Dynamic Focal Depth

[greg.thoman]

I have an animation that requires the focal depth to change during the course of the scene. It seems the exporters focal depth option, sets the focal depth to a fixed number. Is there a way to export the depth to octane, so the focus match what I want?

[face]

Use a null and calculate the distance between the null and your camera.
That result is the length(focal depth)
I think you can use it in Blender as expression...

face

[livuxman]

In Blender 2.5 I use an object that serves as the focal point and the plugin give the distance from the camera to the object as a parameter to octane.
With 2.49 you could do something similar. Modifing the plugin to indicate the object to use as reference would not cost much.
Maybe Enrico can change the plugin to add this option or maybe he already have (I have not used much this version)
Try creating the object and select it on the camera dof ob:

Cheers

[greg.thoman]

So then, do I have to select the focal depth option in the exporter? or just the export Camera button?

[livuxman]

As I said before, I have not used extensively the plugin to 2.49 and nothing this particular subject, you may need to do some tests.
I would try to define the camera dof object (in blender camera options) and then test the options of the plugin. If I have some time, could try and tell you exactly what it is, but right now I have the machine rendering.

[greg.thoman]

Sorry, I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing. I was hoping for the export script to change the depth of focus on a per frame basis. I can set it manually in both Blender and Octane. I have a scene where I would like it to change over the course of time. I may need to revamp.
Also... is there an export script for 2.5?

[PhilBo]

Currently, we have a script specification for all script writers so that the functionality of the plug-ins are uniform across the various modeling programs. The use of a proxy object or other mechanism to dynamically set the DOF would be a great addition. I'll talk to Radiance about it.

As far as a script for Blender 2.5, the current active version of Blender is 2.49, so that is the version supported. Although 2.5 has become very usable, it is not stable and things are still changing. When the final beta builds of 2.50 near, the script will be ported at that time.