Cool rig for easy DOF control

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1

Have to tell you about this.

I’ve been using this technique for a long time.

It lets you control the aperture setting (which controls how blurry your DOF is) and the focus distance of the camera, at the same time.

Very useful, especially if (like me) you keep messing around with the camera 'cause you can’t decide what you like best :smile:

It’s easy to set up:

  • Add an Empty
  • Set it as the focus object
  • Connect its scale value to the camera’s f-stop via drivers
  • Use face snapping to move it around, keeping the camera focused properly on the surface of objects
  • Scale to control the aperture

See how easy it is now?

If you need the details, here’s a little video showing how to do it:

PS: @Joseph , I’ll happily take this down if it’s too spammy.

2

I don’t think this is spammy at all, I think it’s super cool :grin: Thanks for sharing!

3

Cool little trick ! I tend to use Dof Distance Pick from the W menu when the camera is selected to get the focus area. But this one looks quite useful when playing a lot with the DOF.

4

Wow…is that an add-on? I don’t have a W menu (or maybe I do & don’t know it.)

I have some messy shortcuts since I’m on Mac.

5

Hum, it’s just the context menu I’m using right click select , so my W menu should be your right menu :smiley: if that make sense.

But yeah it’s a bit hidden since you need to have the camera selected, but that distance pick feature is quite useful !

6

Ah found it!

Cool too, never even knew it existed.