Hi guys…
I have one question:
How do you define the distance of DoF?
I mean… I chose the distance or an object/empty but I don’t understand how I can adjust the “gradient” of the blur…
Hard to explain… I’ll give you an example…
My subjects are 3, 5, 10 and 12m away from camera.
I want the 5 and 10m to be on focus and the 3 and 12m to be blurred.
How do I do that?
Thanks!
Good work Jay!
They are both beautiful.
I agree with Louise Cypher. At first I though it was some glitch or bug.
On older photographical lenses (and perhaps newer ones to, not on mine though) there actually were markings for DoF, hehe and later Canon developed depth automation where you actually set the near limit and far limit with the autofocus and the camera solved the math of it… Very cool.
In 3D we tweak. Just tweak & re-render on lower resolutions until it looks like we want and then we do the final render. As far as I know there’s no way to see this beforehand, only the midpoint of the focus when ‘show limits’ is checked in the camera settings.
So there’s no way to control that? Damn!
Very cool that Canon feature! It’s exactly that I want to control in blender.
Thanks a lot Farmfield!
Odd, I put the final image at the begging of the post so that it would appear in the thumbnails in the Finished Projects, but it didn’t change 
- Maybe it doesn’t change after you’ve already started the Post, oh well.
You did really nice job with the external setting, fits the model really well. ; )
The vehicle looks great. I like both the mono and color versions. However I think you could find a setting that would make a great image overall. The setting in the mono version is a bit distracting, and the studio shot a bit bland. Check out the galleries for some of the commercial renderers like Octane to see how they set their models to complement them
I’ve got a compositing tutorial by Sebastien Koenig (from cmivfx) and he demonstrates this with a compositing node (can’t remember which one) but you set the f stop and focal point and see the result in the viewer. A low f stop number (eg 2) gives shallow dof and a high value eg 22 gives large dof, just as with real lenses.
Just checked, use a defocus node in the compositor, connect both image and z buffer to the node, set the f stop. In properties panel for camera select the object to focus on. You do have to render to see it but you can use low samples while you’re setting it up.
I’m pretty sure we’re talking Cycles & ‘in render’ DoF here, otherwise there’s of course no need to re-render as you see it in real time using the backdrop in the compositor… 
And if your thinking was testing values in the compositor for use with the camera settings in Cycles I’m pretty sure the values aren’t the same. The values in the defocus node is shifty at best, hehe - though I’m a bit spoiled, used to using Frishluft DoF which is amazingly good for a post defocus effect…
My mistake, I didn’t realize you can set the dof settings on the camera in Cycles. I’ll have to spend a bit more time exploring it.
Yes, Cycles actually renders optically correct defocus, that’s very cool. 
Hi guys!
In case anyone wants to play with the 50’s VW Van (Studio Render), you can now download it from Blend Swap
Jay 
Having spent a good portion of my youth drooling over Hot VWs magazine and way too much time on my back under the old '74 (that sounds dirty) here’s a small critique on the body shape:
Overall it’s a good model, could just use a few changes to make it more realistic.
Thank you for sharing Jay!
I was waiting for an aficionado on VW vans/busses, there’s probably a lot around! I know it’s not perfect, and when I got images off the net I was finding that it was hard to get everything spot on - too many similar angles, and so many variations on models, what I really needed was an actual van outside like I had for my Golf Mk4. Unlikely to happen though, unless someone is offering? 
Even after getting to where I got, there’s some things I’d like to change too that you didn’t mention either - ever the critique of my own work too lol!
If I get chance I’ll look at the parts you mentioned, but it’s a bit of a pain after getting to this stage as backtracking will require a good few hours work to modify again. For now, lets say it’s a modded VW Van, and the Panel Beater went a bit crazy
Cheers, Jay
…very nice job…makes me ache for the '65 Type 2 that I drove for years(in the 80’s)…with my mods of…supercharged/balanced 1600, '67 camper interior, BMW front seats, fresh “lichtgrau” inside and out with royal blue trim…damn…I spent 15 years as a VW mechanic so was happy to see you spent the time on one…was gonna comment on the geometry of the front door…in the BW’s it looks like there’s a flat spot/wrong arc on the front part…but the studio looks good…must be the HDR ?..Uncle Entity nailed your ass on most everything else…again …sweet…
Like I said, we all love a VW bus/van There’s no HDR on the studio by the way, just mesh emitters - don’t forget it’s available on blendswap.com if you want to tinker with it, it’d be cheaper to mod this one than a real one!
awesome! I will show it to a vw-collector tomorrow - lets see if he can tell if its real
Lol, after comments from VW enthusiasts, I bet he’ll spot it a mile off! Maybe give him a few drinks first to blur his vision
Hmm, googled around and found this…
And I think you’re spot on. After finding this, I don’t agree with the flaws listed by ‘uncle entity’, I think the lines are just right.
Makes me think, maybe I should model & render a Land Rover Series 2 or 3, that’s my passion and I’ve renovated like 5 during the years - but I never built one in 3D, hehe… (also, I’m a pretty slow modeller as that is what I do absolutely the least in 3D, ‘real modelling’ that is, not archviz modelling as I do much of that)
It’s so hard Farmfield to get things spot on, especially when there’s so many versions of vehicle. When I look at others models, I always assume they’re correct and to propartion etc, but really I have no idea. I bet non 3D people think the models are spot on - In my opinion, if it’s near enough, then so be it - It’s not like it’ll be getting 3D printed out for parts lol - at least not a for a few years
But at the same time I do want to get as close as I can with the time I have, otherwise I feel I let myself down for not trying hard enough - I love 3D, it’s such a challenge at times - I’m my own worst cirtique.
The VW van took me probably a week, dipping into it every day for a few hours. I’m sure others are a lot quicker than me - but compared to the VW Golf I did, that took me about a month dipping in and out - so either I’ve improved, or the Van was easier.
I’m looking forward to having a crack at a Fiat 500 (old model), hard to find decent blueprints though, most are quite low res and not very detailed. I just spent half the day modelling it to then ditch it and start again! Think it’s a process I go through getting to know the form of a vehicle, there’s no way I could just model from start to finish and show the WIP, nobody would think I knew what I was doing lol! - You know what they say about getting monkeys and some typwritters etc, I’m not that far off.
I was also thinking of doing an old Land Rover, short wheel-base - not sure on the model type though, the old cute ones (is there such a thing?) - Saying that though, for me it’d probably be too similar to my Willy’s Jeep I did a while back for the Blend Swap comp.
Duno if I’ve seen any of your Archviz work up here, be keen to see it, especially after my recent meagre efforts with Cycles.
