Houdini and DOF? Depth Data?

[twilightened]

Hi there..

I am trying to render a still-life incorporating a Depth of Field effect and instead of waiting hours for the mantra engine to render, Id like to try my hand at faking it in Shake using the DepthBlur node.

Question is how can I render out the depth info and in what image format? If I do a normal render in RLA will it include depth info?

Kind of new at using depth info as you can tell, but I know its possible and I would like to use the 2D package because of speed and flexibility.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Waibeans