Painting the Interdimensional Traveler - ZBrush Creature Design: Creating Dynamic Concept Imagery for Film and Games - page 305

can be applied to the image as an overlay. The purpose of noise is to subtly introduce visual irregularities
that mimic film grain or other imperfections. These imperfections tend to soften the perfectly crisp lines and
images of 3-D art. Adding noise layers helps to unify the various renders, paint strokes, and textures of the
image into a single whole.
Depth of field refers to the tendency of a photographic lens to hold only a certain depth of image in sharp
focus. The term is from photography but the best way to illustrate is to pick a point in space and stare at
it. Notice how the rest of the room that is closer and farther away is less focused than the center of your
attention. This is the focal depth of your eye. By mimicking this effect we are able to recreate the look of
a photograph as well as draw the viewers' attention to focal points in the image that remain in sharp focus.
Figure 5-78 shows two examples of depth of field (DOF). In the first image, there is a deep focal depth, as
only the background falls into a blur. In the second image, we have a shallower focal depth as the figure's
face is in sharp focus with elements of the figure, foreground, and background falling out of focus.
Figure 5-78: Examples of shallow and deep depths of field.
Photos by Tristan Crane, www.tristancrane.com
To create this effect, we will use the depth pass rendered by ZBrush. The Depth image represents the
relative distance from the camera to the figure. White areas are closer while darker areas are receding. This
data can be read by Photoshop's lens blur filter to introduce the effect of depth of field. DOF helps sell an
image as real because it mimics the effect of an actual camera as well as the human eye. Areas that fall out-
side the range of focus fall into a blur. This is a stark contrast to default digital images where all aspects are
in unrealistically sharp focus. We create a lot of atmosphere and interest by allowing the image to lose detail
as much as by adding details. The legs falling into shadow, with areas lost in darkness or becoming blurred
by depth of field, all add up to a suggestive image.
Follow the steps below to create a depth of field effect for the image.
1. Select the figure layer. Create a new layer mask by going to Layer ⇒ New Layer Mask ⇒ Reveal All
( Figure 5-79 ). This will create a white layer mask attached to the figure layer ( Figure 5-80 ). We will add