AE and ZDepth renders from 3d pkgs...

[ScottKane]

so far i have see only this: rendered zdepth with video or images sequence and add a compound blur to your clip or to a adjustments layer and you might wanna invert it too, compound is a blur that blurs depending the black and whites of a layer, btw if you want to add any effect to the zdepth make sure you precompose it in a enw comp and then choose it as a layer in the effect

[mackdadd]

you just use it as a track matte for your adjustment layer, since a z-deth is only a greyscale image.
for example, your layer setup would look llike this in the timeline:

1 Z-Depth pass
2 Adjustment layer (with a lens blur or box blur) (the track matte for this should be set to "Luma" or "Luma Invert")
3 CG Footage (rendered from your 3d package with no DoF)

hope that helps.

[rightclick]

1 Z-Depth pass
2 Adjustment layer (with a lens blur or box blur) (the track matte for this should be set to "Luma" or "Luma Invert")
3 CG Footage (rendered from your 3d package with no DoF)

Thanks mackdadd - That clears up alot of the mystery for me, thats exactly what I was looking for! Well put.


so far i have see only this: rendered zdepth with video or images sequence and add a compound blur to your clip or to a adjustments layer and you might wanna invert it too, compound is a blur that blurs depending the black and whites of a layer, btw if you want to add any effect to the zdepth make sure you precompose it in a enw comp and then choose it as a layer in the effect

s0nkitE - Ive never used the compound blur before, but if it works as you say then it also sounds like a possible solution. Your setup almost sounds similar to mackdadd's - except of course for the blur type. Im almost wondering if there is a favorable blur type for this particular effect. I have heard lens blur produces a nice DOF based on value, but have never yet used it in production. Ill have to look it up and play around I guess.

Im still not quite sure how fog could be driven by a ZDepth pass in AE though... :shrug:

Thanks for the advice :)

[Mylenium]

Im still not quite sure how fog could be driven by a ZDepth pass in AE though... :shrug:

Effect --> 3DChannel --> Fog 3D

Mylenium

[Fuxianer]

AE and Depth channels can be a pain. Maya/MR e.g. renders depth channels in iff files which Adobe does not fully support at this stage, only older versions of iff can be read. RLA files are accepted by AE but the greyscale range is very condensed, which means getting the right dof value with the 3d dof filter is very time consuming, if you have to find the right value of e.g. 0.998 within a range of 20,000.
Easiest to use option is a greyscale image with compound blur which is a bit of a cheat because foreground elements blur background elements around their edges and the way round.

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