Depth field
 

I'd like to render out my scene as separate passes using the render layers. However, the shot has a spaceship flying through a cloud and I'd like to render the ship and cloud separately. I do believe this is where the z-depth channel comes in use. However I have questions.

1.) The docs don't define the difference between Closest or Furthest Visible Depth. Does anyone know?

2.) I can't seem to figure out how to use this channel in after effects. Does it support it? Is it part of AE's 3D layers that I don't know how to use?

Thanks,
-dann

Ive been using the depth field recently and I know that I had a massive problem getting Shake to understand the depth channel info. You may need to check the AE docs or an AE specific forum for help on that.

The closest and furthest depths are exactly what they say they are I guess. The closest and furthest depths that you want to be in focus. I'm not 100% sure on that.

Alan

But this isn't depth of field so what does focus have to do with it?

Closest and furthest depths are how near the closest object is and how far the furthest object is, since the z-buffer is nothing else than a grayscale image, it needs this info so it knows how much each shade is in worldspace coordinates.