I am now working on a new seq plugin called zutilz which gives you a mask or grayscale output based on the zbuffer. You can select the beginning and ending z-values which makes it alot easier to get an accurate mask or a good 8bit grayscale depth map.
Load a scene strip (or Iris-Z)and add the plugin and push the [n] key to access the buttons that control the plugin.
now you can add a zbuffer to an image by adding a second strip to the plugin - see below
These are the default settings:
These settings give you an instant 8bit grayscale depth map of the USED portion of the zbuffer. Turn off autoselect and adjust the start[>Z] and end[<Z] values for even better results.
In the spirit of the f1 competition, lets use this abandoned model…
This is the error window that you get if there is no zbuffer to work with:
3 new TOG3 mode buttons:
selected range grayscaled(8bit depth map) - outside selected range masked to mask color & alpha
(autoselect on -> background alpha 0)
dumps the zbuffer into the image buffer so that you can save a 32 bit png of the zbuffer that can be reinserted to the image png later for composting(it looks wierd but it works… & the 2 pngs are about 1/2 the size of a comparable iris-z)
first image is what you what you see in the editor, second is what is actually saved with alpha:
Gives you 3 gradients- red->yellow below start-z, grayscale of the selected zvalues, blue->cyan above end-z(NOTE: if you save this image as rgba, the blue and red gradients will be saved with the alpha value that you have set for the mask). This mode is useful for setting the start and end z values for the selection
(invgradient shown)
a dof mask of sorts, that leaves the selected z all black or white then gradient outward. This is just an experiment- needs a way to set some clipping values to be really useful…
DOF clipping has been added - see below
with the selected zvalues shown here (viewZ):…you get this greyscale DOF mask:
selected z-values masked to mask rgba -outside selection output normally
selected z output normally - outside selection masked
The other buttons:
plugin’s simple guess as to the most important part of the zbuffer:
>Z = closest pixel
<Z = furthest fully opaque pixel
->turn off to manually adjust start and end z of selection
select start (select greater than this value)
select end ( select less than this value)
New clipping factor for the near and far dof mask gradient. Adjust these to control the max amount of blur in each direction
DOF without clip:…DOF with clip front=100, rear=200
output the working zbuffer to the plugin output.
lets you use ibuf2 (either as a zbuf snapshot img or as a scene) to import a zbuffer to an image
These 2 buttons let you insert a zbuffer into a previously rendered image for composting purposes…remember that pic that took you hours to render and you would like to have the zbuffer for composting that pic without the wait?
First, load the scene that you rendered the image from and turn off all of the fancy render stuff that made it take so long to render(ao, shadows, ray, etc). Go to the seq editor and add the image & scene. Now select the img then shift select the scene and add the plugin. Now toggle [use ibuf2] on and the plugin will work with the image according to the zbuffer in the scene…If you toggle the[output zbuf] button, you could now use one of the other plugins that depend on the zbuffer (like the zblur plugin) on your image
inverts gradient from black closest to white closest
prints info to the console window
prints possibly Too Much Information
the color picker and the alpha slider are for the mask color used in the masking operations
The console screen gives you info about the z-buffer values and plugin operations
Try the newest version:
source:
http://webpages.charter.net/paprmh/zutilz/zutilz-v.3.c
win:
http://webpages.charter.net/paprmh/zutilz/zutilz-v.3.dll
Here is a nice new mac compile complements of gojellybelly:
mac:http://webpages.charter.net/paprmh/zutilz/zutilz-v.3mac.so
now a new linux version by tarlack:
http://webpages.charter.net/paprmh/zutilz/zutilz-v.3.so
thank you very much !!!