DOF in xsi

[wurp]

Hi again
I have been trying to make DOF in Aftereffects with no luck at all, I always get bad looking edges
I heard you can render in a bigger size and scale it down, but I dont want to go that way, there's gotta be a way to do it propely.
I heard combustion can do really nice DOF with something called .rpf files, is it possible to export these from XSI?
Also, if I render a depthpass in xsi, how do I use that in Combustion or Aftereffects? I think this would be better as the depthpass can be aliased.
Thanks

-Andreas

[wurp]

Ohh, also, is it possible to make DOf using either .zpic or the dephpass in the compositor in xsi 2.01?
If that can be done, how do i do it?

[atyss]

Bonjour wurp,

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I heard combustion can do really nice DOF with something called .rpf files, is it possible to export these from XSI?
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Unfortunately, no. RPF stands for Rich Pixel Format, and I if I'm right this format was developped by discreet, to be used with discreet products. This format is made from several layers, like around 10. Each layer contains a specific information: diffuse color, specular, ambient, reflection, shadows, depth, alpha, etc. Then in a compositing package you can play with these informations.

However, the compositing software has to understand rpf files! The software automatically recognize when there is depth information, so no worry about how to use the depth information.

Now, in XSI, you can render rla files. I made some quick tests and I found that it is unusable in terms of z depth. Like I said, the depth information is contained in the rpf/rla file. However, XSI does not include the z depth into its rla files, it still creates zpic files. So you are back to starting point.

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Also, if I render a depthpass in xsi, how do I use that in Combustion or Aftereffects?
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I don't know, I'm sorry. I asked so many times in various forums, and never got satisfying answers. The only thing that had some interest is that you can use the depth passe as a mask in the compositing package. But the issues are the same as with floating point files (zpic).

I never tried it, but I know that Shake is really suited for this kind of things. I read that many people prefer Shake over combustion, and it supposedly handles depth passes as well as floating point information.
www.nothingreal.com

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is it possible to make DOf using either .zpic or the dephpass in the compositor in xsi 2.01
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Well I don't know. Ed Harriss said in a previous post NO. Check your documentation to make sure.

Hope this helps
Salutations - Cheers
Bernard Lebel

[ottscay]

I don't know if you saw my post in the other thread, but:

 Sorry, I don't use Conbustion, though I've heard good things about v2. If you are having trouble with zpics, just render out your own depth map movie. Create a copy of your scene and name it "yourscene\_depth" or some such thing. Set all your objects' materials to constant shaded black. Then add a global white fog to your render pass.

Ideally, you want to measure the distance from your camera (unhide it) to the objects that get closest and furthest to your camera during the scene.
Then, set the fog parameters so that it begins at a distance that coincides with the closest an oject gets, and becomes opaque at the furthest distance an object gets from camera (this provides more accurate information for your 2d filter to work from).
Because you can crank up the antialiasing, you won't have to deal with artifacting. Once you've done it once or twice, you can set up a scene as a depth matte in like five minutes, and it renders quickly. Then use the output as the depth matte layer in whatever DOF filter you use.
Usually when applying a DOF filter in 2D, you can specify the layer that acts as the depth information. So just impot your depth pass ovie, place it at the bottom of your compositio so it doesn't show, and tell the filter to use it for depth information. I can't recommend Commotion enough for this kind of work. It isn't as glitzy as Combustion, but it always gets the job done.

If you have any problems you can email me.

Scott

[fade]

I've been using DOF in my current student film for pretty much every scene. I had done quite a few tests using zpics in AfterFX but with disappointing results. The tweaking of settings is very sensitive. Also there's the problem if your image is aliased you'll get annoying problems with the focal plane and objects in your scene at the intersecting points.

The method I'm using now of which I've had great results is by rendering out a depth pass along with your beauty pass is XSI. Import those two sequence of frames in AfterFX. Place the DOF sequence under the beauty pass sequence in the timeline. Make the DOF sequence an adjustment layer. Highlight the beauty pass sequence and then choose the 'compound blur' effect. It will initially blur the whole thing because its using the beauty pass sequence as the blur layer by default. All you have to do is switch the blur layer in the property page that pops up to the DOF pass. AfterFX will then make the appropriate calculations based on the luminance value of your DOF pass. You'll probably have to lower the values and maybe invert the blur depending on what you want. That's it in a nutshell. Works beautifuly in my opinion. Also make sure to render out your images in XSI with the least amount of compression like .pic or .tga. Something like jpeg will give crappy results around the edges of objects in your scene after applying the blur.
As for Combustion and Shake I'm not too sure. I'm sure they have similar features that allow you to the same thing, possible better.
There's also a great tutorial on Ed Harriss's site that shows you how to customize your depth pass so that a particular object in your scene is in focus where background and foreground fall out of focus from that point.

Hope this all helps.

Jason

[atyss]

Jason, you're my hero.

Like I said earlier in this thread (or maybe another?), I searched hard to find how to use a depth pass in After Effects, but you are the first to provide a valuable answer.

Mon