sadicus
12-04-2005, 06:45 PM
This tutorial May help:http://animation_fixation.blogspot.com/
it did not work for me (using AE 5.5 pro)
i cannot get a F#@ing .iff or rla to work with 3D channel Extract.
...if anyone else has setting they would share, i'm willing to try anythin inluding the thing with catchers mask and bottle of mustard.
For ZDepth passes:
With the Z-Depth files, you have to save them in .rla format for AE to work with them. You will need to set the render globals output format to .rla to make them properly, because if you just render an IFF and use F-check to save as rla, something must get thrown out because the resulting file is very small and AE doesn’t recognise the zdepth information. You will also have to check the settings on the camera that you want to render from to make sure the z-depth checkbox is ticked – output rollout of attribute editor. It should be on by default. You will need to set the Render Globals to render the image as a batch – don’t render it straight into the render buffer window and try to save it as an rla that way or it doesn’t seem to work properly. Tick the box in Render globals for Z-Depth and then render the image as a batch (note that you’ll always get RGB channels though with this format).
Choosing rla as the file format means that you will find a file for the render with the rla extension which you can open in f-check to view the z-depth information.
The curtains in the scene were a bit of a problem with the Z-Depth calculations, and weren’t giving an accurate result, which may be because the material that has been applied to it is semi-transparent. This meant that when I used the depth channel info to influence the contrast, you see it affecting the window pane behind it but not the curtain, so it doesn’t look quite right. I fudged it up in After Effects, but the best solution probably would have been to make the material opaque for the Z-Depth pass.
How to get the rla file to impart its Z-Depth information in After Effects
OK, you need the Professional version of After Effects for this, because you need one of its Effects, called “3D Channel Extract” for this operation. Place the Z-depth .rla frame/s in a layer above the background. Apply the “3D Channel Extract” effect (Effect>3D Channel), and in the Effects Control window, make sure Z-Depth is active in the pull-down menu. You now need to insert values here for the white and black points. I found that these values were way too sensitive for the slider controls here to be of any use, so I entered values manually – TINY values! For instance Black Point 0.4, and White Point 0.9. Watch the response in the monitor window and you will see the z-depth information (black and white information) change. You want a situation where distant objects are dark and foreground objects are white, with a nice gradation between the two. Once you’re happy with the settings, you now use these black and white values to influence any effect you want to apply to the layer below (the Background). So in my scenes I wanted less contrast, a little blurriness, and a bit more darkness in the background to help separate it from the foreground. So you will need to apply an adjustment layer to the background (Layer>New Adjustment Layer). Then choose Luma Inverted Matte from the Mattes pull-down menu for the Adjustment Layer – it should also show the name of the Z-Depth images that are in the layer above it next to Luma Inverted matte, so if it doesn’t make sure you have the ZDepth layer directly above the Adjustment Layer. Now you add the effects that you want to the adjustment layer, and the effect will be most prominent on the areas that were the darkest on the Z-Depth images.
it did not work for me (using AE 5.5 pro)
i cannot get a F#@ing .iff or rla to work with 3D channel Extract.
...if anyone else has setting they would share, i'm willing to try anythin inluding the thing with catchers mask and bottle of mustard.
For ZDepth passes:
With the Z-Depth files, you have to save them in .rla format for AE to work with them. You will need to set the render globals output format to .rla to make them properly, because if you just render an IFF and use F-check to save as rla, something must get thrown out because the resulting file is very small and AE doesn’t recognise the zdepth information. You will also have to check the settings on the camera that you want to render from to make sure the z-depth checkbox is ticked – output rollout of attribute editor. It should be on by default. You will need to set the Render Globals to render the image as a batch – don’t render it straight into the render buffer window and try to save it as an rla that way or it doesn’t seem to work properly. Tick the box in Render globals for Z-Depth and then render the image as a batch (note that you’ll always get RGB channels though with this format).
Choosing rla as the file format means that you will find a file for the render with the rla extension which you can open in f-check to view the z-depth information.
The curtains in the scene were a bit of a problem with the Z-Depth calculations, and weren’t giving an accurate result, which may be because the material that has been applied to it is semi-transparent. This meant that when I used the depth channel info to influence the contrast, you see it affecting the window pane behind it but not the curtain, so it doesn’t look quite right. I fudged it up in After Effects, but the best solution probably would have been to make the material opaque for the Z-Depth pass.
How to get the rla file to impart its Z-Depth information in After Effects
OK, you need the Professional version of After Effects for this, because you need one of its Effects, called “3D Channel Extract” for this operation. Place the Z-depth .rla frame/s in a layer above the background. Apply the “3D Channel Extract” effect (Effect>3D Channel), and in the Effects Control window, make sure Z-Depth is active in the pull-down menu. You now need to insert values here for the white and black points. I found that these values were way too sensitive for the slider controls here to be of any use, so I entered values manually – TINY values! For instance Black Point 0.4, and White Point 0.9. Watch the response in the monitor window and you will see the z-depth information (black and white information) change. You want a situation where distant objects are dark and foreground objects are white, with a nice gradation between the two. Once you’re happy with the settings, you now use these black and white values to influence any effect you want to apply to the layer below (the Background). So in my scenes I wanted less contrast, a little blurriness, and a bit more darkness in the background to help separate it from the foreground. So you will need to apply an adjustment layer to the background (Layer>New Adjustment Layer). Then choose Luma Inverted Matte from the Mattes pull-down menu for the Adjustment Layer – it should also show the name of the Z-Depth images that are in the layer above it next to Luma Inverted matte, so if it doesn’t make sure you have the ZDepth layer directly above the Adjustment Layer. Now you add the effects that you want to the adjustment layer, and the effect will be most prominent on the areas that were the darkest on the Z-Depth images.