Blur environment map in cycles

Support Compositing and Post Processing
1

I added an HDR environment map to my project, merely for the lighting. Is there a way to blur the actual background image so the rendered image will have a blurred (fuzzy) background and shark objects?

2

One option.
In the Render / Film settings enable Transparent to give a transparent background.
In the Render Layers panel enable an Environment pass
Then blur the environment pass and Alpha over your scene render on top of this blurred background

Screen Shot 2014-04-26 at 17.12.59.jpg1336×653 133 KB

Screen Shot 2014-04-26 at 17.15.21.jpg380×1167 88.1 KB

3

Thank you, you are a genius!

4

What if I have transparent meshes which let the environment show through? The background won’t be blurred in this case, will it? How could I solve this?

5

What if I have transparent meshes which let the environment show through? The background won’t be blurred in this case, will it? How could I solve this?

6

Re render with shallow depth of field active on the camera. Then you can defocus through glass.

But if you want to stick with compositor try a mist pass as it preserves transparency but not refraction I’m afraid.

7

Thanks for your reply! I finally solved this by mixing the glass shaders with transparent shaders. Looks slightly less realistic now, but it allows me to blur the background with the existing setup - even through the windows!

Thanks for your help, everybody!