Dan Grigsby - BA Animation 2009/2010

One particular technique we intend to use in our films is Depth of Field (DoF). This will be incredibly useful in adding depth to shots, as otherwise elements such as characters or objects can look very flat against a backdrop. The use of DoF will be slightly different for both films, because of the differences in environment and style.

In order to create DoF, Maya has an in-built option which you can apply to the camera. After Alec had made a few tests using this a few months ago, it was apparent that the quality was not particularly great and there was not much flexibility with the settings. An alternative is to apply a Luminance Depth render pass. I have made a quick test to demonstrate how Luminance Depth works.

(Colour)

(Luminance Depth. White = close. Black = far)

(screen shot of layers in Adobe After Effects)

When importing both renders into Adobe After Effects, I placed the depth render underneath the colour render, applying a Lens Blur filter to this. This filter allows you to attribute an image as a Depth Map Layer (i.e the imported render) and the Blur Focal Distance setting determines how blurred the layer is, thus giving far more control. Here is the final composite:


This is a very basic demonstration of what Luminance Depth can achieve - the cone in the foreground is now distinctive from everything else. This level of control will enable us to be far more selective of how much DoF is used within a shot, although it is important not to get too carried away and over use the technique. It should only be applied for the purposes of aiding the composition and story.