Depth Pass Questions

[undream]

Hi there.

I'm using cinema4d for my animations, and I want to use after effects for my depth pass, because as I know, it is a lot faster than rendering depth effects (like dof) in the 3d package itself.

Ok, here is the first question:

Is it possible to create realistic dof with a depth pass ? The plugin I hear as "the best" is fruschluft depth of field, but it has some artefects on foreground objects, which can not be fixed by tweaking plugin settings. And the default "compound blur" in ae is... Not close to anything real.

I was a plugin called "depth of field" in after effects "3d channel" effects (&presets), but I have no idea about how to use it, and I could not find any possible solution to that on net.



The second question about depth pass, is, 3d fog. I've used fusion before, and it has a very nice plugin called "fog3d" (deep pixel) and I'm looking for something close, to add 3d fog to my rendered scene by using the depth info in my depth layer.
Again, there is a plugin called "Fog 3d" in "3d channel" effects in after effects, but once again, I2m unsure how it can be used... it doesnt even have a setting to select the depth layer..



The last question - and hardest (for me) to explain, is, again a depth effect; which we can see on digital cameras "while taking photo or etc".
I knew this effect could be made, but did not see any examples so far, and could not explain to anyone; but; a nice video by aixsponze did that; and here is a screenshot



as you can see, as the objects go further from camera, they start to have "blue" and "red" lines at their left and right, which is VERY close to a real optical effect on a digital camera shot.
I'm wonderig how something like this can be achieved using a depth layer (and I guess it is achieved with that only !).

Ok. I know this is quite long, but I tried to -not to- keep this post boring as it becomes longer.
Time to shut up.

Waiting for answers, thanks for reading.

[a23]

as you can see, as the objects go further from camera, they start to have "blue" and "red" lines at their left and right, which is VERY close to a real optical effect on a digital camera shot.
I'm wonderig how something like this can be achieved using a depth layer (and I guess it is achieved with that only !).

This is called chromatic aberration. It not depth related, it's radial from the center to the edges, e.g. less to no CA in the center and more towards to edges of the frame. It's usually more pronounced in bright areas and depends heavily on the lens. Some have next to no CA, some have very strong CA. Colors also vary from lens to lens. Some are red/blue, some purple/yellow.

I've used a sapphire plug-in combined with a radial ramp to get a similar effect. Can't recall the name of the node right now. I'll get back to you on monday, when I'm in the office.

For detailed info just do a search on chromatic aberration.

I hope this helps.

Have a nice weekend,

Andy

[DJMartin]

I exaggerated that chromatic aberration in my video: http://www.vfxtalk.com/forum/company...eo-t18792.html

I also used a plugin from Sapphire, it thinks it's called something like RGB chrome under distort or something.

[undream]

THank you for your replies
I'll search for it and get back to you.


@gboom
which plugin should I use to scale channels seperately ?


Also, for the other questions, I still do need some answers

[forkazoo]

Hi there.
Is it possible to create realistic dof with a depth pass ? The plugin I hear as "the best" is fruschluft depth of field, but it has some artefects on foreground objects, which can not be fixed by tweaking plugin settings. And the default "compound blur" in ae is... Not close to anything real.

Yes and no. The reason it is faster to do in 2D is because it can't be exactly correct. For some shots, you won't notice the difference. Others will not work as well. That is the trade-off of doing it in 2D vs. 3D. If doing DOF effects was just faster as a post process, but had no drawbacks, then that is how the 3D applications would do it themselves.