Terragen 3 Focal Blur distance calculation

[Upon Infinity]

Is there a good way to calculate distance from the camera to your object of focus in Terragen 3?  The camera has a distance variable, but other than doing the trigonometry required to calculate the distance between your camera position and your object position, is there another way?  I think some 3D software has a "look at" function that simply tells the camera what to focus on, and then calculate the depth from that point (feature request?).  Maybe this could be integrated into the right-click menu in subsequent updates, to "look at" coordinates instead of manually putting in the distance the camera focuses?



Also, we might need to start a Terragen 3 section on this forum.

[jo]

Hi,

You can use the 3D Preview Location window, which you can open from the View menu. This will show the distance to the camera at the point under the mouse. The only catch is that this only works with the terrain or sky. If you're wanting to set the DOF based on an object you'll need to mouse over a bit of terrain near to the object to get the distance.

We will have a way to easily visualise the DOF distance. It may very well be in the final TG3 release.

Regards,

Jo

[Upon Infinity]

That's a lot better.  Thanks, Jo.

[Upon Infinity]

I also want to say you guys did a great job with camera operation and bringing it quite close to real-life camera operation with focal length, f-values, and film plane size.  I think the only thing I could add at this point is the ability to input f-stops directly.  Great work!

[bobbystahr]

Hi,

You can use the 3D Preview Location window, which you can open from the View menu. This will show the distance to the camera at the point under the mouse. The only catch is that this only works with the terrain or sky. If you're wanting to set the DOF based on an object you'll need to mouse over a bit of terrain near to the object to get the distance.

We will have a way to easily visualise the DOF distance. It may very well be in the final TG3 release.

Regards,

Jo

I found the ruler quite handy for this as well.

[jo]

Hi Bobby,

I found the ruler quite handy for this as well.

That can work but the same thing applies about it only working on the terrain or sky as I mentioned above.

Regards,

Jo

[bobbystahr]

Hi Bobby,

I found the ruler quite handy for this as well.

That can work but the same thing applies about it only working on the terrain or sky as I mentioned above.

Regards,

Jo

I understand, and generally it's an approx. thing for me, but gets me in the ballpark. then it's a matter of factoring in the camera height differential...useful feature but not really a lot of call for it in my work so far. In the past in Imagine 3D I used it a lot featuring parts of a render but they were a lot different than what I can do here and no need, well less need, for SFX in TG 2/3