big problems with dof

[xtrm3d]

i seem to be doing fine with animation and material
but i really have a big problem with the dof
i really need to be able to control it on a frame per frame basis
i do not plan animation but a multi pose/angle shooting
any way to have a target object in maya that octane would use for the dof point of interest/autofocus ?

an example of what i get



and here is what i would like to do ( if possible )
assuming that i want the body of kaneda to always be in focus

have a locator in maya that i can key for each frame , so that octane know what to use as a center for my dof
do that make sense ?
is that possible ?

pleeeeaase

[xtrm3d]

ok
that official !!!
i am a DONKEY !!
found that the aim camera is working in maya ..and i am now able to focus to certain part across my diferent frame ( example here the face )

but still ...

how can i control my lens aperture radius from frame to frame ?

[xtrm3d]

Could anyone give some insight ?
Monsieur bazooka maybe ?

[Amplitude]

I'm not a Maya user, but what I did in XSI was to rig the camera in order to have the right values (focus dist and aperture) exported to octane at each frame.

[bazuka]

i hope ill be able to fix for a weekend the animated camera focal and lens...

cheers

[xtrm3d]

sound great !!
thank you for teh effort

[Doodle_Monkey]

I've been able to accomplish DOF changes from frame to frame by creating a measurement tool (in maya it creates two locators and outputs the distance between) and parenting both ends to the aim and camera. Using the Hierarchy graph I found the output value and then fed the distance output of the distance tool into the DOF field on the cameras settings. I thought I was pretty clever, but maybe there is a better way. The end result was that I was able to animate the camera position and aim position interactively changing the distance value and therefore the DOF value from frame to frame. I've posted some videos on youtube of my experiments. One video in particular demonstrates this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjFFW5_-JZg&list=UUipORjqvU8HlwziwM6ST7Mw&feature=plcp[/youtube]

It's very short, but you get point.

[Att3ro]

...in maya it creates two locators and outputs the distance between...

I would be very happy if you showed how you did it, cause I don't really understand how you manage to make it work.

Thanks in advance,
Att3ro

[RickToxik]

I've made a script here to control the DOF, if you want it:
http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=23455