Zdepth

[adamrw91]

ok im trying to render out a z-depth pass for my render and the antialaising semms to be non existent on it. how do i bump it up? when i try to use it for Depth of feild the edges are all messed up because the lack of anti aliasing.

any help would be great.

[BuddyB309]

ok im trying to render out a z-depth pass for my render and the antialaising semms to be non existent on it. how do i bump it up? when i try to use it for Depth of feild the edges are all messed up because the lack of anti aliasing.

any help would be great.

what are you trying to use z-depth for? If you have a third party, you should add a slight gausian blur to everything to make it more realistic

[adamrw91]

what are you trying to use z-depth for?

well im using it for depth of feild. and thats a good idea to blur it.
but how do u increase the anti alliasing on a zdepth???

[adamrw91]

well i tried using the gausian blur on the zdepth pass and it didnt work the edges are all mussed up. any other ideas?

[BuddyB309]

You are suppose to use your z-depth pass for a mask for the blur channel. Then after you do that you hide the z-depth layer. Kind of like what you do to morph targets. Your z-depth will never look smooth because you are not suppose to see it in your animation.

[adamrw91]

well yeah im doing that its just when i use itas a mask its not anti aliased so thesome of the eddges get blurred and some of them dont. its weird.:(

[BuddyB309]

well yeah im doing that its just when i use itas a mask its not anti aliased so thesome of the eddges get blurred and some of them dont. its weird.:(

it would help if I could see a photo of the final result, and the work station of the third party program so i can see how it is layed out. I want the effects control window open if you are using adobe after effects.

Explain to me how your are useing the z-depth. What filter are you putting on it, the more detailed you are the more i can help you

[adamrw91]

could ya just direct me to a tutorial?

[Sergio]

could ya just direct me to a tutorial?
ditto

[BuddyB309]

could ya just direct me to a tutorial?

Using z-depth in discreet combustion (http://www.visualz.com/free/combustion_Zbuffer_DOF.pdf)

Here you go fellas, 7 full pages on z-depth and using it in combustion

[adamrw91]

well i sorta need it for after effects.
but thanks anyway.

[BuddyB309]

well i sorta need it for after effects.
but thanks anyway.

Now after effects I can help you with. Apply the filter channel>set matte to the one recieveing the z-depth (aka the beauty pass). Choose the z-depth layer as your mask and change type from alpha to luminously. hide the z-depth layer in your composition. Now what you should have is some layer that is showing a little. This will be your blur layer, now blur it with a Gaussian blur. Invert your mask in the effects window and then put the same Beauty pass layer underneath the one with the blur. Fiddle around with it, if some of the blur is bleeding into the objects that are in the foreground, you need to render them as separate layers.

I'm glad you are realizing the full potential of layer rendering, Its not a hard thing to grasp once you figure out after effects. Stick with it and you can do some amazing quality work.

Some advice to you, after you made everything look all nice you need to dirty it up. Add an adjustment layer on top of every thing and add a slight Gaussian blur and some noise. This adds one more level of realisim, I don't know why but it just makes it look that much better. Glows, blurs, and noise make it real.

[adamrw91]

OMG thank you!
that was short, percise and perfect.
im for ever in your debt.
lol

[Testament-Doom]

Some advice to you, after you made everything look all nice you need to dirty it up. Add an adjustment layer on top of every thing and add a slight Gaussian blur and some noise. This adds one more level of realisim, I don't know why but it just makes it look that much better. Glows, blurs, and noise make it real.

Mmaaayyybbbeee it's because the default scanline renderer isn't really good with antialiasing techniques or something, and you have slight pixelated edges on your models and blurring diminishes them in a rudimentary way, eh?

I'm just taking a stab here BuddyB, lol. ;)