DOF Help

[MGebhart]

Hi,

I'm trying to figure this out using photoshop.

The images below are my rendering and distance shader rendering.

Not clear on how to use the distance shader in photoshop, use it as a layer mask and apply a lens blur. I think that's the process.

If you have an idea please, help.

Marc

[RArcher]

Hi Marc,

You've pretty much got it.  What I do different is invert the white and black and then turn off the atmosphere so you get a complete black and white image.

Then take it into photoshop (or whatever your editor is) and open both images.  Create a new channel and paste the black and white image into this channel.

Then use the Lens blur filter and set the depth map source to be the new channel you created.

[Thelby]

I think you have to much white in the scene for it to be effective, but here is what you do.
Open the color image "A" in photo shop. GO to channels and create another channel. In the New Channel paist the Depth mask, then click on the eye so it is not seen. Now go to your filters/blur/lens blur and open it. In there are all your settings to create the blur effect you want. Mainly click on the tree or the anyother area to get the distance correct and the rest gets blurred.

[MGebhart]

Ryan,

Excellent.

The image is exaggerated to see the result.

I'll try this on a project.

Thanks,

Marc

[MGebhart]

Thelby,

Thank you.

Marc

[MGebhart]

Another quick question: Dose the distance shader image need to have the same quality and aa settings? Also, I set the near to 0 and the far to 10000. Is this correct?

Thanks again.

Marc

[RArcher]

Generally yes, the quality should be rendered the same.  Especially if you are working with small geometry.  If you render at different settings you will notice your mask not lining up correctly.  You can set the distance shader to whatever you want to get the effect you need.  The numbers will be different from scene to scene depending on what you want in focus

[MGebhart]

Sweet.

Thank you.

Marc

[Tangled-Universe]

Hi Marc,

Here's all the info you need:

http://www.nwdanet.com/terragen-tutorials/9-dof-effect.html

more on distance-shaders

http://www.nwdanet.com/terragen-tutorials/8-distance-shader-magic.html

Cheers,
Martin

[MGebhart]

Thanks Martin.

I had read the dof article but missed the distance shader article.

Good information.

Thanks.

Marc

[MGebhart]

Here is a crop of a test DOF render.

I set the Distance Shader to Distance Spherical with 500 near and 10000 far for terrain and objects. I turned off the atmosphere and cloud entries so, this area is black. Rendered using same settings as color image.

The area that concerns me is inside the red oval. I appears to be inconsistent with the rest of the image. I think this is due to turning off the atmosphere and cloud entries. Is this correct?

How do I correct this.

Marc   

[Thelby]

I would have to say yes. It looks like it didn't calculate the the distance of the sky correctly and maybe that is because it is turned off, Hmm, very interesting. The rest of the effect is pretty nice though!!!

[reck]

Makes me wonder if the built in Terragen DOF feature will be fixed and added to the next release. Would make it a lot easier to deal with DOF shots.

[Tangled-Universe]

I would have to say yes. It looks like it didn't calculate the the distance of the sky correctly and maybe that is because it is turned off, Hmm, very interesting. The rest of the effect is pretty nice though!!!

You can't apply color to the sky, like you can apply color to the terrain (with a distance shader). So that's why it doesn't work accurately/correctly.

[Hetzen]

Hi Marc, nice work. Just something to point out, depending on the effect you're looking for, it's a good idea to have white as the nearest colour, and black as the furthest, so that the sky being black isn't an issue.