Fake and Simple DOF in After Affects

Fake and Simple DOF in After Effects

Fake and simple DOF in After Effects can produce great results at least for simple shots. It’s quite fast and easy to implement.

We can create a really simple depth of field (DOF) in After Effects, by seperating the foreground from the background throughg blur. Although this technique will not produce the best results for our shots, but it’s really interesting and worth mentioned.

What’s Depth of Field (DOF):

Depth of field is the distance between the nearest and the farthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image captured with a camera. Read more about it.

Where to use it:

  • Real footage (camera recording)
  • CGI shots (3D)
  • Motion Graphics
  • Images

For CGI shots (3D), you will need something like a Z-depth render pass (V-Ray), in order to have a realistic DOF in After Effects.

Why to use fake DOF:

  • Performance: Significantly slow down your workflow
  • Flexibility: allows you to control the blurring manually
  • Simplicity: easy to set up and doesn’t require complex rendering approach

If you wonder how to create super fast and pretty accurety depth of field (DOP) in Photoshop, a new Neural Filter – Depth blur, may surprise you.

Simple DOF in After Effects:

In this example we will be working with just a photo. You can extrapolate the same principles and apply them with video, although the video has to be a bit stady.

The steps in order to create a simpel DOF in After Effects:

  • Create a solid layer, and apply a ramp effect on it
  • keep the ramp (gradient) colors in black and white, and just play with the position of them
  • Make the solid layer Pre-compose
  • Apply a Camera Lens Blur effect into your actuall photo or video footage
  • In the Camera Lens Blur settings, set your DOF Pre-compose as a Layer
  • Play with the Blur Radius slider (Camera Lens Blur)
  • Hide the Pre-compose layer

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Vladi Dan

Hey there. I am an experienced 3D Artist - Graphic Designer for over 7 years. Of course, the learning process doesn't really end. I am more than happy to share my personal knowledge with you guys. Let's create and learn some cool stuff together. I hope you join me on this creative trip.

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