Defocus with Depth AOV - Razor Crest VFX Lecture 19

Using the V-Ray depth pass to composite depth of field in post. We're using the Camera Lens Blur effect, which isn't the best effect for DoF, but we'll make it work. If you're interested in third-party plugins, consider Frischluft Lenscare or Fast Bokeh.
These lectures were originally built for a college VFX class that I teach, taking students from beginner to intermediate level. Over the course of this 9-hour course, brush up on PBR surfacing with UDIMs, learn about lighting, AOVs, render layers, batch and sequence rendering, EXR compositing, and ACEScg with Maya, V-Ray, and After Effects.
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[@anthonymcgrath]

Sat through most of these videos you've done and I'm super pleased to say my own workflow in afx is so similar to your own throughout these videos.
I don't have maya 2022 I'm still on 2020 but I use the vray properties and the old style render layers to work with which I still prefer personally altho your video setting them up with collections was very clear so thankyou!
The zdepth precomp I do very similarly but where you had the white edging around the landing gear.. sometimes it's worth a try setting the layer to "darken" (not multiply) and you may find that the edging dissapears. Its not foolproof but I've found it to work layering up zdepth sometimes.
Love this video series though. I'm working on a short hulk vs thanos film and it's 200+ shots altho mine is less focused on realism but much of your render layering and setup is really similar to my own show.
I guess it's nice to see someone work in a similar manner because I'm self taught on this side of things and i can't afford nuke... I'm still on after effects cs6 lol! 😂 altho I bought many plugins for it over the years.
I'm an animator for MPC London (and framestore in the past) having worked on spidey and thor and some other films and recently the prehistoric planet season 1 and 2 shows for apple TV. All the modelling rigging lighting and comp stuff is things I do in my spare time.
Thanks again for this whole series it's a goldmine of info
Ant

[@CGStirk]

That's fantastic to hear! I'm mostly self-taught too. I'll keep that zDepth 'darken' trick in mind the next time I try.