Simulating Bokeh

[Jeff Mottle]

I've got an animation where I'm going to need to simulate Bokeh with some foreground lights in a night shot. For DOF in the past I've been using Combustion, but I think it just applies a blur and does not really do Bokeh. I'm using Vray and I suspect that using rendererd DOF would properly simulate this, but obviously I don't have access to 2000 nodes to be able to actually do rendered DOF and get it done before 2007.

Anyone else know how to do this? Can Combustion do Bokeh?

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

for slow people like me.... http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/bokeh.htm

[STRAT]

i think Brazil does bokeh, but i dunno about vray. is it really that important Jeff?

[IC]

There was an article on advanced lighting techniques in 3D World magazine about a year ago and I'm sure it listed the renderers/programs that could do bokeh.

I'm not at home but if any of you have your back copies to hand........

[Ernest Burden]

Originally Posted by crazy homeless guy

for slow people like me....

Thanks, saved me asking 'what the heck is'

Jeff

Low-tech wins the day...texture map. Use a self-illuminated map centered on the light and track it to the camera. If you really want to get fancy have it mapped with an animation, so the light bloom changes or vibrates over time.

Simple, effective, renders just as fast as regular.

[opus13]

personally i'd stick with combustion.

if you dont have time to wait for a painfully slow render (the only way to get true bokeh), then its all about the post process. its not hte 'best' result, but it will payoff quite handsomely as compared to the alternative.

[Jeff Mottle]

Originally Posted by STRAT

i think Brazil does bokeh, but i dunno about vray. is it really that important Jeff?

Yup, it really important as this is for a TV commercial and it's a forground element for the shot.

[Jeff Mottle]

Originally Posted by Ernest Burden

Thanks, saved me asking 'what the heck is'

Jeff

Low-tech wins the day...texture map. Use a self-illuminated map centered on the light and track it to the camera. If you really want to get fancy have it mapped with an animation, so the light bloom changes or vibrates over time.

Simple, effective, renders just as fast as regular.

Hmmm, not sure that will work. The shot has forground trees with white lights in them. The subject in focus is about 50-60 feet away. The shot has trees on either side of the frame and because it's a night shot the lens would be wide open and create a really narrow DOF. I'm messing about in Combustion now, but it's definetly not that impressive.

[Jeff Mottle]

Slightly off topic, but why must rendering applications have controls for DOF that have nothing to do with how an actual camera works? You should be able to simply set the lens type you are using, set the aperature and the focus point. None of this Center Bias, Rotation etc etc crap. Even Combustion is lame this way too.

[IC]

With LightWave you just set the aperture and the distance