Screen Space Subsurface Scattering with Zdepth Buffer

Adobe After Effects

Screen Space Subsurface Scattering with Zdepth Buffer

Posted by Hayden Martin on February 18, 2017 at 8:17 pm

Hi

I’m looking to use a zdepth buffer from C4D as a way to denoise a render without softening/bleeding hard edges – I created a comp that does this, but only in 8bit (255 black values)… I’d ideally like this running with 32bit… it’s super slow too…

This technique could be used interestingly for Screen Space Subsurface Scattering as well. I have seen a plugin for Nuke called DepthVader which does this well.

Is there a plugin or workflow to get this same zdepth based SSSS technique up and running on AE?

Also, why if I input a 32bit image and interpret it’s colour values too, the keying effects still only work in 8bit integers? (255, etc)… So frustrating!

Thanks

Hayden

Hayden Martin replied 9 years, 2 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
3 Replies

Walter Soyka
February 20, 2017 at 2:48 pm

[Hayden Martin] “I’m looking to use a zdepth buffer from C4D as a way to denoise a render without softening/bleeding hard edges – I created a comp that does this, but only in 8bit (255 black values)… I’d ideally like this running with 32bit… it’s super slow too…”

So you’re trying to do a luma key/extract on a depth mass 32bpc to create a matte for a specific range of depth?

Maybe You could create your own by using a couple of precomps (one for the minimum, one for the maximum) with Threshold in each, and the Subtract blend mode to combine them.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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Darby Edelen
February 20, 2017 at 7:36 pm

The displayed color values do not necessarily correspond to the internal color values. Check the color display options in the info panel and make sure they’re set to Auto or floating point (location and name of options is from memory so may be inaccurate).

Those display values apply to all effects as well.

Darby Edelen
Hayden Martin
February 20, 2017 at 8:11 pm

Hmmm I think you’ve misunderstood me with regards to the final effect that I want to achieve.

I’m looking to be able to do this in after effects: https://http.developer.nvidia.com/GPUGems/gpugems_ch16.html

Using a Zdepth Buffer, or “depth map”, you can create subsurface scattering effects. This is often used in gaming and compositing.

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