Workaround: DEPTH OF FIELD in TRUE 3D Workspace | After Effects Tutorial | No Plugins!

How to add Depth of Field to the new TRUE 3D Workspace in After Effects?
Not possible yet in the Advanced 3D Renderer and thus not an option in the camera settings.
But in this After Effects tutorial I'm going to show how to achieve Depth Blur to native 3D models with a workaround.
Of course without Plugins. Just with native Effects!
0:00 Intro
0:09 What is Depth of Field?
0:43 3D Scene with native 3D models
1:29 Create a Depth Map in After Effects without plugins
4:40 Camera Lens Blur vs. Frischluft Depth of Field
5:59 Create a Rack Focus in After Effects
6:22 Outro
Enjoy watching!
#aftereffects #vfx #motiondesign

[@danielfikre243]

you're my teacher for vfx and others keep it up!

[@MichaelPonch]

Thank you 😊

[@brianberry8983]

You're the best in the space for people wanting to take their motion design to the next level mane. Appreciate you!

[@occisso]

Michael! Thank you once again for pushing the boundaries of After Effects. I really appreciate your efforts to create things that are not supposed to be done with After Effects. Even if they don't suit my daily business, it's exciting to learn them. Keep doing your magic!

[@steventapia_motiondesigner]

The video I didn't even know I needed lol! Thanks!

[@drnareshchauhan]

so nice!

[@SternFX]

Really cool technique, thanks Michael

[@MichaelPonch]

Thanks, Eran! 😊

[@peterheynen]

SUPER!!!

[@MichaelPonch]

Dankeschön 😊

[@techhfreakk]

I was just about to sleep, then your video showed up... To hell with sleep I guess xD Anyways, great video as always

[@MichaelPonch]

Oh I’m sorry. I wish you Depth of Dreams 😊. Thank you so much 🙏

[@azamatsultanov5412]

Hi! Great work! Need tutorial how to create 3d this shapes !

[@MichaelPonch]

Thank you 😊 Unfortunately you can’t in After Effects. You can create them in Blender 3D (free) with almost a click. Also Adobe Dimension (included in Adobe cloud) offers some ready to go 3D primitives and models.

[@hazrddesign]

Hey Michael, for projects that just require the 3D assets to populate (won't worry too much about rotation the whole view) you can pre-comp each 3D asset individually making sure its in the "Advance 3D" environment so the asset is visible, but then you can drop that pre-comp into another comp that has the "Classic 3D" environment enabled. Meaning you can still use the native depth of field from the Classic 3D environment on your now pre-comped 3D assets.

[@hazrddesign]

This is handy if you want 3D assets, but also 2D assets. Because Advance 3D does NOT have the "Accept Light" feature. So you can't exclude them from having affected by the default, or other light sources. PAIN. Hopefully Adobe is able to update this soon!

[@MichaelPonch]

Thanks for the tip! Brings up new ideas 😊. I think it could even work with rotation/camera movement if there was no floor/shadows involved and if you set the pre-comps to auto-orient to camera.

[@ValeriVisuals]

Genius😯👏

[@MichaelPonch]

Thank you 😊

[@michealmalcolm949]

this Dad is fast becoming somone i know in videocopilot ... awesome work keep it up

[@eladbari]

the videocopilot forum is still...alive?

[@michealmalcolm949]

Domant 😢.. but I have hope for this Year 😊

[@SparkyTv_203]

Having a true 3D workspace in after effects sooner would have been really usefull, better late than never I guess. Pretty good for the beta version so far, can't wait for more updates.

[@MichaelPonch]

Yeah, pretty good 👍🏻. But a lot of room for improvements 😊

[@sensationalstorygk]

Which processor and pc components you using tell me pl

[@xperstudios]

WAAAY too many steps! I have another workaround that may work: Just insert your comp into a new comp and apply the "3D Channel Extractor" effect, that will give you the depth map pass of your comp. The drawback is that you need to render your depth pass first and then import it to your main comp, so you will have to have all your animations and randomized effects baked and fixed before rendering. Also, one tip, is that when you render your Depth pass, disable all textures and post processing effects including lights so that your Depth pass renders at the speed of light.

[@MichaelPonch]

Thanks for your feedback 😊. I’ll try that with the 3D Channel extractor. Would be genius if it extracted the Z-pass right from the beauty pass. Yeah, pre-rendering would be a drawback in that it would be cumbersome if you changed the animation multiple times. I know, many steps to set it up, but with my method the fake depth map would adjust in real time 😎. But if the 3D channel extractor really creates the depth map directly from the comp that would save a lot of steps. I’ll try it out.

[@BananaBreadmond]

Have you tried Fast Bokeh Pro V2 to see if it performs as good as or better than Frischluft DOF when handling blurred edges and rack focus? Thanks!

[@MichaelPonch]

No, I haven’t yet. But thanks the tip. I’ll try it out. Especially because it features “No hard edges”

[@BananaBreadmond]

I think it has a free trial - Would love to get your thoughts! Thanks again! @@MichaelPonch

[@jaysonfontela5761]

💖🇵🇭

[@MichaelPonch]

😎

[@heyous]

I hope Adobe resolves this soon. Although the class is very useful right now, it is still a very complex job to obtain. It will be much easier once this is fixed.

[@MichaelPonch]

Thank you! Yeah, at least that we get the basic stuff Element 3D has. But I guess it takes time to develop to make it seamlessly interact with the “old” system.

[@VdeeK]

Hi, please advise if you know this information: will the depth of field feature be added to Advanced 3d in the future?

[@MichaelPonch]

Hi 👋. I’m sorry man. I wish I had this information. But I’m very confident they’ll implement it. If Andrew Kramer can do it with Element 3D, adobe can do it 😊

[@VdeeK]

@@MichaelPonch Thank you for your reply, you gave me hope) good luck to you.

[@joyster75]

i would love a newer version of Element3d...when will it be released?

[@MichaelPonch]

I don’t know. Let’s initiate a petition and send it to Andrew 😊

[@CreativePunk5555]

You can bet if Andrew releases an update it will literally change the game. But there's a big "If" in there - so much has happened since the last update. He might even be working to have Element be it's own version of a full Cinema 4D that's inside AE.

[@mrkey24]

Je ne comprends pas que se soit si compliquer de faire juste ça ! Alors que element 3d le gère déjà ! Adobe est ridicule