Maya Iff Z-depth Problems With Ae Pro

[user_deleted]

Hi everyone.

I am having some difficulty using the various 3D channel effects in AE Pro with Maya .iff files.

I have rendered out a sequence in Maya as 8-bit .iff files, with z-depth enabled. I have confirmed in FCheck that there is z-depth data present.

When I bring this sequence into After Effects 7.0 Professional, none of the 3D channel effects (Depth Matte, Depth of Field, etc.) produce any visible effect whatsoever. I have tried a wide range of values, in both positive and negative, and can not get any sort of result. Either I have to be missing something or there is some problem here.

Does anyone have any advice on what I can do to make the 3D channel effrcts work? Please, don't simply respond with "After Effects sucks, use Shake or some other program," because that isn't an option for me.

Thanks in advance!
-Steve

[user_deleted]

I found the problem, though it isn't so much a "solution" as it is an "alternative." I tried re-rendering using RLA files instead of iff files, and now After Effects recognizes the Z-channel... so, problem solved.

If anyone else is having the same problem, that's how I fixed it: using the RLA format for my images.

Thanks to anyone who considered the problem!
-Steve

[y030052]

Well, you found one solution. AE has never supported the Z channel in iff files, which is why you weren't getting anything -- the channel was not being read.

RLA is a good choice of format if you want an embedded Z channel. However, you're still going to run into the 8-bit ceiling which will give you jaggies on your DOF in certain situations. Now that AE supports 16-bit images you'd be better off rendering a separate depth pass using a depth shader to a 16-bit file format which will give you more gray tones and thus better blurring in your DOF.

I use 16-bit TIFS and these seem to work pretty well.