iDof 3.0 Preview

[jeremyhardin]

Hey all. Some of you may have noticed that iDof has been taken offline for the time being. I've explained why here:
http://www.lwidof.net

In the meantime, I've been working on iDof 3.0. iDof 3 is a completely different animal. It does nothing within LW's DOF. And it doesn't add a single null object or expression. No scene clutter. While I loved earlier versions of iDof's functionality, it sometimes felt like it was cluttering my scene. So now it's an image filter that generates better DOF depth mattes for blurring in Photoshop or Compositing.

So here's a sneak peak of what it's looking like right now. These images may or may not reflect the final interface.

Basically you select what RGB +A channels you want to output to, then select the objects for black point and white point. Black point will represent your focal point fade gradually to the white point.

You can output to any combination of channels (to give yourself more DOF options in post) and you can also stack them. So the first could be just affecting the red channel. Then the second could have different settings and output to the green channel. And so on. So in any given render, you can give yourself up to 4 different iDof depth mattes for your scene. So you don't have to decide if you're going to use a rack-focus until you get to comp and can see changes to DOF much more quickly than in 3d.


EDIT: I've added TGA output, so you're no longer limited to 4 channels in one scene. In theory, the number is unlimited, and I've tested multiples with different settings successfully.

[jeremyhardin]

Here's an example from the Lightwave 8 content.

I've attached the plain render, the render's alpha channel (generated with iDof 3.0), and the post output from photoshop (using the Lens Blur filter).

[jeremyhardin]

And for the die-hard in-camera people that never want to leave LW, I've added another image filter, to be used after the Channels Filter.

The second one uses the alpha channel info (which has depth information after iDof 3.0's channel filter runs), and adds a very simple blur.

Since it's depth-buffer-based, the blur suffers from the same thing as XDof and every other post blur. Improper transparency, reflection, etc. blurring. But it works with iDof's custom depth map in the alpha channel, and includes a preview mode for faster visualization of your post blur.

[jeremyhardin]

...oh, and it works with LW7.5d - LW 9 so far.

(and no I'm not breaking NDA, as I'm not a betatester. )

Cheers!

[Nitisara]

Hi Jeremy!
How I can test your script? I downloaded lite version, added it to plugins list, but it is still unavailable in image filters section. What I am missing?
Thank you!

[jeremyhardin]

Hi Nitisara. Congrats on UVNeter!

The download you have is the old free version of iDof. It just set up LW's DOF automatically. It's a generic plugin with no interface that is run from Utilities >> Additional. (The only reason I left it online is for those people that don't like setting up DOF in LW, and because it still works with FPrime.)

The version in the posts above will be available shortly. I'm stomping out the final bugs and getting documentation and website things together.

[Nitisara]

Thank you Jeremy!
Looking forward to test final version!

[Cageman]

Looks pretty cool!

Is it possible to render out just a depthpass, like the one found in Render Buffer Export, or is the DOF tied to the image?

[jeremyhardin]

Well, it puts the custom depth pass into any or all of the RGB +A channels. Then for those that don't want to comp the image, they can add the second image filter to add the blur based on that info.

No independent images output as of yet, though it's something that I'm exploring.

EDIT: There is TGA output now. See post 1.

[Matt Gorner]

What's the difference from saving out a depth map using the PSD Saver in LW and blurring in P'Shop anyway?

(Apart from the post process filter that eliminates the need for P'Shop)

[jeremyhardin]

2 main differences.

1. Where is the focal point in a normal depth matte? There isn't one defined because the depth matte is not just meant for DOF. It's meant for any number of things (including fog in post, different color correction based on depth, etc.) iDof generates a depth matte more suited to DOF, with areas in front of and behind the focal point going out of focus (as you can see in the iDof depth matte above).

So with a normal depth matte, if your working in Photoshop, Depth of Field Pro, or anything else that batch processes image sequences, you have to pick a single greyscale value as your focal point, and stick with it. No rack focus in post if you're doing that.

Since iDof let's you define and animate the focal point with the black point and white point animation, you can get rack focus even in batch image processors, and still have much faster render times than doing it in 3d.

[jeremyhardin]

2. Control. The power of doing shadows, ambient occlusion, depth of field, and sometimes even lighting in comp, is total control and fast turnaround.

So you render your normal non-blurred image sequence out, save a new depth matte scene, set the render to quickshade, and apply iDof.

From that you get 4 different channels for DOF outputs. So in this example, I've stacked 4 different instances of iDof Channels with 4 different black points and white points. And keep in mind that these can be each animated in different ways.

Also, for the Alpha channel, I've set up my black point and white point to be from the camera to the back of the scene. So I can use that channel for the other comp uses (depth fog, depth color correction, etc.) All in one image sequence, separatable in comp.

[siproductions]

Cool dude. Yeah I think the best thing about it will be the control. I can set exactly where I want my focus and I can set exactly where I want it to be blurred as well as set the falloff/hardness between the two. Just a super easy way to know precisely what will happen in the final output and pretty much total control of what will be in focus and what won't be. Good work man. I know I will be using it for sure on my lw/dof projects.

*edit* and it should be super fast as well as far as render times go as long as you are doing the blur in comp.

[Matt Gorner]

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! Gotcha!

The Lens Blur plugin in Photoshop does allow for focal point shifting, but I guess it's better to do it in LW.

[bearpants]

I'll buy this immediatley when its ready.

I was recently banging my head trying to figure out how to get a dof matte out of LW which I can use with my fprime renders in After Effects. Fprime's DOF looks nice, but takes forever to render.

Any ETA on this plugin?

Mike