+ A0007 - How to apply Depth of Field Effect in After Effects CS3 +
Instructor - Pradeep Mamgain
+ DOF +
In this tutorial we will talk about the Depth of Field effect in After Effects. We will animate Depth of Field Effect. Download the Project Files and open depth_of_field.AEP. Double click on the 01 – DOF comp to open it.
We have a simple scene setup in which we have Five layers of a food item, placed at a certain distance in Z axis. Camera rotation is also animated using a Null object. Before we move ahead let us understand a bit about the camera settings.
Zoom – The Distance from the Camera to the Image Plane.
Focus Distance – The Distance from the camera to the plane that is in perfect focus.
Lock to Zoom – Makes the focus distance value match the zoom value.
If you change the settings of the Zoom or Focus Distance from the timeline panel, focus distance value become unlocked from the Zoom value. When you want to retain this relationship use Camera dialogue box instead.
Focal Length – The distance from the film plane to the camera lens.
Aperture – The size of the lens opening. Changing Aperture value also changes the DOF effect, increasing aperture increases the depth of field blur. When you change Aperture value F-Stop value changed to match it.
F-Stop – It represents the ration of the Focal Length to aperture. When you modify F-Stop, aperture changes to match it.
Blur Level – The Amount of Depth of Field blur in an Image.
Select the Cam layer and press AA to reveal its options. There is a switch to turn DOF on and off. Turn it on. Change the Blur Level to around 600%. We can now see that camera is now focusing on the First Item.
Lets now understand why cam is focusing on first item. As you can see that Camera is positioned at –1500 px in Z axis and Focus Distance is 1200 px, so the effective distance is –1500+1200=-300 px and the First Item is placed exactly at –300 px along the Z axis.
Now we will animate the focus distance so that cam’s focus shifts from First Item to last item. Press Home key to jump to the start of the timeline and click on stopwatch to add a keyframe. We know that fifth item is place at +900 px along Z axis and Camera is at –1500 px, so to make last item in focus we will change Focus Distance value to 2400 to focus cam on the last item.
Change aperture value to 40 PX to exaggerate the blur. Ram preview to see the final result. This wraps up the tutorial.
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