Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Instead of using a very complex scene, we will use the following scene to help us
comprehend how to effectively animate the camera's focus:
No doubt your scene will be by far more complex than the one shown in the
previous screenshot. In a deep analysis of this scene, we have four cylinders with an
equal distance between them of 3 meters. This means that the last cylinder is more
or less 10 meters away from the camera, and this information is very important in
understanding how the
Depth of Field
effect works. You can easily create a scene
similar to the one shown in the preceding screenshot that will help you to master this
fantastic effect.
Firstly, let's try to set the
Focus distance
slider to something around
2
or
3
. Can you
see that close to the camera, the ground and objects are sharper in comparison with
the elements in the background? This is because in using the focus distance, we are
telling the camera the distance in meters that we want to be focused and sharp.
We can effortlessly see why using depth of field is a great technique. Not only can we
create a sense of depth, but we can separate the object from any distractions, putting
us in control of where the viewer focuses his or her attention. This is also a great way
to create transitions between clips.
The first step involves working with the
Focus distance
slider and seeing how it works
with the subject, and creating a keyframe for the distance of the different objects that
need focus. This may not be easy to set up because the quality of the viewport does
not always correspond to the final output. One way to ensure that we have the correct
focus distance is by rendering just a frame and seeing if the
Focus distance
slider needs
further adjustment. We will learn how to do this later in this chapter.
