Zdepth

[BuddyB309]

Originally Posted by adamrw91

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.