DoF doesn't always work as it should?

[pgatsky]

Hi all

Ive not bee using Octane long but am loving some aspects of it. One of those is the fact that I can simply control where the focal point should be with the use of the DoF pointer tool when doing product shots. I have though noticed that on some occasions it stops working and when I try to place the focal point it sets the camera way back and then causes the object I want to be in focus be out of focus and very blurred.

I have found that by copying the parts I need into a new doc file and more or less starting again it seems to rectify the issue. Im wondering if its just a camera issue and wanted to ask anyone out there if they've noticed this bug or issue and how they've got round it.

Thanks in advance.

PG

[aoktar]

I don't think there's a problem with dof. Did you disable the auto focus?

[pgatsky]

Hi aoktar.

Yes I did as that was one of the first things I did check. The problem from what I can tell seems to look like some sort of bug. Maybe an issue with too many cameras in a scene? Any thoughts?

[aoktar]

Hi aoktar.

Yes I did as that was one of the first things I did check. The problem from what I can tell seems to look like some sort of bug. Maybe an issue with too many cameras in a scene? Any thoughts?

Sounds like an user mistake. Could you please give some visual examples, video capture, and a scene to describe what we are talking about?

[pgatsky]

Will do bear with me

[pgatsky]

Hi aoktar. Im attached a screen shot and the file, minus the client textures so you can see whats happening.

[pgatsky]

The blurred screen shot shows what happens if i use the DoF picker to select the bottle as my focal point.

[jayroth]

By any chance, do you have an object in front of the camera that is intended to be transparent? I have found that DOF can fail in that case, as it sees such objects as opaque.

The best way to control the DOF is to use a focus object. Just create a null, place it where you your focus in the scene, and drop the focus object into the appropriate slot in the camera attributes panel (main panel, not the Octane camera tag).

[pgatsky]

Thanks jayroth. I'll give what you say a go and see if that sorts it. In answer to the question as to if there's something in front of it that its targeting instead on the object I want I would say not. Thats a good point though as it'll be something to watch out for for sure. What makes me think that its a bug though is cause when I took all the parts i needed into a brand new doc the problem went away. Thanks again.

[aoktar]

By any chance, do you have an object in front of the camera that is intended to be transparent? I have found that DOF can fail in that case, as it sees such objects as opaque.

The best way to control the DOF is to use a focus object. Just create a null, place it where you your focus in the scene, and drop the focus object into the appropriate slot in the camera attributes panel (main panel, not the Octane camera tag).

As Jay mentioned, there's an arealight between the camera and the target object. It's invisible but still pickable by focus picker. As always to send some example scene will make the life easier.