zdepth in seperate files

#1

does combustion support the use of zdepth information in another file. kinda like “set matte”
like if i have a sequence renderd out in maya thats tga with zdepth the zdepth info will be stored in another file since tga doesnt support zdepth only alpha… Thanks

#2

nope. However if you are just after Depth of field, using the luminance of your separate Z-Depth image sequence as the input for a compound blur will give you better results than the 3D post depth of field.

#3

I have no idea as to waht you are talking about. :slight_smile:

#4

righto. :slight_smile: If you want to use the Z-Depth information to do a post Depth of Field (ie areas in focus/out of focus - as through a camera lens) in your animation (probably the most common use for Z-Depth information) you can in fact do it with a separate Z-Depth sequence. Most other uses for Z-Depth in combustion you cannot use a separate sequence for.

To use the Z-Depth info from another file sequence to do depth of field, you want to apply a compound blur operator to your image sequence (not the z-depth one, the other one). With compound blur, you can blur your image based on luminance (brightness/darkness) values in another image (your Z-Depth image - which should be a greyscale image). look up the compound blur operator in the manual & it will probably all become clear.

For more control, put a brightness/contrast operator on top of your Z-depth image & link the compound blur to that - you can then define the areas that are in focus/out of focus with the brightness/contrast controls…

on the other hand you might not want to do depth of field at all & I’ve just clogged up the internet with some more useless shizznet… :smiley: What are you actually trying to do?

#5

No, isn’t “shizznet” at all, very cool and usefull info.

Thank’s for the tip!
See Ya!:thumbsup:

#6

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