TIP: The value of the Camera's Focal Length (mm) can increase or decrease the distance between the two DOF planes meaning you can have either more or less in focus.
So by decreasing the Focal length (mm) you get a wider Depth of Field where more will be in Focus and increasing the Focal Length (mm) will make the Depth of Field a lot more narrower and remembering the amount of Blur is controlled by the F-stop, Lower more blur, Higher less blur.
Obliviously when you are adjusting the Focal Length of a camera you will have to re-zoom the camera in or out depending on what value you choose.
OK I've made this short DOF video tutorial for the Bryce users - it might be of some help. It covers a bit of boring old theory and then goes on to show how to make the following image - about six minutes "work".
To all who don't know, David's tuts are the best. imo.
Thank you and you are welcome, Pam - also, I do requests, so long as it is not for "animation" - for animation I'd try and track down Oroboros on the Bryce Discussion forum, he has some very good tutorials and advice on offer. And for lightening seek out Horo and for getting DS to talk to Bryce you need to look to Rashad Carter. But otherwise, as I said, I'm open to suggestions.
Thanks, Jaderail for your advice on my example of DOF-gone-wrong, and thanks everyone for the tips and tutorials. I have a good concept in mind now...but I'm wondering if my poor single-core processor can handle a scene with six to ten Genesis figures plus DOF plus a shader rate of 0.2...might require some compositing, I don't know.
Well, I'm sorry I can't offer any help to DS users with slow computers, but I can provide a tip for those using Bryce. So here then is an appendix to the previous video that shows you how to achieve a very similar DOF effect in Bryce but tailored to the limitations of a single core processor.
Total render time for the first image was about 30 minutes.
Total render time for the second image was about 1 and a half minutes - distributed over three renders and combined in PSP8.
Hope that helps out some of you with slower computers.
I wasn't going to even attempt this, but I have been learning how to use Bryce and had a scene I had managed to do so applied the DOF to it. Your comments would be appreciated. I will then decide whether to enter this competition or not.
wilmap that image is what this is all about. It's good, it does what the contest is all about. And I think you should really get into the contest. All you can do is get better and maybe even win.
This thread is intented for you to show your work as you go, and for you to get feedback and advice from others. This is were we want you to show your possible submissions for the contest and to the members of the forums. Feel free to post your work and ask for advice and tips as you go. Feel free to ask for advice on anything, not just DOF. Need help with your lights? Feel free to ask. Many people will be popping in during the month to help you as you go along.
To get things started and help you as you go this month we have provided these links to get you started. Pick the ones for your favorite software and you shuold be ready to try DOF in no time.
"We would like to thank Jack Tomalin who has graciously decided to sponsor this months contest" He will be awarding a special prize to the winner of this months "DOF "contest. To view some of Jack Tomalin's items please see his store front here Jack Tomalin DAZ Store
To give you some Idea what DOF can do, here are some images that use DOF. We have provided one from each of the featured programs.
What? No love for Carrara? Carrara has a built in DOF function as well.
I know this contest is about the DOF in your render camera, but there are also ways- maybe even faster ways- to get a nice DOF other than from within your 3D program. Carrara Pro has different "passes" you can render. For DOF a good one to use is a depth pass, which can be used in Photoshop or other graphics programs as a mask.
Please forgive me if I use the wrong jargon for this: In the following example, I set Carrara to render the image and a depth pass. In Photoshop I pasted the rendered image so that I had two layers. The top layer I added a layer mask and pasted the depth pass into it. I had to invert the image so that black was white and white was black. The bottom image I used a gaussian blur of three or four pixels. I did have to do some brightness and contrast adjustments to the layer mask depth pass to get the dramatic effect I wanted. When I was happy with the look, I flattened the image and I was done.
The first picture should be the final postworked DOF image, the second should be the depth pass (not inverted), the third shows the untouched, as-is rendered image.
[ Edited: 03 August 2012 08:42 PM by evilproducer ]
The only reason we appear to have no love for Carrara is that our normal CV Carrara expert isn't around at the moment, for personal reasons, so we couldn't get him to add his input when Jaderail was putting this contest togehter.
Any comment on how I could improve my render? (see Post 24)
Render is good, but I personally think that meybe your camera setting needs tweaking. Can you do a screen shot of your camera screen so we can see what you have it set at.
