@Michael if i turn on CR for the precomp it flattens the image and i can no longer see them as a 3d layer through the camera.
and @Jeremy yes DOF is turned on. i guess blurry isn’t an accurate description. top half is camera at -800px on the z axis and bottom half is at -100px. now the top has relatively crisp edges while the bottom is all soft.this is a vector image so shouldn’t it retain its quality even when the camera is close?

here are my camera settings in case that helps:
