Faking depth of field on a live action shot with Motion 4

Apple Motion

Faking depth of field on a live action shot with Motion 4

Posted by Peter Dunphy on February 7, 2011 at 3:20 am

Hi Guys

Just an idea. Just wondering if anyone’s tried to ‘fake’ depth of field using the new DOF feature in Motion 4 on an existing live action shot. Say, a shot with an object (a plant) close to the camera in focus, but with the background (ocean) also in focus. Using Motion 4 ideally I could mask the plant and use that to switch focus between it and the ocean.

If so, what were the results like?

Any thoughts whatsoever would be really appreciated.

Peter

Peter Dunphy

2 x 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 8 GB 1066 MHz DDR3, ATI Radeon HD 4870, ATTO ExpressSAS R380, Sonnet D800 Raid 5

Peter Dunphy replied 15 years, 6 months ago 4 Members · 5 Replies
5 Replies

Noah Kadner
February 7, 2011 at 5:13 am

Very hard to get that to look decent on most types of shots. But not impossible. these days it’s sooo easy to get real shallow DOF with a cheap DSLR camera shooting video- like a Canon 60D- why torture yourself?

Noah

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Peter Dunphy
February 7, 2011 at 11:17 am

Thanks Noah. Food for thought. I appreciate it.

Peter Dunphy

2 x 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 8 GB 1066 MHz DDR3, ATI Radeon HD 4870, ATTO ExpressSAS R380, Sonnet D800 Raid 5
Jeff Greenberg
February 8, 2011 at 3:05 am

Results are like lots of work, easiest in lock down shots.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer
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Stephen Smith
February 9, 2011 at 6:02 pm

If it is a static shot you have to have some sort of depth between the two objects (z space distance) other wise they will be the same depth. If you can’t change the depth you can save a whole lot of time and just ad a blur to both layers and animate the blur instead. I think they intended this feature to be used on cut up still photos and graphics. Best of luck.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

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Peter Dunphy
February 9, 2011 at 9:32 pm

Thanks guys I really appreciate your suggestions. Will certainly have a play around with this feature and see what I can come up with.

Peter Dunphy

2 x 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 8 GB 1066 MHz DDR3, ATI Radeon HD 4870, ATTO ExpressSAS R380, Sonnet D800 Raid 5

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