Focus distance from Max?

Vantage Issues
1

I’m still having trouble with cameras from Max.
Docs say focus distance is saved in the vrscene, as well as other stuff, but I have tried to make this work and cannot.
Also if I enable dof then that is not saved either.

Odd thing is that it works, or appears to, with a live link.

Please explain how I get this to translate properly, if it is in fact achievable.
Also please say if animating the focus distance is possible, and how.

Currently I have to set dof again in Vantage, and also the other parameters, which I have to do for every camera each time I load it.
I have 90 shots to do and this now seems like an impossible task.

2

Hi,

I’ve been testing thoroughly and I do not understand why, if I can see with a Livelink that everything is updating properly in Vantage, the exported vrscene animation does not hold any of the data apart from position?
Is this something that can be fixed as a matter of some urgency please?

If it’s not possible then please tell me asap, so that I can think of other solutions.

Thank you.

3

Docs say focus distance is saved in the vrscene, as well as other stuff, but I have tried to make this work and cannot.
Also if I enable dof then that is not saved either.

Both the focus distance and whether DOF is enabled, are saved in the vrscene file, yes.

If you meant vantage file, note that choosing a camera in Vantage only transfers its properties to the “current” camera.
If you make changes to the camera parameters, you have to click the “Save (Overwrite)” button next to the camera, if you want the changes saved.

Also please say if animating the focus distance is possible, and how.

At the moment, no, animating the focus distance is not possible. Animated focus distance from the vrscene file will be ignored.

I’ve been testing thoroughly and I do not understand why, if I can see with a Livelink that everything is updating properly in Vantage, the exported vrscene animation does not hold any of the data apart from position?

The Live Link doesn’t create “animated” parameters, instead it re-exports the objects from scratch if they are animated and the current time changes.
That’s why animation works on all sort of stuff, including deforming meshes, even though Vantage doesn’t otherwise support it.

Is this something that can be fixed as a matter of some urgency please?

We can maybe enable animation on some parameters as a quick fix.
The focus distance in particular was requested by other clients recently too.
Can you list which camera parameters you want to animate ?
But a more general solution, that allows animating anything that’s animatable in the vrscene, will take time.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

4

Thanks for the explanations and the Sunday reply…they are helpful :slight_smile:

Currently I personally only need the focus change, in whichever way is easist to implement.
I am working with a blend of shots from Vantage and, unfortunately, the need to comp some shots that must be
rendered with Vray as normal, so these focal shifts must match…just to explain my need.

I guess doing it based on the focus distance rather than the target distance would be optimal…I’m
avoiding target cameras as they’re not needed here and non-target ones are just simpler for my guy to use.

Ideally everything that the camera does would be great, but I realise that’ll take time, however
focal change is a really common thing to do, so I’m hoping others will agree it is at the top
of any camera-related list of updates.

In my situation, my cameraman in reality is demanding shots that feature a reveal from behind a close object, some trees, so without the ability to switch
focus to the hero object this shot, and others like it, really fail to impress.

So fingers crossed :slight_smile:

5

Currently I personally only need the focus change, in whichever way is easist to implement.

The build that we just released (version 1.3.0 ) has support for animated camera parameters from the .vrscene.
Not all are supported, but most are.
The supported ones include the focus distance as requested.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

6

You are a wonderful (collective) person and I thank you so much for being able to do this so quickly; it will help enormously :slight_smile:

Virtual beers on me for all!

EDIT: Does this work both ways? So animated pulls in Vantage translate to Max?

7

EDIT: Does this work both ways? So animated pulls in Vantage translate to Max?

We haven’t added the ability to animate the focus distance in Vantage itself.
We just read/use the animated focus distance from the .vrscene file for now.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

8

Ok no worries, I can work with that :slight_smile: