using z-depth passes for depth of field in batch, help.

[Joevfx]

I just got off a Target commercial where there was heavy CG compositings. The CG guys gave me z-depth passes to help add atmosphere and depth of field to the shots. for the atmosphere i just piped the z-depth render into a color correcter and de saturated and lowered the contrast on the CG elements far from the camera.

However I could not for the life of me figure out how to use the z-depth pass to get depth of field lens blurs at all. Is there a good node or spark to use to get these results? We own Tinder and speed six sparks.

[majik]

Genarts Sapphire sparks have about 7 Zdepth sparks in their package for Discreet products. But at $10k a set they're expensive.

[Joevfx]

from what I hear about the sapphire zdepth pluggins is that they dont do a correct depth of field blur.

[svendejong]

The Saphire sparks are the best solution for zblur is FFI as far as i know.
I would call the Genarts folks and ask for a temp licence.
Best and cheapest way to find out if these sparks suit your needs.

gl on the job

sven out

[majik]

from what I hear about the sapphire zdepth pluggins is that they dont do a correct depth of field blur.
Remember, creating depth of field with a zdepth pass is a cheat and so you will always come up against the limitations of the systems and plugins you use.

[svendejong]

creating depth of field with a zdepth pass is a cheat

And after all, what we're after is creating something that looks right isn't it?

[majik]

As a cheat I mean that recreating depth of field with a zdepth pass will never match real world photographically captured images, you can get it close but not exact, its all down to how good your plugin is.