Depth of field

This experiment explored creating realistic depth of field within a 3D animation.

We chose to use After Effects, and to do the digital equivalent of a "multiplane camera shot", something traditional Disney films used in the past. We rendered one background plate and one foreground shot.

The two images were loaded into After Effects with the background plate scaled up slightly and key-framed moving slowly to the right. The foreground was key-framed moving further to the right to create a parallax effect. Gaussian Blur effects were applied to both images the background was key-framed with a blur starting at a value of 15 moving down to 0. The Foreground started at 0 and went up to 15. An additional small amount of lens blur was also added to the foreground image to soften the anti-aliasing edges.

3D depth of field animation experiment showing bathroom visualisation

3D depth of field experiment visual showing bathroom in focus

3D depth of field experiment visual showing a rubber duck in focus