Animated DoF

[fibernaut]

Hi
i need to have an animated depth of field effect for a project. Let's say there is an object and the focal point has to move through this object. I took a Null object and in the octane editor i tried to get its position to drive the focal depth input of the ThinLens camera with the ItemInfo Node. I made a quick animation of the Null through the object but there is no visible change of the dof effect. What am i making wrong?

Thanks for any help!

[juanjgon]

You only need this setup. Two item info nodes (one for camera, and one for target null object) and the distance node. Be sure that you disable the autofocus option in the camera node.

-Juanjo

[fibernaut]

Great ... this worked!
Thanks Juan!

[Godstrike]

I have a similar quandary, how can I can animate the amount of DOF over time?

Thanks!

[juanjgon]

I have a similar quandary, how can I can animate the amount of DOF over time?

Thanks!

You only need to add a Lightwave scalar constant node and link it to the DOF input. This LW constant nodes have the "E" button to animate them.

-Juanjo

[Godstrike]

Thanks Juanjo,

I had worked it out, I was being lazy:)

Love the plug-in by the way, has revolutionised my rendering -- excellent work!

[fibernaut]

I have to dig this thread out again.

The way to animate the depth of field seems not to be working if the camera is parented to another null. Am i missing something important?
Thanks!

[hdace]

Try using the world position outputs from the info nodes instead of regular position.

Also, I've found parenting a "focus null" to a character's face bone (and then moving it to just in front of the eyes) incredibly useful. It means a character's face will always be in focus.

[fibernaut]

Yeah ... WorldPosition worked fine. Thanks a lot!

[Lewis]

While we are at DOF discussion i have question.

Although DOF in octane is great looking, especially with above node setups i find it har dot get effect i look for.

For instance i want that all in front of camera till the target object (null) is Focused/clean and all behind that point blurry/out of focus which works OK if the object is in front but when i want to focus further away in the middle my front and back get blurred/out of focus and only middle is clean ? Somehow my depth of Field s is always very narrow ? Is there a way how to correct/fix that setup somehow ?

I use Null for positioning DOF and rotating null for DOF amount but can't seem to get linear effect of all clean before or after that null in linear fashion.

Thanks