. BOoooNNNNGG!

But I still wish there were real world settings in Max. How do the composite guys do it who import camera data, they must need to match a plate?

RealThing

09-06-2002, 02:34 AM

Well the correct way to do it is with the depth blur effect in After Effects (I believe it's only available in the Pro Bundle version). You then render out your image as an RLA or RPF including the Z depth and Coverage channels (not sure if After Effects uses the coverage channel). Then with the depth blur effect you will have a near and far focus setting and amount. I believe you can even use the eyedropper to set the area you want in focus by picking a pixel in the image. But I haven't use After Effects for quite a while so my knowledge on doing this in After Effects is a bit rusty. But that should get you going in the right direction. There are also 3rd party plugins which you can buy for After Effects which do a better job than the built in tool.

ErickG

09-06-2002, 12:11 PM

Have you looked at XDOF. It is not a free plug-in but it does exactly what you are looking for. I don't have the website to hand but a simple search will get you there. It is a plug-in render effect and it ROCKS!!!!!

Have a look and tell me what you think. I have been using it for a while now and the quality is great.

-Erick

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